THE WORD
Dn 3,25.34-43/Mt 18, 21-35
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 the 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 him put in prison until paid back in 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.
IN OTHER WORDS
The custom of the world is to return good for good, but the custom of the child of God is to return good for evil" (Vima Dasan, S.J.). Sadly, one could add that it is all too common to return even evil for good. The debtor in our parable received goodness and mercy beyond measure but he still went out and inflicted evil on his fellow servant. As a result, the mercy shown to him lost all its effect and he had to pay the price.
Mercy received and mercy given are strongly connected. We cannot really have one without the other, like love of God and love of neighbor. It also brings to mind the picture of the Last Judgement: "As often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me" (Mt 25:45). An early Church writer puts it another way: "He who wants to be heard when he petitions should hear another who petitions him. ... If he hopes for mercy, he should show mercy himself" (St. Peter Chrysologus).
Like Peter, we may want to put a limit on forgiveness. For him, seven times is very generous. But if we are to imitate the Master, it must be "seventy seven times," i.e. without limit. We will often feel that this is just too much. Justice and accountability are important and God does not ignore them. But still the necessity of forgiveness remains, otherwise we are in danger of descending to the level of the aggressor and remaining under his/her power. When to forgive is really too hard for us, let us admit it, implore God's grace, and not justify our refusal to forgive. Bringing the difficulty to God rather than to the social media is already the start of the forgiving process. No matter how long it takes to complete the process, God patiently and lovingly accompanies us. We can never hope to equal the mercy of God but, in his compassion, he accepts the efforts we make.
- Fr. John O’Mahony, SVD | DWST Tagaytay City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
