Our readings today focus on forgiveness; not just our forgiveness by God but our forgiveness of one another. Our first reading is from the book of Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus or the “Church Book.”   This book is included among the Wisdom literature in the Catholic canon of the Old Testament (Deuterocanon).  The Church has extensively used this book in presenting moral teachings to its faithful. The author of the Book of Sirach, Ben Sira, speaks of the forgiveness of our fellow man and its relationship to our forgiveness by God. We are not to persist in anger, wrath, or enmity for the vengeful will suffer God’s vengeance for God remembers our sins in detail. We are to forgive the times that we have been wronged by others and in doing this we will be forgiven by God. He asks us to remember our last days, the day of God’s judgment. Can we expect to receive God’s mercy and pardon if we hang on to grudges, wrath, or anger towards our fellow man?
 
This theme of forgiveness is expanded in our Gospel reading. Peter asks Jesus how many times we should forgive one who has sinned against us. Peter’s suggestion of “seven times” is actually quite generous. Outside of the extended family no one would forgive another seven times.  Jesus  responds “seventy-seven times.” “Seventy-seven” in scripture represents an infinite number of times. What is demanded of the disciples, and of us, is limitless, unconditional forgiveness, imitating the infinite abundance of God’s forgiveness. Jesus is telling us that as his disciples we have no right to place any limit on our forgiveness of others.
 
Jesus reinforces this in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. The parable puts in story form the second “we petition” of the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  A king decides to settle accounts with his debtors. He brings before him a servant who has a large debt and no means to reconcile the debt with his king. The king decides to sell the servant and his family to compensate for what is justly owed to him. The servant pleads for mercy and despite the inability to resolve his debt the king is compassionate and forgives the debt. The servant then goes to a fellow servant who owes to him a much smaller debt and demands to be repaid. When the second servant is unable to justify his debt he is choked and despite his begging for mercy is thrown into prison until he can repay the debt. Word of this travesty returns to the king concerning the actions of the unforgiving servant whose debt he had forgiven. The king has him turned over to be tortured until his debt was repaid in full. Since the debt was so large and essentially unpayable, his torture would be unending.
 
In the last verse of the gospel, we are given a stern warning: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”  The actions of the king in the parable indicate that he is to be identified with God. He shows great mercy in writing off the huge debt. Yet the merciless servant failed to learn from the king, and his cruelty toward his fellow servant results in revocation of his own forgiveness. The meaning of the parable: Divine judgment will be invoked on those who refuse to forgive.  The Father’s forgiveness, already given, will be withdrawn at the final judgment for those who have not imitated his forgiveness by their own.
 
God is merciful, kind, and forgiving, to those who come to him with a truly contrite heart. But we will be judged by how we treated our neighbor, one of the least of our brothers and sisters. If we hold grudges and fail to extend love and forgiveness, we will be held accountable. Our capacity to forgive should know no bounds, “not seven, but seventy-seven times.”
 
Each Mass we together pray the words that we were taught by Jesus. As part of that prayer, we ask God to “forgive us our trespasses as we    forgive those who trespass against us.” The phrase, “As we forgive others”, suggests a certain proportionality that hinges on our forgiveness of others. In other words, God will forgive us to the extent that we forgive one other.
 
We should heed God’s message at the close of our gospel reading.
 
The unforgiving are excluded from God’s mercy. Those who wish to receive God’s mercy must show mercy and forgiveness to others.

Peace,
Deacon Kerry