***
Gospel: Matthew 18: 21 – 19:1
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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
Imagine Saint Peter cautiously approaching Jesus. The good news / bad news is that Peter has another question. He’s held onto it as long as he can.
Afraid of how Jesus might answer – and rightly so – Peter finally swallows the lump in his throat and summons the courage to ask:
“Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter didn’t just pick a number; according to Jewish tradition, seven was considered the outward limit of generosity.
“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times,” Jesus says. Meaning, without limit.
I’d imagine Peter looked down at the ground, shuffled his feet, slid his hands back into his pockets, and exhaled exasperated, thinking to himself, “Well, that’s simply impossible.”
***
It seems Peter has yet to learn the inner dynamics of forgiveness.
So, Jesus tells him a parable about a king whose servants were subject to his authority. One of the king’s servants owed him an incredible amount of money – a debt so large the man never could’ve repaid it.
Because of his compassion, the king released the man from his debt. But when the man got home, he choked someone else who owed him a much smaller debt – pennies on the dollar.
When word got back to the king, he was enraged for the man’s pettiness and punished him severely.
***
In the parable, God is the king and we are his subjects. Because the Lord forgives us our every trespass, he expects us to extend that same kindness towards others. But this begs the question, “Why is it so difficult for us to forgive other people?”
While there may be a variety of reasons, perhaps one may be this – we haven’t felt genuinely forgiven by God. Only those who’ve experienced this interior freedom, this fruit of grace, can extend that same kindness to others.
***
Do I feel forgiven by God for my past or present sins? Has this freed me to forgive others?
***
May we forgive others from the heart, lest we forfeit God’s own forgiveness towards us.
***
***
Image credits: (1) Harvard Gazette (2) No Longer Lukewarm (3) Medium