Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent, March 22, 2022

Matthew 18:21-35

I am in need of prayers once again. While I was setting up for Mass this morning, someone threw open a door which hit me in the head, breaking my glasses and leaving me stunned.  I was able to get through Mass, but I am not doing so well now.  I have had several concussions in my time on earth and this feels like another one.  So I’m shaking, stuttering, disoriented, and sick.  In the past these have lasted a week or so.  Maybe this one won’t be so bad.  There really is not anything to do for them except to lie down and stay quiet.  I cannot really do that right now so I will just keep going.  So please pray!

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.”

St. Matthew makes a point to tell us that it was St. Peter who asked the Lord about forgiveness.  We can perhaps enter his thoughts as he writes this and remembers how Peter denied the Lord to a maid servant, and how in need of forgiveness Peter was.

It is hard for us to identify with the servant who owed a fabulous amount of money — hundreds of millions of dollars according to the Greek and the value of silver today.  He comes across as the greatest of fools.  His actions against his fellow servant who owed him money show us that he was a terrible bully as well.  Only for a moment do we feel any sympathy for him: when his master announces that he and his wife and children will be sold at auction as slaves to pay off the debt.  In a way, he reminds us of the parable that the Prophet Nathan told David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed.  Nathan speaks of a family that owned a lamb that they treated as a member of the family.  Then a rich man took it from them and roasted it as part of a dinner for friends.  The Lord wants us to feel outrage at what this servant has done in order to confront us with an image of who we become when we refuse to forgive from our heart.  We should look again at this servant and rush to forgive anyone who may have harmed us, lest Almighty God look down and see this monstrous servant when he sees us.

We must keep in mind what forgiveness means in order to do it properly.  Both in Latin and Greek the words used for “to forgive” also mean “to send away” or “to dismiss”.  We “dismiss” our personal charge against the person who has harmed us, we release him from the threat of our vengeance.  We also put away from ourselves any desire for revenge.  We then pray for the person, for the Lord commands us to pray even for our enemies.  It may not be prudent to approach this person again, as we are not obliged to put ourselves in harm’s way, but we pray for his conversion.  Our forgiveness is not dependent on anyone’s asking for it, but is a free gift we offer, in imitation of the Lord who bestows forgiveness so freely upon us.