Freeing the heart: the long road of forgiveness

Sunday 13 September 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Sirach 27:30-28:7 Psalm 103(102) Romans 14:7-9 Matthew 18:21-35

(See also Luke 17:4)

Meditatio:

‘So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart’  (Matthew 18:35)

Commentary:

This Sunday’s Gospel begins with Peter’s question: how often must he forgive a brother who sins against him? Jesus responds that forgiveness cannot be measured or limited. He then tells the parable of the unforgiving servant and concludes with a solemn warning that forgiveness must come ‘from your heart’.

Forgiveness cuts both ways: our forgiveness of others and God’s forgiveness of us. Jesus has already taught that reconciliation with our neighbour is inseparable from authentic worship (Matthew 5:23-24). Forgiveness is not cheap, nor is it limited to minor grievances. It reaches into the deepest wounds of human experience.

Hunger for truth

In his exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that:

Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God's gift.

It is by meeting Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and being nourished by his Word that are souls are strengthened for the journey ahead.  Each one of us, whether we know it or not, deeply desires truth, beauty and goodness.  One of the great legacies of Pope Benedict XVI was the emphasis he placed on faithful adherence to the liturgical rites of the Church. Beauty, reverence, sacred music, appropriate architecture and careful celebration help reveal the mystery being celebrated. The truth of Christ’s presence in the Sacrament can never be separated from the truth of Christian witness. We go out into the world from each Mass to be broken bread for all of humanity.  In a sense – not to be confused with the reception of the Sacrament – we become food for the world.

The truth of Christ's presence in the Eucharist can never be separated from the truth of Christian witness. Having encountered Christ and received him in Holy Communion, we are sent forth to bring his love to the world. People may never read the Bible or attend Mass, but they encounter us every day. If our lives reflect Christ's self-giving charity, we become living witnesses to the Gospel and signs of the love we have received in the Eucharist.

Keeping watch with Jesus in the Eucharist

Credit: godongphoto | Shutterstock

The practice of the Forty Hours Devotion has deep roots in the Roman Catholic tradition. Adoration of Christ present in the reserved Eucharist, as we know it today, has been part of Catholic life for at least seven centuries. The devotion takes its name from the approximately forty hours during which Christ's body lay in the tomb between his death and resurrection, a symbolism strongly promoted by St Charles Borromeo and widely embraced in the Church's devotional tradition. The number forty also recalls other significant moments in salvation history, especially the forty days Jesus spent in prayer and fasting in the desert before beginning his public ministry.

At its heart, the Forty Hours Devotion is an extended period of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, inviting the faithful to contemplate the mystery of Christ's abiding presence among his people. Far from being separate from the celebration of the Mass, Eucharistic adoration flows directly from it and leads back to it.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Sacramentum Caritatis (2007):

The litmus test

A striking feature of modern political discourse – amplified by social media – is the lack of respect, civility and inclusion. The world is increasingly polarised into ‘them’ and ‘us’. ‘They’, who are different from ‘us’ whether by colour, creed, sexuality, political views or social class are deemed to be a threat.  ‘We’ are the victims while ‘they’ get preferential treatment in relation to goods, services and right of access. The ‘other’ is viewed as any or all of the following: suspicious, dangerous, lazy, violent, opportunistic, callous and deviant.

Christians are called to witness to the love of Christ, who offers salvation to all and excludes no person from the reach of his mercy.  We are called to view all of our neighbours as brothers and sisters of the human family.  It is appalling to witness cases such as that which was widely reported earlier this week when gangs of hooded, masked and uniformly dressed men shouted ‘Christ is King’ while they terrorised people who were trying to help other human beings. Resorting to violence and threats – online as well as offline – against the brave men and women who rescued human beings from the sea shows the depths to which hateful ideologies have entered our societies more and more. Not only that, but many of these ideologies have sought to hijack Christian religion for purposes completely inimical to the message of Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist as an antidote to the culture of power

The dominant narrative of our age is one of power: power over others, the triumph of the ego or the nation-state and the reduction of human persons to numbers, consumers or units of production. Against this backdrop, Pope Leo XIV offers a compelling witness to the Gospel, calling us back to the true source of human renewal: the Eucharist. In Magnifica Humanitas, he writes (#234):

The spirituality that we need is a Eucharistic spirituality, that is, a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love. The Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery reveal God entering into our human condition and transforming it through the gift of himself. This gift remains present and active in the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives himself and gathers the Church together, so that his offering becomes the principle of unity and source of new life. It is from this communion that Christian solidarity also arises, since “union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself.” 

Mary, the first tabernacle: celebrating the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Towards the end of his long reflection in Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV exhorts the faithful to join their prayers with those of the Blessed Virgin Mary (#299):

At the end of this reflection, I would like to propose a sober yet demanding program of Christian life with which we can navigate this epochal change in the light of the Gospel. This avenue emerges through contemplating God’s plan, living ecclesial unity by partaking of the Eucharist, building a world centred on the common good and praying in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On this the birthday of Mary we celebrate the moment when Mary is born into a world awaiting its saviour.  Together with her son, Jesus, and cousin, John the Baptist, today is only one of three days in the liturgical calendar when we celebrate a birthday.  The seasons are marked in this way:

Beyond Babel: Eucharistic Solidarity in Magnifica Humanitas

 

Eucharist — Saint Patrick Catholic Church

Earlier this summer, Pope Leo XIV published a ground-breaking encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, in which he spoke of the urgent need to rise to the challenge of artificial intelligence.  The encyclical is like a condensed story of the development of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) since the 1891 encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum. In my view CST is a great and unique treasure of the Roman Catholic church. Together with the mystery of the Eucharist, CST is among the principal reasons that I remain within Roman Catholicism. In saying this I am painfully aware of the collective as well as many individual failures to live according to CST principles in the light of the Gospel. At the heart of CST are the principles of:

The intrinsic, infinite and equal dignity of all humans;