For Your Own Good, Forgive! (Sunday, Week 24, Year A)

Today’s gospel reading is a continuation of Matthew 18 which we read last Sunday where Jesus told his disciples that “after one has done all that he could do to win back a brother or sister who has sinned against him and the person refuses to comply, let the person be treated as a Gentile and a tax collector”. We may ask: Who is a Gentile or a tax collector to a Jew? An enemy, an outcast who should be hated! But is Jesus saying that the person should be treated as an outcast or an enemy? No! Jesus himself treated tax collectors and Gentiles with love, respect, dignity and affection! Treat that brother or sister as Jesus treated tax collectors and Gentiles even if he or she refuses to repent or listen to you! This is a very hard nut to crack.  

Peter thought over this hard teaching, and couldn’t just make sense out of it, considering the fact that he is part of a race (the Jewish race) that has suffered oppression and subjugation from the Romans aided by tax collectors. He must have thought within him: “How can I treat the tax collectors the most terrible of my enemies with love, respect, dignity and affection?” I am sure many of us may have the same objection that Peter had. And that might be the reason why Peter went to Jesus and asked, “Wait ooo! Lord, how often shall my bother sin against me, and I forgive him?” And he went further to suggest, “As many as seven times?” For the Jews, the number “7” is a complete number: a number that suggests completeness and perfection. So, by suggesting “seven times”, Peter thought that Jesus would clap for him for being too generous, loving and forgiving. Jesus responded with another metaphorical number, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven”. 70 x 7 equals 490; and 490 is 49 multiplied by 10. In Leviticus 25:8-55, every 49th year is the beginning of the Jewish Jubilee Year during which debts are cancelled and captives are set free. So, what the number 490 (70 X 7) should have suggested to Peter is that Jesus demands unlimited forgiveness, unlimited cancellation of debts from those who have wronged us. But it seems Peter did not yet understand. And this led to the story of the unforgiving servant (cf. Matt. 18:23-35). A servant owed his master 10,000 talents. Note that a “talent” was about 10,000 denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage for a laborer. So, this servant owed his master 100,000,000 denarii. So what it means is that it would take this servant more than 250,000 years of work in order to clear his debt. That was practically impossible. The servant pleaded with the master and was forgiven. This same servant met a fellow servant who owed 100 denarii – about a 3-month salary. In comparison with 10,000 talents, 100 denarii was a very infinitesimal amount. Yet, this wicked servant went ahead to seize by throat and subsequently threw his fellow servant who owed him a small amount of money into prison. Other servants heard of it and reported the matter to their master who subsequently threw that wicked servant into prison. Jesus concluded by saying: “So, also our heavenly Father will do to us if we do not forgive one another from the heart”. A difficult teaching as usual!

Let us get this point once and for all! Spiritually, physically, emotionally we have nothing to gain from withholding forgiveness. In fact, we end up wounding ourselves grievously if we do not forgive, if we continue to harbor anger and malice for a brother or sister. When I speak about forgiveness, I speak about it with greater passion because I have gone through the path of unforgiveness and seen that it is the worst form of imprisonment one can find himself or herself. I saw myself as someone who suffered injustices and hate from my childhood up to my adult age. I lived with the poison of anger, malice and unforgiveness for years until the shackles were broken by the special grace of God in 2016. Unforgiveness is like taking some poison and expecting another person to suffer its effects. It is not possible. You will end up wounding yourself. On 3 January 2020, a US drone targeted, struck and killed General Qasem Soleimani, a famous Iranian military leader who was seen as a terrorist and a threat to US. Iranians were filled with so much anger and vowed to retaliate. Out of that anger and urge to revenge, Iran targeted and downed a Canadian-bound Ukrainian plane killing about 176 passengers on board. And out of those who died, 82 were Iranians. You see how they ended up wounding themselves. My brother, my sister, FORGIVE no matter how huge the offense is! You have nothing to gain from unforgiveness, anger and malice. Unforgiveness is so serious a vice that if we do not sincerely forgive, we cannot be free and cannot benefit from the abundant flow of God’s forgiveness and mercy. Sirach tells us, “Forgive your neighbour the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray” (cf. Sir. 28:2).