Jesus Christ, the Father’s incarnate mercy, invites us to forgive always.
“How many times, Lord?… up to seventy times seven.”
Readings
First Reading
Reading the book of the Ecclesiastical 27, 33 – 28, 9
Rencor and anger are also abhorrent, the sinner possesses them. The vengeful will suffer the vengeance of the Lord, who will bear an accurate account of his sins. Forgive your neighbor for the offense, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven. If one human being feeds anger against another, how can he expect the Lord’s healing? If you do not pity your fellow man, how do you ask forgiveness for your own sins? If he, a mere mortal, holds a grudge, who will forgive his sins? Think about your end and stop hating, remember corruption and death, and be faithful to the commandments. Remember the commandments and hold no grudges against your neighbor; remember the alliance of the Most High and ignore the offense.
Psalm
Come out 102, 1-2. 3-4. 9-10. 11-12
R/. The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to anger and rich in clemency.
Bless, my soul, the Lord, and my whole being to his holy name.
Bless, my soul, the Lord, and do not forget its benefits. R/.
He forgives all your faults and cures all your illnesses;
he rescues your life from the pit, and fills you with grace and tenderness. R/.
He is not always accusing or creating perpetual grudges;
does not treat us as they deserve our sins, nor does it pay us according to our faults. R/.
As heaven rises upon the earth, his goodness rises upon those who fear it;
as the east of sunset is far from sunset, so it takes our crimes away from us. R/.
Second Reading
Reading the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans 14, 7-9
Brothers:
None of us live for ourselves and none of us die for ourselves.
If we live, we live for the Lord; If we die, we die for the Lord; so, let’s live now, we die, we are of the Lord.
For for this Christ died and was resurrected: to be Lord of the dead and alive.
Gospel
Reading the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 18, 21-35
At that time, Peter approached Jesus asked him:
“Sir, if my brother offends me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus replies:
“I don’t tell you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. For this reason, it resembles the kingdom of heaven to a king who wanted to settle the accounts with his servants. When he started adjusting them, he was introduced to one who owed ten thousand talents. Because he had nothing to pay for, the lord ordered him to be sold to his wife and children and all his possessions, and to pay like this. The servant, throwing himself at his feet, begged him saying:
‘Be patient with me and I’ll pay you everything.’
The lord of that servant took pity and let him go, forgiving him the debt.
But when he left, the servant found one of his companions who owed him a hundred denrii and, grabbing him, strangled him by saying:
‘Pay me what you owe me.’
The companion, throwing himself at his feet, begged him saying:
‘Be patient with me and I’ll pay for it.’
But he refused and went and put him in jail until he paid what he owed.
His companions, seeing what had happened, were dismayed and went to tell their lord everything that had happened.
Then the lord called him and said:
‘Evil servant! All that debt I forgave you because you begged me, shouldn’t you also have compassion on a partner, as I had pity on you?’
And the gentleman, outraged, handed him over to the executioners until he paid off all the debt.
The same will be done with you my heavenly Father, if everyone does not sincerely forgive his brother.”
Comment
Today’s Word of God reminds us again of who God is, or what God is like. Always good, compassionate and merciful Father, slow to anger and rich in mercy. It is repeated by the psalm and is at the background of the first reading and the gospel. It is the starting point of today’s message, a nuclear message for Christian life, the message of forgiveness.
The reasons proposed by the Ecclesiastical or Sirácida to forgive, not to hold a grudge or anger, so as not to be vengeful are very beautiful. the most important, the most important, is precisely to be and to do like God: how can one expect the forgiveness of God who is unable to forgive as He forgives us?
He who forgives resembles God. who is compassionate and merciful. Human beings are autonomous but contingent creatures, capable of self-determination, but needy at the same time, created by God in his image, called to reproduce the image of Christ. That is why the deepest and most authentic reason for forgiveness is to reflect God, to be his mirrors, to embody his love and mercy.
Precisely because God is love, because God is mercy and compassion, we are called to love, to be merciful and compassionate, to forgive.
But what does it mean to forgive?
A couple of years ago a film appeared on the billboard, or perhaps better a documentary, entitled “The Greatest Gift” (Juan Manuel Cotelo, 2018), a film that talks about forgiveness through testimonies of those who have given it and those who have received it. The writer and director’s goal is to show that forgiveness can with the most unforgivable situations: from a small quarrel to violent deaths during a war. The initial synopsis reads: “There is a weapon capable of ending any conflict. They have already used it in France, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Colombia, Rwanda… and it works, always. Its constructive power is limitless. And besides, it’s free. But you have to be very brave to use it. The Greeks call it hyper-gift: the greatest gift.” It’s worth watching this movie; you learn a lot in it and it helps you sponge the soul, sometimes so loaded and squeezed by your own or other offenses. One of the things pointed out in the script is that forgiveness is a divine thing, and therefore impossible for us, but always possible from God. even the most unforgivable can be forgiven.
Indeed, the etymology of the word leads us to define forgiveness as the best and greatest of gifts. The parable that Jesus presents to us in today’s gospel to explain God’s forgiveness also offers us this image. God wants to give us something that is far beyond our means, something out of our reach, something for nothing callable or buyable, something disproportionate and totally free.
