Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is a wonderful Word for us today that shows the incredible mercy God has with each one of us. In a time when we are always hearing tragic news the Lord gives us a Good News, which is a welcome change. A Good News can change your life if you receive it well. It is a strong word that you cannot possibly fulfill on your own strength. It is a word that you do for yourself, yet the Lord will do for you. The gospel says: “My Father will do to you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
How do I forgive from my heart, how do I do that? I want to forgive the one who did an injustice to me, the one who humiliated me, robbed me, despised me, took away my honor, who killed my son, but I cannot. It is impossible for me. Do you know why you can’t forgive him? You are trying to do it on your own strength and Jesus Christ is the only one person who can forgive. How wonderful this word is for us today. Peter asks: do I have to forgive up to seven times? He seems to imply that this would be impossible for him. Jesus answers, not seven times by seventy-seven times. It means to always forgive. The Lord doesn’t say you need to forgive up to this point and after that forget about it. I will forgive if I see that he changes! He doesn’t say anything like that. He says to forgive from your heart always.
The gospel says love your enemy, forgive those who offend you, bless those who curse you, bless those who persecute you. Forgive and you will be forgiven. This is what we say in the Our Father: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. But this is absurd; it is crazy. Forgive the one who is killing you?
The world doesn’t do this. The world doesn’t forgive; it doesn’t turn the other cheek. It is only about justice. They cannot forgive because they do not have Christ. The world doesn’t even teach others to be responsible. At the recent US Open the players and fans were complaining about the persistent smell of marijuana. A Christian is called to have compassion. To suffer with a person. Christ suffers with me; he suffers with you. He joins you in your suffering and has mercy on you.
The gospel says a man owed the king ten thousand talents. Scripture scholars who know the language and the culture and what a make could earn in a day say that a person would have to work for 200,000 years to earn that amount. No one could ever do it, never, never, never be able to pay such an amount. The man says to be patient with him, and he will pay it in full. It is ridiculous. He could never pay such an amount. We also could never repay the amount we owe the Lord for his love. There is no way. So, the King has mercy on him and forgives the whole amount. Then this servant as he leaves the King finds someone who owes him the equivalent of a few hundred dollars and mind you this is not two months after the King has forgiven him; it is just a few minutes later. It doesn’t enter his mind to think how fortunate I was to be forgiven such an enormous debt. He didn’t think how long his wife and his kids would have to go to jail. He would never have been able to pay this debt. We think that if it was me, I would have forgiven him the hundred denarii. Then why don’t you do it? You don’t do it because you don’t forgive the other! You do the same as the first servant.
Our Lord has forgiven you an abortion, adulteries, perhaps only in our thoughts, the people you destroyed with your tongue, with your gossip, the ones you spoke about behind their backs who are friends or in your family, the judgements that killed so many people, the lives you trashed, the money or things you stole, the taxes you didn’t pay, the bad internet sites you visit, that you despised the poor, how often you failed to do good. Our Lord has taken all of this and so much more and nailed it to the cross. All is forgiven and paid for. God didn’t say, oh, it was nothing. No, no, someone had to pay for this new life he gave you. The Son paid the debt to his eternal Father. He paid for Adam’s debt and cancelled our ancient condemnation.
Our Lord says to love each other. The world says do justice and where would we be if justice was done to us. We would still be in jail or dead because the debt was impossible to pay. This is the truth. The Lord has not given you evil for evil. No, he returned goodness for the evil we did. He has given me only good things: a home, children, salvation, eternal life, happiness.
Let us rejoice brothers and sisters in this Good News. We do not owe everything. It has been paid. You can forgive your brother or sister. Remember the psalm: the Lord is kind and merciful. More than we can ever imagine!