AUG 9: CONFESSION – 8:30 AM – 8:55 AM, DIVINE LITURGY – 9:00 AM (LIVE-STREAMED); 10:15 AM – ALTAR SERVER TRAINING; DIVINE LITURGY – 11:00 AM; UKRANIAN/SLOVANIC DIVINE LITURGY – 1:00 PM.
NOTE: Today we also celebration the Commemoration of the Apostle Matthias. Please see the following post and Gospel Reading for this feast day.
The Gospel today, Mathew 18: 23-35, is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. It talks about Jesus explaining how we are to treat those who offend us. Jesus also explains why we should forgive. Jesus is teaching His disciples, and us, by extension, that forgiveness should be in “like proportion to the amount forgiven”. Jesus uses the example in which the first servant had been forgiven all by the King, and therefore, the servant should have forgiven all for others. Instead when a fellow servant owed him, he did not forgive. Thus, Jesus brings home the point of the parable – “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Jesus tells us: God, who has forgiven us, and, thus, we are to forgive others, “from your heart.” Don’t just forgive outwardly by pretending or smoothing things over, but truly release the offenders debt on us. If we don’t do this, God will treat us like the king who treated the servant he had previously forgiven. A clear warning to us.
PROPERS: 08-09-26_Sunday_DL
Parishes live-streaming in the Diocese can be found here: https://www.eparchyofpassaic.com/directory
GOD WITH US CATECHAL RESOURCE for The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (from August 8, 2021): https://godwithusonline.org/reflections/the-eleventh-sunday-after-pentecost-ruthenian/
