Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
We often look for limits, trying to find out what the least acceptable effort is, the minimum required. But Jesus always calls us to generosity that mirrors God's own limitless mercy toward us.
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
However, we cannot imitate the generosity of God unless we understand and have gratitude for what we have first received from him.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
In respect of the debt we owe to God, all people start from the position of owing a debt they could never repay. Even before the sin of our first parents we were already indebted to God for all that we have and all that we are. After sin we had nothing to offer to make up for it since nothing in existence was strictly our own. We found ourselves separated from him by an infinite gulf, impossible to traverse from our side. Yet we did cry out from this pitiable condition just as we hear Azariah do in today's first reading. Our plea touched the compassionate heart of God who then did what we could not be forgiving the entire loan.
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
The forgiveness of the master is not the end of the story. It truly matters how that mercy does or does not transform the individual hearts that receive it. This near brush with divine justice could possibly have the unintended effect of making us even more self-centered and self-protective. We might be motivated only by a desire to not experience the fearful lack of control that almost resulted in the master's wrath. If so we might go on to act like the servant and attempt to exert that control over others rather than to show them mercy.
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.’
Instead of being turned inward and set on the defensive, the mercy of God is meant to inspire us with an abundance mindset ready to show mercy to others. The confidence we have in our own master's merciful heart is meant to be the prerequisite that allows us to lay down our claims over and against others so we can show them forgiveness like that which we ourselves have been so blessed to receive.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
The master is pleased when fellow servants bring to his attention not only injustice but also lack of mercy. In response to these servants he can enter situations to rectify them for those who are oppressed. But these servants did not gossip about the injustice, much less bemoan it on social media. Rather they took it directly to the master, understanding that his compassionate heart would not leave any repentant debtor without freedom.
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?’
There is the fearful prospect that divine mercy might not have the fully transformative result in us that God intends. We should therefore be extra attentive to place not limits on the forgiveness we are willing to offer others, and this because we trust that the mercy and compassion of God's heart is itself without limit.
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