August 13, 2026
Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 416
Reading 1
The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house;
they have eyes to see but do not see,
and ears to hear but do not hear,
for they are a rebellious house.
Now, son of man, during the day while they are looking on,
prepare your baggage as though for exile,
and again while they are looking on,
migrate from where you live to another place;
perhaps they will see that they are a rebellious house.
You shall bring out your baggage like an exile in the daytime
while they are looking on;
in the evening, again while they are looking on,
you shall go out like one of those driven into exile;
while they look on, dig a hole in the wall and pass through it;
while they look on, shoulder the burden and set out in the darkness;
cover your face that you may not see the land,
for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.
I did as I was told.
During the day I brought out my baggage
as though it were that of an exile,
and at evening I dug a hole through the wall with my hand
and, while they looked on, set out in the darkness,
shouldering my burden.
Then, in the morning, the word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, did not the house of Israel, that rebellious house,
ask you what you were doing?
Tell them: Thus says the Lord GOD:
This oracle concerns Jerusalem
and the whole house of Israel within it.
I am a sign for you:
as I have done, so shall it be done to them;
as captives they shall go into exile.
The prince who is among them shall shoulder his burden
and set out in darkness,
going through a hole he has dug out in the wall,
and covering his face lest he be seen by anyone.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 7b) Do not forget the works of the Lord!
They tempted and rebelled against God the Most High,
and kept not his decrees.
They turned back and were faithless like their fathers;
they recoiled like a treacherous bow.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
They angered him with their high places
and with their idols roused his jealousy.
God heard and was enraged
and utterly rejected Israel.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
And he surrendered his strength into captivity,
his glory in the hands of the foe.
He abandoned his people to the sword
and was enraged against his inheritance.
R. Do not forget the works of the Lord!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your countenance shine upon your servant
and teach me your statutes.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed,
and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee
and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081326.cfm
Commentary on
Ezekiel 12:1-12
Ezekiel is instructed by God to go through an elaborate mime
as a message to his people so as to warn them of the coming deportation of the
people of Jerusalem into exile in Babylon. The people are described by God as
rebels, as people who have eyes, but do not see, have ears, but do not
hear—because they do not want to. Jesus will use similar terms in speaking of
the people who refused to listen to him. He will quote from Isaiah, who
received these instructions from Yahweh when he was being called as a prophet:
Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
and turn and be healed.
(Isaiah 6:9-10; see also Matt 13:14-15)
Ezekiel is told to pack up all his things like a person
leaving home and going off into distant exile. Maybe when the people see him
doing this its meaning will begin to dawn on them and they will realise that it
is pointing to their rebellious behaviour.
The packing is to be done by day in the sight of all, but
then he is to slip out in the evening, i.e. in such a way that he is seen as
leaving covertly. He is to leave in darkness, through a hole in the mud wall of
his house. His face is to be covered so that he cannot see the countryside
which he is entering. All this is to make Ezekiel, the Lord’s prophet, a symbol
or sign for what is going to happen to Israel.
Ezekiel did everything just as the Lord had commanded in
full sight of the people. (We need to remember that he was a prophet and people
would wonder about the significance of his rather strange actions.)
The following morning God again spoke to Ezekiel. When the
people ask the prophet what is the meaning of what he is doing, they are to be
told that the oracle (the mime is understood as having a message from God) is
directed against the people of Jerusalem and the whole of Israel everywhere.
The meaning of Ezekiel’s mime is then clearly spelt out. The
people will go into exile and banishment and King Zedekiah (“the prince who is
among them”) will carry his own belongings and go through a hole in the city
wall; his face will be covered so that he will not be able to see the country.
In fact, Nebuchadnezzar will come and destroy Jerusalem and
the people will be brought off into exile to Babylon. During the siege of the
city, King Zedekiah and his army will try to escape through a breach in the
city walls. But he was captured by the Babylonians and brought to Riblah. There
his two sons were killed in his presence and then his eyes were put out before
he was brought off to Babylon (see 2 Kings 25). The king’s blindness is a
symbol of the blindness of the whole people.
In the Gospel Jesus frequently is seen healing the blind
(those who cannot see) and the deaf (those who cannot hear) and the mute (those
who cannot speak). These are afflictions all of us can suffer from, and they
prevent us from knowing and carrying out what God wants in our lives. Let us
ask today for healing and docility to God’s will for us:
Lord, let me see… (Luke 18:41)
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Commentary on
Matthew 18:21—19:1
The last part of Matthew‘s discourse on the church is about
forgiveness. This is not unconnected with the previous section on
excommunicating the unrepentant brother or sister. As soon as a brother or
sister does repent, there must be forgiveness—not just once, but
indefinitely—”seventy-seven times”.
The reason is given in the parable which Jesus speaks about
the two servants in debt. The one who had a huge debt to the king was forgiven,
but then refused to forgive a relatively trivial debt owed to him by a fellow
servant. Understand that ten thousand talents then would be the equivalent of
hundreds of millions in a major currency today, and the 300 denarii would have
been the equivalent of about three months’ wages.
In the Gospel, the ones with the big debt to the king are
clearly ourselves; the ones with the small debts to us are our brothers and
sisters.
We do not expect God to forgive us once or twice or any
limited number of times, but every time. It is nowhere written that we have,
say, only ten chances of going to confession and, once our quota is used up,
there is nothing left. But if that is true of our relationship with God, it
also has to be true in our relationships with others. We can never refuse an
offer of reconciliation. And, we might add, forgiveness is much easier to fully
complete when reconciliation has taken place.
This is not at all the same as turning a blind eye to
wrongdoing. Yesterday’s text made that very clear. We are talking about healing
divisions between people; we must never put obstacles in the way of that.
We have now come to the end of this discourse indicated by
the first sentence of chapter 19:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left
Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.
