Sunday Gospel Comment

 

Alberic Jacovone OSB

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YEAR A

Sir 27,30-28,7; Rom 14,7-9; Mt 18,21-35

A ‘donation’ par excellence 

Duty-bound to forgive: Today we pray for ‘for-give-ness’: a gift for which we need great inner strength to give & receive. Matthew presents us the parable of the ungrateful servant, who was ‘for-given’ (=let off) a debt which ran into billions, when he pleaded saying: give me time & I will pay you back’. But soon after, when a fellow servant pleaded with him with the same prayer, he refused to show mercy over a ridiculously small amount. He was found to be a ‘wicked servant’: having just been let off his huge amount, he himself did not let off the pittance his fellow servant owed him. In the Church, the logic of forgiving one another is based on a duty. The Lord’s Prayer sums it up with the words: ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us’. We believe that in the Church, God has gathered us together in Christ. Because we have all been forgiven and bought at a huge price by the blood of Christ, we are bound to forgive each other. The forgiving process is set against the Risen Lord who says: "behold I am among you until the end of time", & "where two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there I am in your midst". Matthew concludes his teaching on who we are in the Church (Ecclesia) with the humbling lesson about forgiveness. Focus today on the logic of the parable: we are bound to have pity on one another, as God has had pity on us. Unconditional and unlimited forgiveness is difficult at the best of times:. old grudges die hard and real or imagined hurts occupy a huge space in our spiritual & emotional life... Still, we must forgive and pray for forgiveness. In the parable, Jesus contrasts God’s enormous mercy, against the servant’s refusal to forgive a mere pittance, to impress on us the point that we must be ready to forgive others their minor debts: mere pittance.

The logic of forgiveness: As a concept, ‘for-give-ness’ is a word from the Middleages (Tenth Century) which is loaded with Christian wisdom. It has its counterpart in the Italian ‘per-dono’ & French ‘par-don’. Literally it means ‘an act of donation par excel-lence’, and it refers to God who, while we were enemies, loved us to excess & gave us his greatest gift: His Beloved Son who died & rose to reconcile us to God & one another In today’s parable, Matthew reminds us that in the Church we are: the assembly of God’s people in Christ. Every parish forms an assembly of God’s people gathered together in Christ, called from many nations, with no distinctions or privileges of race, sex, power or possessions. Christ claims us as his own and calls us together to form one body with him & become one with him. We in turn, respond by coming together in Christ’s name & offering / receiving unconditional & unlimited forgiveness. Indeed, it is not by chance that in the parable, Peter head of the Church, is the one who puts the question: how often must I forgive, is seven times enough?... The answer is hidden in another question: Who is not in debt to God? we all are. Even Peter, especially Peter, who -though a Leader- denied the Lord. We are indeed lucky, that God is so unbelievably rich in forgiveness, & that we -Jews and Pagans alike-, are able to respond by being ourselves unconditionally forgiving. Nowadays, when Church Leaders are exposed & accused of all kinds of wrong-doings, the teaching on forgiveness comes as a humble realization: before God, we are all vulnerable ‘little people’. As we deal with each other, we must act with the knowledge that a great deal has been forgiven to us. Since we are all in debt to God, no one has the right to remain unforgiving: we are to be conciliatory, never condemnatory.

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