WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:06.959 Imagine if I walked into church this morning pulling a large suitcase and I placed it here in front of the altar. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.000 Then I preached the entire homily without ever even mentioning the suitcase. 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:18.719 At the end of Mass, every one of you would leave asking the same question, Father, what's up with the suitcase? 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.519 Why did you bring it up to the altar? 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:26.079 Well, that's exactly what God tells Ezekiel to do in today's first reading. 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:34.719 Pack your bags, carry them through the city, dig a hole in the wall, walk into the exile while everyone watches. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:36.560 It's a living homily. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.399 God knew the people had stopped listening to words. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.039 Perhaps they would pay attention to a sign. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:44.719 Why the suitcase? 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:47.920 Well, because Israel was about to lose everything. 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:54.880 Their sins had become baggage, they could no longer escape, and they would carry that burden into exile. 00:00:55.280 --> 00:01:00.719 Now, if we turn to the gospel, Peter asks Jesus, How many times must I forgive? 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:03.600 Peter thinks he's asking about mathematics. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.280 Jesus knows what he's asking. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:09.920 He's talking about baggage. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.959 Every resentment we refuse to surrender becomes something we carry. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:17.599 Every grudge becomes another weight. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:23.040 Every old wound that we replay over and over again becomes another suitcase. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:29.120 The strange thing about forgiveness is that we think we're making someone else suffer. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:32.879 But most of the time, we're the ones dragging the luggage. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.280 The other person has probably moved on years ago. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.319 But we are the ones still carrying the burden. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:44.159 That's why Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiven servant. 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:48.319 The servant owned an unimaginable debt. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:54.480 In today's money, it would have been impossible to repay a lifetime of money. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:56.959 Yet the king forgave everything. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:58.400 Everything. 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:08.719 Then the same servant walked outside, found someone who owed him some money, almost nothing by comparison, grabs him by the throat and demands payment. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:17.120 How could someone who had just been forgiven and forgiven such a large debt be so merciless? 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:22.879 Because although his debt had been removed, his heart had not been changed. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:26.159 And that may be one of the greatest dangers. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:31.599 It is possible to receive God's mercy without allowing God's mercy to reshape us. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.240 Every time we come to confession, God says, your debt is forgiven. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:41.919 Every time we approach this altar, we receive mercy we could never deserve. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:48.159 So the question is whether that mercy stops with us or does it flow through us? 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.800 Forgiveness is not pretending that evil never happened. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:55.840 It's not saying that justice no longer matters. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:57.759 It's not denying the pain. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:02.960 Forgiveness means refusing to let yesterday's wound dictate today's heart. 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:05.360 It means putting down the suitcase. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:09.680 Perhaps that's why so many people seem spiritually exhausted. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:15.919 They carry years of resentment, old betrayals, old arguments, old disappointments. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:20.319 And every day they pick them up again and again and carry them around. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:22.319 No wonder they have no peace. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.000 No wonder they seem miserable, no joy. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:31.759 Jesus is standing before us today saying, You don't have to carry that anymore. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.039 Why are you carrying around such a large suitcase? 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:36.879 Leave it here with me. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:41.840 I carried a cross so you wouldn't have to carry your bitterness forever. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:46.240 So perhaps today we should ask ourselves one simple question. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.759 What suitcase am I still dragging around behind me? 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:53.840 Whose name immediately comes to my mind when I hear today's gospel? 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:59.599 That may be the very first place where Jesus is inviting us to experience freedom. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.400 Because the person who refuses to forgive remains chained to the past. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.039 But the person who forgives discovers something extraordinary. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:13.759 The one who is finally set free is not the other person, it is himself. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.160 And that's the miracle Jesus wants to work on in every one of our hearts today. 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:21.120 Amen.