Gospel: Matthew 18:21-19:1
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.
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Reflection:
What would happen to us if we are forgiving? We feel light, free and
there’s no pent-up emotions in our hearts that makes life so heavy for
us. What would happen to us if we don’t forgive? There’s always a heavy
burden in our hearts that do nothing to us except to attract negative emotions
even sickness.
Take for example if we see someone who has wronged us which we have
not forgiven yet. Our face may turn red an indication of sudden surge of our
blood pressure that may become fatal and could result to other health
complications.
Therefore it’s always better to be forgiving; this doesn’t mean that when
we forgive we forget the lesson/s why we forgave. When we forgive those who’ve
wronged us we let bygones be bygones yet the lesson/s learned will remain for
this will help us grow and become better individuals.
In our gospel for today Peter asked Jesus, “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. In simple
terms Jesus is teaching us that we must always be forgiving no matter how
severe the injury done to us. Because when we don’t forgive we only imprison
ourselves to this vicious and injurious emotion called hatred.
But let us say we really can’t forgive, let us go down on our knees and
pray to Jesus and let us ask Him to heal us and give us the grace of
forgiveness. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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