Today’s Gospel is about forgiveness. Peter, who is beginning to learn his Master’s ways, asks how many times he should forgive—as many as seven times? It sounds pretty generous. But it is not generous enough for Jesus who says: Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

In other words, one should forgive indefinitely.

And, to make his point, Jesus goes on to speak of a king and his two servants who owe very differing sums of money. The message is perfectly clear:

So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

God forgives us without limit. If we are to be like him—and that is our calling in life—we must do the same. And it is not just a piece of advice. Our very salvation depends on it.

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How to forgive

In the Gospels, forgiveness is also always accompanied by an attempt at reconciliation and personal healing. It also includes unconditional love (Greek, agape), the love of our God who makes his sun and rain to fall on good and bad alike. Forgiveness in the Gospels, as with God, must include not just overlooking the wrong done, but an attempt to bring back the wrongdoer. The parables of the good shepherd and his lost sheep, the woman and her lost coin, the loving father and his prodigal son tell us how God acts—and how we, too, should act.

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It is important to note at this point that our faith is not simply a question of good and bad actions, but of relationships. Forgiveness is not about undoing evil actions (“What is done is done and cannot be undone.”), but of restoring broken relationships, about healing and reconciliation.

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Adapted from Sacred Space

I love the emotion this sculpture evokes. The title is Forgiveness which is an appropriate name for the scene playing out before us. We know this piece of art was made from marble, a hard substance to be sure, but after being in the hands of the artist, Pieter Braecke, the marble looks weightless, pliable, and delicate. Perhaps this is an appropriate metaphor for the softening of a hard heart penetrated by grace.

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We don’t know if or how the people in this scene are related. The man is bending backward in an awkward position, half-naked with his hands clenched either in prayer or in pleading—or both. The woman’s face is close to his as she plants a kiss on his cheek. She is bent over, her arms reaching around his neck to embrace him. What we are witnessing is the moment a relationship is transformed. What was between them has been dissolved by an act of mercy.

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The man has obviously said he is sorry. It is easier to forgive someone when they say they are sorry but we don’t always have that luxury. Often the person who hurts us may not even be aware of the pain they caused or, even worse, not care. So, you wonder, does that person deserve to be forgiven? The short answer is no. No one deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is not something we earn but is an act of grace that reaches down into our humanity, recognizes our failure, and sets us squarely in the grace of God. Author Lewis B. Smedes says, “Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a world in which people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply. He began by forgiving us. And he invites us all to forgive each other.”

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Being Human connection: If you have a heart hardened by hurt, may it be softened by grace—for your sake. Unforgiveness hurts no one but the one unable or unwilling to forgive. So, then, how can we live in a world where people hurt each other? God said he tried forgiveness and it worked for him. He invites us—commands us even—to try the same on each other. Forgiveness is God’s answer to living in a hurtful world.

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Reflection by Laurie Etta

Artwork: Pieter Braecke, Forgiveness (Le Pardon), 1893, © The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels

This Tuesday, 1 September, is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and the beginning of the Season of Creation. 

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Pope Francis established 1 September as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, encouraging the Catholic community around the world to pray for our common home.

The theme that Pope Leo XIV has chosen for 2026 is taken from Isaiah 2:4.

"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and

their spears into pruning hooks"

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The Holy Father highlights the links between armed conflict, environmental destruction, and human suffering. War, he argues, creates “a vicious cycle, which destroys ecosystems, contaminates essential resources, such as air and water, and undermines food security. This fuels poverty, inequality, and new social tensions that can contribute to the emergence of further conflicts.”

To break this cycle, the Pontiff suggests that authentic ecological conversion and a peaceful world demand that we “renew our hearts.” This inner transformation allows new possibilities to be opened. "What has been used for destruction," he reflects, "can be redirected toward life, toward the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation."

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"Let us imagine a world in which the energies currently invested in war are directed toward integral human development, to overcoming poverty, protecting human dignity and reconciling divided peoples. Such a vision reflects faith in the coming of God’s Kingdom."

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He closes in prayer: "May the Lord grant us the courage to walk along this path, so that in our time, swords may indeed be beaten into ploughshares, and the promise of the Gospel may take deeper root in our world, and the peace of Christ may reign over all of creation."

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Read Pope Leo's full message for the start of the 2026 Season of Creation.

2026 marks the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi's death in 1226.

Pope Leo XIV declared that it will be a special Year of St Francis in which we are all called to become saints in our world, following St Francis' example. We are called to model a holiness of life and witness to peace

 

Pope Leo has said:

"This Year of St Francis spurs all of us, each according to our possibilities to imitate the poor man of Assisi, to form ourselves as far as possible on the model of Christ... may the hope that has seen us as pilgrims now be transformed into zeal and fervour of active charity."

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The Holy Father has offered this prayer for the occasion:

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Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago
went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace,
intercede for us before the Lord.

You recognised true peace in the Crucifix of San Damiano,
teach us to seek in Him the source of all reconciliation
that breaks down every wall.

You who, unarmed, crossed the lines of war
and misunderstanding,
give us the courage to build bridges
where the world raises up boundaries.

In this time afflicted by conflict and division,
intercede for us so that we may become peacemakers:
unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ.

Amen

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Novena to St. Francis