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.
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
How do you feel after you’ve been through the
Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation? You feel light and free as if a big
burden has been taken off from your back. This perhaps was the feeling of the
servant in our gospel who asked forgiveness from his master/king.
But the irony is this: the servant who was forgiven
by his master did not forgive a fellow servant who owed him a small amount of
money. Something is terribly wrong here because the servant should have also
forgiven his fellow servant. But he did not take advantage of the grace of
forgiveness that was showered upon him by his master.
Do you always take advantage of the grace of
forgiveness that is graciously given to you by God during the Sacrament of
Confession? God’s desire for us is to forgive as we have been forgiven. To
forgive and forget the offense/s that is done to us as God has forgiven the
countless offenses that we’ve done to Him. Think about if you don’t
forgive, you’re imprisoned by your anger and you don’t have peace of
mind.
You have everything to gain and nothing to lose if
you will forgive or if you become forgiving. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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