24th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026

Albert Einstein is often credited for defining insanity as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

We all know people who seem to do the same thing over and over again.

• Someone says something hurtful. We forgive them.

• Then they say something hurtful again.  We forgive them.

• Someone disappoints us. We give them another chance.

And after a while we might think:

“Are they insane? Why do they keep doing the same thing over and over again?”

But the flip-side to that question is:

If I keep forgiving them over and over again, am I insane too?

In a way, Peter asks Jesus that very question in today’s Gospel.

“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?”

You can almost hear what Peter is really asking:

• “Jesus, when have I done enough?”

• I forgave him once. I forgave him twice. I forgave him seven times.

At some point you want to say, “That’s it! I can’t do this anymore! I’d have to be insane to forgive this guy again!” 

But Jesus tells Peter: Stop counting.

“Not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

In other words, forgiveness isn’t something we keep track of on a scorecard.

And then Jesus tells the parable of a servant who owes his master an enormous debt—a debt he could never possibly repay.

• The servant begs for mercy.

• And the master forgives him.

• He walks away free.

But then he meets another servant who owes him a much smaller amount.

• And suddenly all that mercy he just received disappears.

• He grabs the man by the throat and demands his money.

And that is the tragedy of the story:

• The mercy stopped with him.

• He received mercy, but he didn’t pass it on.

God’s mercy isn’t supposed to stop with us.

It is supposed to flow through us.

Think about how many times God has forgiven us.

Sometimes we go to confession with the same sins we confessed over, and over, and over again.

• We make promises to God and sometimes break them.

• We fail.

• We fall.

• We start over.

And God forgives us. Again. And again. And again.

So the least we can do is allow some of that mercy to flow through us to somebody else.

But Jesus isn't telling us to be doormats.

He tells us to forgive over and over again.

He does not tell us to allow someone to hurt us over and over again.

Sometimes we have to say:

“I forgive you, but I cannot allow you to continue treating me this way.”

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same thing.

Forgiveness can begin with one person. Reconciliation requires two.

It requires honesty, change, and the rebuilding of trust.

Remember last Sunday’s Gospel? 

Jesus told us that when someone hurts us, we don’t pretend nothing happened. 

• We address it. We try to repair the relationship.

And today Peter asks the natural follow-up:

“Okay, Lord. But how many times do I have to do this?”

And Jesus says: Don’t stop forgiving.

Because forgiveness isn’t pretending that what happened was okay.

Forgiveness is refusing to allow someone else’s sin to fill our hearts with bitterness, hatred, and revenge.

It is saying:

“What you did may have hurt me. But, with God’s grace, I will not let what you did determine the person I become.”

And maybe that helps us understand that old definition of insanity a little differently.

Have you ever sat at your computer and entered an incorrect password?

Immediately, “Access Denied” pops up!

So what do you do?

You type in the exact same password again.

Again, “Access Denied.”

Maybe you even try it a third time—as though eventually the computer is going to say:

“You know what? You seem pretty confident. Come on in.”

But we all know that repeatedly entering the wrong password will not magically produce the right outcome.

Sometimes we treat forgiveness the same way.

We think that if we forgive someone enough times, eventually we can make them change.

But we can’t.

We can forgive someone again and again, and they may not change.

Maybe forgiveness isn’t always about changing them.

Maybe sometimes forgiveness is about what I refuse to allow their sin to do to me.

• I refuse to hate them.

• I refuse to seek revenge.

• I refuse to allow what they did to poison my heart.

And if they hurt me again, Jesus asks me to forgive again.

• And again. And again.

Is that insanity?

No.

That’s discipleship.