Sunday, September 13, 2026
This past week marked the 25th anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. A week after that fateful day, Father Bruce Nieli, a Paulist priest serving in Texas, was passing through New York City on his way to lead a pilgrimage in Greece and Turkey. A native of Long Island, NY, Father Bruce waited out his layover at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan, which was the home of Father Mychal Judge, the heroic NYC Fire Department chaplain who gave his life on 9/11. It was there that Father Bruce was moved by the Holy Spirit to get to Ground Zero, where, with a hard hat and a mask, members of the Fire Department invited him down to the pit where the recovered remains of the victims were in order for him to bless them. Father Bruce found himself overwhelmed by conflicting emotions: “My passions against the terrorists were strong. How dare they come into my city and take the lives of 3,000 people? But as a Christian, the desire to forgive, you know, Jesus says, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’” At Ground Zero, Father Bruce recited the Prayer of St. Francis in its entirety. Here’s a selection: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon… it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.” Christian forgiveness does not deny the evil of an act, remove the need for justice, or erase the pain caused by wrongdoing. The readings for this Sunday examine forgiveness from several angles.
The Old Testament reading steers us towards forgiveness: “The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance; indeed he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” (Sirach 28:1-2). God’s message to us is clear, and indeed it was repeated by Jesus when he taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer. The reading asks, “Can one refuse mercy to a sinner like oneself, yet seek pardon for one’s own sins?” (V.4) The Psalm praises the goodness of God our redeemer, who “pardons all your sins.” (Psalm 103:3). God’s identity is revealed through patience and steadfast love. Divine forgiveness is the restoration of relationship. In the second reading from Romans, Paul refocuses our purpose: “For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8). We do not possess life as our property. Life is received from Christ and ordered toward Him. And in the Gospel’s parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus echoes the message from Sirach. In the parable, the king does not merely grant an extension to the servant who cannot repay his debt; he forgives the debt. Having been released from his debt, the servant, who had not earned this grace, did not extend it to a fellow servant who owes him a much smaller debt. Angered by the servant’s lack of mercy and a hardened heart, the master handed him over to torturers. Jesus concludes the parable with, “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” (Matthew 18:35).
The mercy we receive from God is not meant to end with us; it is meant to break the cycle of resentment and become, in our own lives, the forgiveness we extend to others.
Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord.