Eccl 27:30-28:9; Psa 102(103):1-4, 9-12; Rom 14:7-9; Matt 18:21-35
Theme: FORGIVENESS WITHOUT COUNTS
Last Sunday, Jesus gave us a detailed teaching on the importance of making every effort to make peace with one another. The three processes presented by Jesus aim at Forgiveness and Reconciliation. Our Gospel reading today continues the discussion on forgiveness. After the disciples had listened to Jesus’ instruction, Peter asked him “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me”? Peter wishes to know how often one has to go through the processes of reconciliation taught by Jesus. In the Jewish world, something is considered sufficient when it is done three times. Hence, Peter’s proposal of seven times is a double of what sufficiency connotes. In Peter’s question, seven times is not just sufficient but over sufficient, that is, perfect. Hence, Peter’s question is like “if I should carry my forgiving spirit and actions to a perfected range, would I not have exhausted the limit?”. But Jesus answered Peter, “not seven, but seventy-seven times”, that is to say, “there is no perfected range or limit when it comes to forgiveness.” Then Jesus goes on to provide what should motivate one towards forgiveness without counts. The most important thing to note in Peter’s question and Jesus’ response is a shift from counting/limited/boundary range of forgiveness to countless/unlimited/boundless range of forgiveness. While Peter’s ‘seven times’ requests a calculable method of forgiveness, Jesus’ ‘seventy-seven times’ requests an incalculable life of forgiveness. Jesus therefore explains to the disciples that “there is no limit, and no place for keeping a tally of forgiveness already used up…(because) if one is still counting, however ‘generously’, one is not forgiving.” (R. T. France, 2007) The three readings of today therefore offer us the reasons we must forgive others without counts.
- I too am a sinner.
Who among us is righteous? In the parable of the gospel reading today, there are three major characters: two servants and a master. The two servants were presented as debtors: the one to the master, the other to his fellow servant. It is important that we notice that both of them are servants, and both of them are debtors. As a matter of fact, the servant who owes the master is more at disadvantage because he is owing someone higher, and he is owing more than he is owed. When he seized his fellow servant and thrown him into prison, he forgot that he too is both a servant and a debtor like his fellow servant.
When we struggle for vengeance and refuse to forgive, we behave like this servant, forgetting that we ourselves are also sinners who are in debt. Since I am weak, why does it become difficult for me to accept the weakness of another person? Since I am owing greatly, why do I wish to crucify someone who owes minimally? Since I cry to God always for forgiveness, why do I block my heart and ears from someone who needs my own forgiveness?
- God forgives me without counts.
God does not give us time to pay for what we destroyed for him; God cancels the debt totally. The parable says that the unforgiving servant was owing the master ten thousand denarii. The debt is so much that even if his entire family and everything that belongs to the man are sold, the total amount to be raised from the sale will not go far in settling the debt. This is to show that there is no means this man could have paid for what he owes his master. The master understands this, and so, even when the man requested for more time to pay his debt, the master knew that there is no amount of time given to him that would be enough for him to complete his debt. In the same way, we have nothing valuable and adequate for us to pay God the debt we accumulate through our sins because what we destroy for God through our sins is not what we can pay with our material stuffs for it is far beyond everything we have. And even till eternity, we can not make up for what we destroy each time we sin. Hence, God does not destroy us in order to make up for our wrongs to him; God does not give us time to pay for what we destroyed for him; God cancels the debt totally. Without counts, God forgives us. We must forgive others basing on the same forgiveness of God to us.
- The Measure I receive should be the measure I give.
Jesus teaches us that what should motivate us to forgive others is neither the attitude of our debtors, nor our own disposition, but the treatment we ourselves receive from God. In the parable, the master handed the unforgiving servant over to be tortured, because having cancelled his debt, he expected the servant to do the same. Thus, he asked him “You wicked servant, I cancelled all your debts…were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” The servant forgot the mercy he has received; he forgot how miserably he pleaded. He who received mercy, threw his fellow man into prison. At the end of the parable, Jesus tells us that if we fail to give others the same measure we ourselves continuously receive from God, then God will give us the measure we give to others. If I fail to give to others the measure (forgiveness) I receive, then I will receive the measure (condemnation) which I give to others. The first reading urges us to forgive our neighbor the hurt he does us, so that when we pray our own sins will also be forgiven (Sir 28:2). If you need healing from God, then grant the same healing to others (cf Sir 28:3-5)
- Forgiveness sets one free.
In the parable, when the master forgave the servant, he set him free from all his debts. The servant came before his master as one who owes but was allowed to go as a free man. But while the unforgiving servant received unconditional mercy from his master, he threw into prison his fellow servant who was owing him. Many of us are like this servant. We have built inside our soul, a very deep prison where we put people who wrong us. Yes whenever we fail to forgive someone, we are locking the person up in the prison we have created in ourselves. The Greek word ἀφίημι (aphiemi) is generally translated as ‘to forgive’. But one of its interesting meanings is ‘to let go’ “to send off or send away”. In one hand, forgiveness is to set someone free from whatever he owes us. Forgiveness is not “I forgive but…”, rather, it is a total freeing of someone. In another hand, forgiveness also frees the person who forgives. When we forgive, we free ourselves from the burden of carrying someone in our heart, of always remembering how hurt we felt, of always thinking of how to pay back, of always feeling demonic whenever we see the person or hear something about the person etc. Forgiveness heals more the person that forgives than the person that is forgiven.
- Whether in death or in life, ‘Forgive”!
St. Paul, in the second reading, tells us that whether we are alive or dead, we belong to the Lord (Rom 14:8b). That is to say, in whatever situation we find ourselves, we must live like the children of God. Sometimes people offend us so much that we feel so bad; sometimes our situation may be compared to someone who is dead because of the frustration, depression, pain etc we feel from people’s wrong to us. Even in that situation, St. Paul tells us we have to be of the Lord; the Lord who, even while hanging on the cross, his offenders were laughing at him, insulting him, piercing his side, spitting on him, etc. yet he still looked up to the Father and say “Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they are doing” (Lk 23:34).
May the Lord give us the grace to forgive always from the heart, even when it hurts so much!
Fr. Nnamah Chukwuezugo