Tuesday of Week 3 of Lent – Gospel
21Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
23“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, 25and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ 34And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Commentary on Matthew 18:21-35
This passage makes a crucial link between God’s forgiving us, and our forgiving others. Peter asks how many times he should forgive another, and offers what he regards as a very generous seven times. Jesus multiplies that by eleven. In other words, our readiness to forgive should be without limit.
The reason is because that is the way God himself acts towards us. Suppose we only had seven chances of being forgiven our sins in our lifetime, and suppose we were to confess our sins to a priest and were told: “Sorry, you have used up your quota.” Don’t we believe that every single time we genuinely repent, we can renew our relationship with God?
Jesus is simply telling us that, if we are to be his followers, we must act on the same basis with other people. To make his teaching clear, he tells the parable of the two servants. The one with the huge debt is forgiven by the king. He then proceeds to throttle another servant who owes what is, by comparison, a paltry amount.
As indicated in the parable, there is no real proportion between the offence of our sins against an all-holy God, and those made against us by others. And every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, we commit ourselves to this:
Forgive us our sins just as we forgive those who sin against us.
It is indeed a courageous prayer to make. Do we really mean what we say? Do we even think about it when we pray it?
This teaching does not mean turning a blind eye to a person who keeps on doing harm to us. Forgiveness is more than just saying words; it involves an attempt at the restoring of a broken relationship. It involves working for the healing of both sides. With some offences against us, it may be necessary to make a proactive, but totally non-violent response. Our main concern should not be ourselves, but the well-being of the other person whose actions are really self-harmful.
Finally, while forgiveness is a unilateral act, reconciliation is not. Reconciliation is only possible if the two parties are able to come together and do whatever they must to restore the relationship—either offering and/or seeking forgiveness. And while it is certainly difficult for me to forgive when the other party remains totally unrepentant, I can do so with God’s help, even though I may not be reconciled with the other person.
God’s absolute willingness to forgive, no matter how many times we have injured him by our sins, may not be comprehensible to the person who has offended and is unrepentant. (Remember the Prodigal Son, whose healing only began when he came to his senses and returned to his Father to ask forgiveness.) God always wants us to work on bringing about a healing of the wound of division between both sides in conflict. Only when both parties do their part, then, is reconciliation possible and forgiveness complete, and that may take a long time.
