"Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full."
Sirach 27 3- - 28:7
Rm 14: 7-9
Mt 18: 21-35
Albert Einstein famously said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.” For a man of his reputation or for any inventor or scientist, who seemingly try variations on the same thing over and over again in order to test a theory, the results eventually may be constant failure or a sudden unexpected success. Penicillin and its healing properties was unexpectedly discovered through the observed action of mold in a petri dish. Yet, sooner or later we may feel a new approach is needed.
However, in the case of what we hear in this Sunday Gospel from Matthew, Jesus and Peter engage in an interesting dialogue about forgiveness. Peter surely noticed Jesus’ compassion and words of mercy toward the “sinner.” The other apostles likewise must have been moved by Jesus’ non-judgmental and inclusive words. So Peter poses a logical question to Jesus: “Lord, if my brother (sister) sins against me, how often must I forgive: As many as seven times?” In other words, what are the limits of forgiveness towards another and what situations might be so grievous that forgiveness would not be possible?
Jesus responds to Peter with another set of numbers which in a way is a slightly sarcastic response: “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” Peter’s numbers game is challenged by Jesus who implies that forgiveness is not meant to be a game of keeping score but a process of infinite reconciliation and mercy. The old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” is more based in retribution than in forgiveness. Yet, most of us may find the tendency to feel that a kind of score card approach is better than doing the same thing over and over again while expecting the other to be changed. How often can I forgive you? How often can I say, “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.” Isn’t that just taking advantage of a kind of forgiveness bank account with unlimited funds?
In order to drive the point home, which is that we must be people of forgiveness who reflect the infinite, 70 x 7 mercy of God, he tells Peter a parable with another set of exaggerated numbers - that of the forgiven, unforgiving, and punished servant.
Jesus begins with a favorite phrase: “That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to . . .” This favorite of Jesus image about a kingdom applies to those who live by his Gospel values. In the “kingdom” where my morality is expressed, this is how people will live together, how society will structure itself according to God’s desire and moral interaction.
A debtor comes before a king who demands repayment for an debt so enormous that it is beyond what anyone could repay: “a huge amount” equal to his own freedom, his wife and children, and all his property. What would be left? Nothing – every loved one, every bit of material possession and security he has in this world. Everything! The image is so extraordinary that it would be impossible to imagine how anyone could run up that kind of indebtedness. Yet, this story makes a point about anything we may bring to God that would need to be forgiven or that we might imagine others need to be forgiven for.
That king is moved by compassion towards the pleading of the indebted servant: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” Knowing this servant could never do so, he forgives the entire indebtedness and lets him go! One extreme to the other indeed but the compassion of the king was more than the indebtedness owed: “70 x 7 …”
Yet a turn of events takes place and that now released servant encounters fellow servant who owes him much, much less. He pleads for forgiveness in the same words that his fellow servant did but receives a cold, unforgiving heart instead. The one forgiven was not changed by the forgiveness he was offered and still subscribed to the original keeping score approach: “7 times?”
The king hears of this sad affair, calls in his former servant and furiously says: “I forgave you your entire debt . . . should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” The axe falls and the formerly forgiven servant now finds himself imprisoned in debtor’s prison for not extending the same compassion as he experienced. The moral is clear and undeniable: As God has done for us, so must we do no less, the same towards one another. The King in the story is God and we are the servants.
Think for a moment about some person, some incident or event in your life that caused you pain, anger, disappointment and a desire to fight back with equal fury. I can think of more than one. While how you reacted then is now in the past. More importantly how have you reacted since or in light of this Gospel, how will you now react?
The book of Sirach (Wisdom) is our first reading and begins: “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.” Forgiveness is not an easy process sometimes. Not only we were hurt but we also experienced a great injustice. I want to repair that injustice by some sort of equal hurt inflicted upon them. So, we may be holding on tight to past hurts. How do I forgive or better yet should I forgive?
Well, the Gospel this Sunday answers that question by saying “yes.” If I find that my feelings won’t let me do that easily, then I must take the event, the person to prayer. How long will I stay angry about whatever was done – 5 years, 10 years, 30, 40? Sadly some people, when hurt, never forgive. They will simply write off that person for the rest of their life and be perpetually resentful and angry. That isn’t forgiveness of what Jesus speaks of today.
So much of what we need to ask forgiveness for is miniscule in comparison to the example Jesus used in the Gospel today. But the point is that as God extends his mercy to us – we can do no less towards each other. How many times have you gone to confession for example and confessed the same sins over and over again? Is God tired of hearing that? Apparently not since Jesus states we must forgive, thereby God forgives – 70 x 7 times.
If I bring the person to prayer in my mind, before the Tabernacle even I would recommend as I have had to do myself, and by name present that person to Christ in the Eucharist. Simply bring their name to prayer for forgiveness and allow the grace of God to work in your heart. You may be surprised as to how much freedom you will feel.
Forgive from your heart so that you will find peace in your heart. You may never see the person again but at least you wish them no harm and have remembered them before God.
What may seem very hard or nearly impossible or maybe the harm I have caused towards another is what I am feeling, is not beyond the mercy of God. His forgiveness is a call to our personal conversion, our change of heart and new direction for our life.
As our responsorial psalm reminds us this week: “The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.” We pray for it all the time: “. . . forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven those who trespass against us . . .”
Einstein felt doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results was insane. Yet, Christ-like forgiveness over and over again only makes us more like him.
Look upon us, O God,
Creator and ruler of all things,
and, that we may feel the working of your mercy,
grant that we may serve you with all our heart.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)