Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus how many times one should forgive. Peter thought seven times seemed like quite a lot, yet he is surprised by Jesus’ response that one should forgive seventy-seven times. Of course, Jesus is not indicating that we should calculate carefully the times and cut off the forgiving at 77! In the ancient world, seven was a perfect number, and so Jesus is kind of taking Peter’s number to infinity, as is even clearer in some translations which render Jesus’ words as “seventy times seven times.” To drive home his point, Jesus offers a parable about the two servants in debt. The one who had a huge debt to the king was forgiven. However, he then refused to forgive the relatively small debt of a fellow servant. When the king found about this, he handed the unforgiving servant over to torturers until he could pay back the whole of his original debt.
This passage makes a crucial link between God forgiving us and our forgiving others. Our experience of God’s forgiveness, when received in charity, flows outward into forgiveness of others. In other words our readiness to forgive should be without limit. How can we forgive others an infinite number of times especially if someone does not come seeking forgiveness? We can look to Jesus as the ultimate model for forgiveness. Jesus forgave sinners while he was on the cross though they had not repented. He spoke the words, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they were doing.” Since God knows it is difficult for us to forgive when we have been hurt, he gives us the grace to do so through the sacrament of reconciliation. When we confess our sins we receive the gift of God’s grace which draws us into a deeper relationship with God. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are then freed to forgive as Christ forgives.
The inability to forgive those who have offended us can be harmful and holding onto the hurt can be destructive in our relationships. Are there people you can’t forgive? If so, devote time to pray for the ability to do so, and linger over the phrase from the Our Father, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
-Jessica Gabrielli