DAILY GOSPEL AND COMMENTARY: THE PARABLE OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT (Mt 18:21-35).

DAILY GOSPEL AND COMMENTARY:
THE PARABLE OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT
(Mt 18:21-35).

TUESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

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 that 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 he paid back the 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 your brother from your heart.”

GOSPEL COMMENTARY

“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.”

Peter’s question and, particularly, Jesus’ reply prescribe the spirit of understanding and mercy which should govern Christians’ behavior with regards to those who offend them.

In Hebrew the figure of seventy times seven means the same as “always” (cf. Gen 4:24). As St. John Chrysostom wrote: “Therefore, our Lord did not limit forgiveness to a fixed number, but declared that it must be continuous and for ever” (Hom. on St Matthew, 6).
Here also we can see the contrast between man’s ungenerous, calculating approach to forgiveness, and God’s infinite mercy.

‘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.”

The parable of the unforgiving servant clearly shows that we are totally in God’s debt: all we are and have, comes from God.
- A talent was the equivalent of six thousand denarii.
- A denarius is a working man’s daily wage.
- Hence, ten thousand talents, or 60,000 denarii (equivalent to roughly 181 years of wages) an enormous sum of money, gives us a clear idea of the immense value attaching to the pardon we receive from God, and which we must also give to our neighbor:
Overall, the parable teaches us that we must always forgive our brothers, and must do so wholeheartedly, just as the master (God the Father) forgave his servant.

“Force yourself, if necessary, always to forgive those who offend you, from the very first moment. For the greatest injury or offence that you can suffer from them is as nothing compared with what God has pardoned you” (St. Josemaria, The Way, 452).

In the Lord’s Prayer we always ask the Father to: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.
- The forgiveness we ask of God is linked with the forgiveness we give to others.
- In this way, by forgiving those who offend us, we are imitating and living in our lives the inestimable mercy of God, who is “is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion (Resp. psalm).”

“Let us forgive, and we shall be forgiven. Let us have mercy on others, and we shall feel that mercy of God, who, when he forgives, also ‘forgets.’” (Pope Francis)

Dear brethren in Christ, do we bear grudges, harbor resentment or hatred in our heart towards somebody?
Let us ask Our Lord Jesus Christ to make our love for God real enough to manifest itself in our willingness to forgive those who have offended us, no matter what it takes. After all, isn’t this the path Christ showed to us and to which He calls us to embark on? Only when we decide to be forgiving shall we live His life and live our life for Him (cf. Rom: 4:7-9), for pardoning is what makes us humans, divine.

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