Forgiveness is to apologise to another for an action considered an offense, eventually renounging revenge, or claiming a just punishment or restitution, choosing not to take into account offense in the future, so that relations between forgiven offender and forgiving offending are not affected. Forgiveness is obviously a benefit to the forgiven, but it also serves the forgivent, who is also interested in seeing his relations with the offender fully or partially recomposed. Forgiveness contributes to social peace and cohesion and avoids spirals of vengeance.
To forgive is not to forget, or to pretend that nothing has happened, but to renounce the grudge produced in our hearts by one’s own or others’ offenses. It’s a decision, not a feeling. It is an attitude of life that we must root deep into our hearts always nourished by faith in God.
Forgiveness is using the best weapon to leave unarmed those who want to offend or hurt us. When you offer forgiveness, or when you ask for forgiveness, you deprive those who are offended by you or grieving for what he has done to you. Obviously we must avoid falsehood or simulation by forgiving or asking for forgiveness. By humiliating yourself, you become great before those who intend to crush or destroy you… or you just make it easy for those who don’t even dare to look you in the face for what he’s told you or done. Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness but quite the opposite. of an incredible strength of spirit and unwavering encouragement. To forgive is to rebuild, it is to start, it is to start a new time and a new relationship. It is living with optimism and joy, aware that inner and outer peace is the best way for all, something worth much more than all offenses.
Forgiveness, as understood in the Christian faith, is one of Christianity’s great contributions to humanity. If forgiveness did not exist, we would have become extinct by now, we would have irretrievably eliminated each other. Forgiveness is one of the essential consequences of sincere love. You can’t forgive yourself without loving… out of love for God or for the love of those who offend you.
But how many times is it to be forgiven? Peter asks and dares to advance an answer to Jesus in question: seven? Number seven in the Bible conveys the idea of perfection and abundance. It would be like saying “many times.” Jesus replies, “Seventy times seven,” that is, “always.” It would be like saying “countless times.”
Always forgiving, not counting the times, means entering into God’s dynamics, in his eternity, in his perfection and abundance. The quantifiable and verifiable belongs to the order of the temporal, to our ephemeral human condition. God is above that. The human being, from his finitude, is invited to enter into the infinity of God. To take hold of the dynamic of forgiveness as one of the foundations of one’s life means to enter into God’s eternity, to understand that life has been given to us forever and that it is not worth stopping at the temporal and passing, in the small things that distance us, distance us or separate us from one another.
The fundamental reason, we would say theological, of forgiveness and of its extension of “many times” to “always” is put by Jesus in imitating God, in doing as the Father does with each of us: always forgive as and because God always forgives us. God is patient and understanding. Not forgiving others would be pretending to abuse them and God. The servant of the parable, forgiven by his lord, who strangled his companion, asking him to pay him, was an abuser and a meager. He soon forgot what his lord had forgiven him and did not want to do the same with his companion.
Pope Francis repeats many times that God never tires of forgiving, but we are the ones who tire of asking forgiveness or forgiving others. God knows how to wait. He’s patient. Because he loves us. Psalm 102 reminds us: “He forgives all your faults and cures all your illnesses; he rescues your life from the pit, and fills you with grace and tenderness. He is not always accusing or creating perpetual grudges; he does not treat us as they deserve our sins, nor does he pay us according to our faults.”
The Lord offers us his forgiveness for the mediation of the Church through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, free of charge, as many times as we need, and with sincere repentance we come to receive it. Let us have no qualms about disturbing priests to ask them to forgive us sins in the name of God. It is one of his ministries, that is, services to the community. Let us not take too long to confess, let us not be lazy in cleaning up our inner abode, to allow the Lord to fill it again and overflow it with his grace.
Reconciled with God we are all called to be reconcilers in our society. The divisions, the clashes, the offenses, which always exist in our families, labor groups, or social environments, can be overcome when there is a will to do so… and when there is no human will, we entrust ourselves to God’s merciful power through prayer. Extending the attitude of forgiveness as a deeply human value, and not just Christian, will greatly help the future of the society in which we live and of humanity in general.
Prayer
Father, forgive our offenses, just as we forgive.
Sir, we have a hard time forgiving from the heart.
Our pride paralyzes us, our pride makes us altive and arrogant.
We look at others above the shoulder, we consider them inferior, despicable, unworthy of our compassion. We don’t forget the offense. We waited with resent the moment to remember the debt, to reproach the offense, to dig into the wound.
When the brother asks us for forgiveness, we take the opportunity to humiliate him, we do not accept his excuses, we deny him his desire to be forgiven.
Father, forgive our offenses, just as we forgive.
Sir, it’s hard for us to ask for forgiveness with our hearts.
It is not easy to humiliate yourself, to acknowledge the mistake made, to offend the brother.
It’s hard to apologize when the other one has offended you, too.
We have a hard time being the first to reach out.
So many times we are indolent and do not want to bear the consequences of our sins and repair the damage caused.
Father, forgive our offenses, just as we forgive.
Lord, show us to forgive and ask forgiveness.
To forgive those who offend us, to ask forgiveness from those of us who have offended You first. Help us break the ice of discord and distance, to overcome the coldness of the heart and the immobility of our positions.
Lord, You who died from the Cross forgiving, give us the grace to forgive and the ability to ask forgiveness; grant us the courage to ask forgiveness for one’s sins and also for other people’s sins. Fill our lives with joy and peace by knowing that if we forgive from the heart, You too will have forgiven us. Amen.
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