Lent Year A II Day 21

Mt 18 21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church[g]
sins
against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him,
“Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle
accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten
thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to
be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be
made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I
will pay you everything.’ 27 And 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.’ 29 Then 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. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you
all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your
fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be
tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every
one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
The parables our Lord Jesus Christ told are simply superb. We really can appreciate the beauty of our
Lord. This parable is not about arithmetic or accounts on number of sins. It is about the infinite. Made
in God’s image, we too have the capacity to love as God loves. Our Lord asks us to always forgive
everyone, everything; eeeevvverrrrything. And it is about our sense of reason and justice. God has
forgiven us all sin; all our sins no matter the number of them or gravity of them; in reason and justice,
shouldn’t we also forgive others no matter the number or gravity of the wrong they do to us?
What’s more, is that our own healing, and indeed sense of meaning in our life, only begins when we
forgive all those wrongs done to us, when we drop those burdens we carry along, those character and
personality deformities that spoil everything for us all the time. Try it; forgive everyone everything.