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Thursday,
August 13, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty and ever-living God,
your Spirit made us your children, confident to call you Father.
Increase your Spirit within us
and bring us to our promised inheritance. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 18: 21-19: 1
Then Peter went up to Jesus and
said, 'Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as
seven times?'
Jesus answered, 'Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven
times.
'And so the kingdom of Heaven
may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants.
When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents;
he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold,
together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt.
At this, the servant threw himself down at his master's feet, with the words,
"Be patient with me and I will pay the whole sum." And the servant's
master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as
this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one
hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him,
saying, "Pay what you owe me." His fellowservant fell at his feet and
appealed to him, saying, "Be patient with me and I will pay you." But
the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till
he should pay the debt.
His fellow-servants were deeply distressed when they saw what
had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to
him. Then the master sent for the man and said to him, "You wicked
servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you
not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow- servant just as I had pity on
you?" And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he
should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you
unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.' Jesus had now finished
what he wanted to say, and he left Galilee and came into the territory of Judea
on the far side of the Jordan.
Reflection
In yesterday’s
Gospel we have heard the words of Jesus concerning fraternal correction (Mt 18:
15-20). In the Gospel today (Mt 19: 21-39) the central theme is pardon and
reconciliation.
•
Matthew 18: 21-22: Forgive seventy times seven!
Before the words of Jesus on fraternal correction and reconciliation, Peter
asks: “How often must I forgive? Seven times?” Seven is a number which
indicates perfection and, in the case of the proposal of Peter, seven is
synonymous of always. But Jesus goes beyond. He eliminates all and whatever
possible limitation there may be to pardon: “Not seven I tell you, but
seventy-seven times.” It is as if he would say “Always, N0! Peter. But seventy
times seven always!”. And this because there is no proportion between God’s
love for us and our love for our brother. Here we recall the episode of the Old
Testament of Lamech: “Lamech says to his wives, Adah and Zollah, hear my voice;
listen to what I say: I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me.
Sevenfold vengeance for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech” (Gn 4: 23-24).
The task of the communities is
to invert the process of the spiral
of violence. In order to clarify his response to Peter, Jesus tells them the
parable of pardon without limits.
•
Matthew 18: 23-27: The attitude of the master.
This parable is an allegory, that is, Jesus speaks about a master but thinks of
God. This explains the enormous contrasts of the parable. As we will see, in
spite that it is a question of daily ordinary things, there is something in
this story which does not take place in daily life. In the story which Jesus
tells, the master follows the norms of the law or rights of that time. It was
his right to take a laborer with all his family and to keep him in prison until
he would have paid his debt carrying out his work as a slave. But before the
request of the debtor servant, the master forgives the debt. What strikes us is
the amount: ten thousand talents! One talent was equal to 35 kg, and so
according to the estimate made, ten thousand talents were equal to 350 tons of
gold. Even if the debtor and his family would have worked their whole life, they
would never have been capable to earn 350 tons of gold. The extreme estimate is
made on purpose. Our debt before God is countless and unpayable!
•
Matthew 18: 28-31: The attitude of the laborer.
As soon as he went out, that servant found a fellow servant as himself who
owned him one hundred denarii and, he seized him by the throat and began to
throttle him saying: Pay what you owe! This servant owed him one hundred
denarii; that is the salary of one hundred days of work. Some have estimated
that it was a question of 30 grams of gold. There was no comparison between the
two! But this makes us understand the attitude of the labourer: God forgives
him 350 tons of gold and he is not capable to forgive 30 grams of gold. Instead
of forgiving, he does to the companion what the master could have done with
him, but did not do it. He puts in prison his companion according to the norms
of the law until he would have paid his debt. This is an inhuman attitude,
which also strikes the other companions. Seeing what had happened, the other
servants were sad and went to refer to their master everything which had
happened. We also would have done the same; we would also have had the same
attitude of disapproval.
•
Matthew 18: 32-35: The attitude of God “Then the
master called that man and said to him: “You wicked servant! I have forgiven
you all your debt because you appealed to me. Were you not bound then to have
pity on your fellowservant just as I had pity on you? And, angry, the master
handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.“ Before God’s
love who pardons gratuitously our debt of 350 tons of gold, it is more than
fair, than just that we should forgive our brother who has a small debt of 30
grams of gold. God’s forgiveness is without any limit. The only limit for the
gratuity of God’s mercy comes from ourselves, from our incapacity to forgive
our brothers! (Mt 18: 34). This is what we say and ask for in the Our Father:
“Forgive us our offences as we forgive those who offend us” (Mt 6: 12-15).
•
The community: an alternative space of
solidarity and fraternity. The society of the Roman Empire was hard and
heartless, without any space for the little ones. They sought some refuge for
the heart and did not find it. The Synagogues were very demanding and did not
offer a place for them. In the Christian communities, the rigor of some
concerning the observance of the Law in the daily life followed the same
criteria as society and as the Synagogue. Thus, in the communities, the same
divisions which existed in society and in the Synagogue, between rich and poor,
dominion and submission, man and woman, race, and religion, began to appear.
The community instead of being a place of acceptance became a place of
condemnation. By uniting the words of Jesus, Matthew wants to enlighten the
journey of the followers of Jesus, in order that the communities may be an
alternative place of solidarity and of fraternity. They should be Good News for
the poor.
Personal Questions
•
To forgive. There are people who say: “I forgive
but I do not forget!” And I? Am I able to imitate God?
•
Jesus gives us the example. At the time of death
he asks pardon for his murderers (Lk 13: 34). Am I capable to imitate Jesus?
Concluding Prayer
From the rising of the sun to its setting, praised be the name
of Yahweh!
Supreme over all nations is Yahweh, supreme over the heavens
his glory. (Ps 113: 3-4)
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