Thursday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 13, 2020

Matthew 18:21–19:1

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 the fellow servant 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 his brother from his heart.” When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

In yesterday’s reading, the Lord Jesus explained to his Apostles what they are to do when one believer sins against another.  The Lord details a process by which the offender might reflect and to ask forgiveness.  St. Peter follows this with a question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  This is a good question.  Peter’s concern is that someone may take advantage of another believer’s willingness to forgive by continuously wronging him, as in stealing from him.  Jesus seldom gives yes or no answers to the questions posed him and he does not do so here.  He wants the Apostles to understand forgiveness, which has its source in the forgiveness God offers.

The king in the parable is settling accounts with his servants, ministers of his court.  He finds that one servant owes him “a huge amount”.  St. Matthew actually records the amount Jesus gave, but the translator chose not to give this, which is unfortunate.  According to the Greek text, the servant owed “10,000 talents”.  Now, a talent was a weight of silver — approximately 125 pounds.  Checking the newspapers today we can see that silver trades for about $28 an ounce.  If we calculate from this the sum owed by the servant, we arrive at the stupendous figure of $560,000,000.  That is, half a billion dollars.  We can imagine Peter’s jaw dropping upon hearing this.  Jesus includes a bizarre element  in his parables, and this is it.  It is, in fact a ludicrous amount of money because even if a king could have possessed it at that time, he would hardly have loaned it to a servant.  And if he had, what could the servant have possibly bought with it?  He would hardly have remained a servant.  But Jesus is making a point here.  A king had loaned an impossible amount of money to a servant and now he wanted it back, with interest.  The servant cannot repay it.  Has he wasted the money?  He seems to have lost it all, at any rate.  In such a case, the king quite lawfully ordered “him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”  

“The servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ ”  In a panic, the servant cried out for mercy.  We do not feel sympathetic towards the servant because of his foolishness, although we would do so for his innocent wife and children.  And we would not expect the king to have compassion on him, but the king does.  Jesus here features a second bizarre element: by forgiving this foolish servant his debt, the king seems to show himself foolish — he has just written off half a billion dollars.  Other servants, looking on, perhaps would have felt encouraged to seek large loans from this king as well.

This king, of course, is God, who is ever ready to forgive us our sins.  Our sins are enormous debts we incur — enormous because of their number and also because of the majesty of the One against whom we sin.  No acts we might undertake, no deeds we can do, can pay off this debt.  It only is forgiven if God forgives it.  If he does not forgive it, then in effect he hands the offender “to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt”, which is to say, never.  Now, the servant’s wife and children, that is, the sinner’s friends and associates, would not have joined him in prison in this event, but would have remained free to raise money for him.  In this case, however, their efforts would have been fruitless.  This is why prayers do not avail for the damned: those in hell did not approach the king for forgiveness while there was still time.  

Let us note what the servant does so that the king forgives his debt: he pleads earnestly for mercy, and he promises to make up for it.  Now, all is dependent on the merciful disposition of the king, but if we know that we have a merciful king, then we can hope for forgiveness if we apply to his mercy: we beg forgiveness from our heart, and we promise to make up for the harm we have caused as best as we can.  Implicit in this promise is one to never offend again in any way.

The Lord shows through this parable that if God graciously extends his mercy to us even though we can never pay him what we owe, that is, we cannot “make up” for our sins on our own, how gladly we ought to forgive one another.  The relief we should experience in the forgiveness of our sins by Almighty God should be so great that we hardly notice the sins others commit against us.

“Unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”  The Lord does not tell us to insist on an apology as a condition for our offering forgiveness, and in this way he tells us that the forgiveness does not necessarily affect the sinner, but always the one who is sinned against.  To forgive is to renounce revenge against one who has caused harm, and frees the one who forgives from the slavery to which vengeance always leads.  Significantly, Matthew points out that just after Jesus teaches this lesson, he embarks for Judea in order to die there for the forgiveness of our sins, and where he will give the greatest example of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23, 24), which he prayed as men crucified him.

If we meditate deeply on the forgiveness tendered by the Son, we will more readily forgive as well, and conform ourselves to him more and more.