Gospel: Forgiving Others

Today marks the Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel passage will be lifted from the narrative of St Matthew (tap here to read the Sunday's full Mass readings from USCCB).

Today's Gospel reading directly follows last week's Gospel in which Jesus taught the disciples how to handle dispute and conflict within the Christian community. In today's reading, St Peter asks Jesus how many times one ought to extend forgiveness to another. St Peter proposes a reasonable number of times, perhaps seven. Jesus replies by extending St Peter's proposal by an enormous amount; not just seven times should one forgive, but 77 times. The parable of the unforgiving servant is Jesus' elaboration of his initial reply to St Peter. Through the parable we have come to understand the depths of God's mercy toward us and the results of our acceptance of God's forgiveness.

The king in the parable decides to settle accounts with his servants. We are told that one servant in particular owes the king an enormous sum of money. Despite the promise of the servant, it is unlikely that he would be able to repay the debt that he owes. The king is moved by the humility of the pleading servant and mercifully forgives the debt. Rather than displaying gratitude for this forgiveness, the servant confronts a fellow servant who owes him a small debt--a pittance when compared with the amount that was owed to the king. The unmerciful servant refuses the pleas of his fellow servant and sends the servant to prison.

A few other servants tell the merciful king about the actions of the unforgiving servant. The king punishes the servant because he refused to show the kind of mercy he had himself received from the king. Jesus concludes by indicating that this is how it will be with God and those who refuse to forgive one another.

There is a temptation to quantify forgiveness as St Peter tried to do, Jesus' point is that forgiveness is not about quantity, the number of times we extend forgiveness to another. In the parable, the king's forgiveness is like God's forgiveness, and it transforms us, helping us to be forgiving as God. The lesson is clear: If we hoard God's mercy while showing no mercy to others, we risk forfeiting the effects of God's mercy in our lives.

x----------x

Picture from Pexels.