Forgive One Another

09-17-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp, V.F.

The book of Sirach tells us today “Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray” while the responsorial psalm, says “Bless the Lord…who forgives all your iniquity.” While the gospel reports of Peter’s question to Jesus how many times my brother will offend me that I forgive him. Should I forgive seven times? What Peter is getting at is that everything must have an end at some point, even forgiving as well. Jesus is his response says, if you want to draw limit to forgiving, then God will also limit his mercy.

Beyond this limit, only God’s judgment remains, and none of you can successfully stand before his judgment. To make this clear to us, Jesus tells a drastic parable. One man owes ten thousand talents, which is one hundred million denarii, a million times as much as his fellow servant owes him. On the one hand, a never payable mountain of debts; and on the other, the small matter of one hundred denarii. Both implore the creditor for an extension of their debt; both promise to pay everything back.

One man is in a completely hopeless situation because he will never be able to pay his debt. With some patience, the other man will easily be able to pay back his small sum. Jesus tells the story in such a way that anger and outrage truly arise in us over the debtor whom the king, in an incomprehensibly magnanimous act of mercy, simply releases from entire debt. How could he already have forgotten all that in the next moment, treating his fellow servant with such utter inhumanity and brutality exactly at the point where he just experienced kindness in incomparably greater measure?

The parable, of course has a catch more often than not, I feel the insult done to me more painfully, than my guilt before God. The wrong done to me does hurt, whether at work, in relationships, or wherever. It sticks deep in my memory and rises to the surface again. My ingratitude to God, however, I hardly notice, and that is why I think about it so little.

It is precisely against this deception that Jesus directs his parable. Think about it. If God wanted to settle scores with you exactly as you have been with your colleague, then your own account of debts would look frightening.

Fr. Tony Okolo C.S.Sp., V.F.