Gospel: Matthew
18:21-35
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.”
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Reflection:
Is it
normal for us to harbor resentments? Yes of course for we are humans with
emotions. But after that short moment wherein we responded to our feelings let
us quickly allow Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness to take over our selfish
feelings.
In the
gospel Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often
must I forgive? As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven
times (Matthew 18:21-22).
This is a
very simple yet very effective teaching on forgiveness for us from Jesus. In
other words He is saying to us that we should always be forgiving. It’s normal
for us to be hurt but let us not allow these hurtful feelings to control us.
Therefore, we can only be freed from the vicious control of anger which by the
way comes from the devil, if we forgive those who have hurt us without any
preconditions.
Try to
observe yourself when you don’t listen to Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. Isn’t
it that you carry a heavy burden in your heart? When you allow unforgiveness to
reside in your heart you allow yourself to be imprisoned and controlled by your
anger.
What if
you follow Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness, how would you feel? You will feel
light and free. You will feel no burden in your heart. Don’t we all want to
feel light, to feel free and without any burdens and hurtful feelings in our
heart?
These are
the two options before us: To follow Jesus’ teaching on infinite forgiveness or
we continue to punish and burden ourselves by being unforgiving. The wisdom
filled choice is to always follow the teaching being given to us by Jesus. –
Marino J. Dasmarinas
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