Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time         

Matthew 18:21.35

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

The ability to forgive is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit

This text is a continuation of the discourse on fraternal relations that we listened to in last Sunday's Gospel. The central focus of the passage is a challenge to enter into the mystery of one of the most profound deeds that we can perform in life, the most difficult deed of all to carry out, and an act that manifests the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts – the deed of forgiving, to know how to forgive. Reconciliation is a central issue in human life. Those who do not forgive carry enormous burdens on their shoulders, whilst those who reconcile themselves with their brothers and sisters free themselves from their own faults and from the faults of others, transforming destructive situations into positive opportunities for growth.

The parable of the unforgiving servant

In the text that comes just before this passage, Jesus had spoken about the extent we should go to in order to win back a brother who has offended us. Peter then asks how many times we should be willing to pardon someone who has offended us, and he himself suggests seven times. Jesus replies instead that we should be ready to forgive seventy times seven. Then he places a parable in front of us to help us understand what he wishes to say.

            A man owes one hundred thousand talents to his king. To the modern ear, the value of a talent is hard to appreciate, but it is clear that here we are speaking about an enormous sum. The king has compassion on him and absolves him from the loan, but as soon as the servant leaves he encounters a fellow servant who owes a much smaller amount. The first servant catches the second by the throat, demands his money back, and has his colleague thrown in prison until the full debt is repaid.

How can one who has just been pardoned be so unforgiving towards others?

It is hard to understand how the first servant could be so violent and aggressive in this situation. As soon as he is forgiven, he immediately disregards the forgiveness and munificence that has been shown to him, and he is cruel and inflexible with one who owes him a much smaller sum. Why is this the case? The key to understanding the passage is in the phrase uttered by the first servant to the king. He said "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full". Given the enormity of the debt, this plea is plainly absurd, but the man still insists that if only the king has patience, the full debt will eventually be cleared. In the end, we are to believe, the road to reconciliation is just a matter of the king having sufficient patience. This attitude on the part of the servant is frighteningly delusional, because there is quite simply no way that the ten thousand talents could have been repaid.

            What is the point of the passage? The root of the failure of the servant to transform forgiveness-received into forgiveness-given is the fact that he utterly failed to comprehend the nature of the gift that he had received. He was under the illusion that the debt that he owed was something that could have been put right (if the king had given him the chance) with sufficient effort and time. And he expected similar efforts at reparation from those who had offended him, leading him to treat them harshly.

Sin must be pardoned freely, not wiped away by human effort

This brings us to a painful aspect of life that we must confront and accept. It is simply not the case that we can undo, or make reparation for, the sins that we have committed. We can, however, be forgiven for our sins. Until we accept the fundamentally negative aspect of the sins we have committed, we will never appreciate the free pardon of God. There is a pervasive conviction abroad that, as long as I apply myself, I can put everything right, I can free myself from the negative consequences of my sin. But this is a grave error. The Lord Jesus died for sin and there is no other way for us to be reconciled to God. It is not that if we made a better effort, then we could do without Jesus. It is not that if we behaved ourselves a little better, or if we were a little better organised, then we could get on without a saviour. No, all of us are radically in need of God's unconditional pardon.

Once we realize that we have been freely pardoned, only then we learn how to forgive others

To have the correct perception of our sins as something pardoned unconditionally by God, opens us to forgive those who have sinned against us. How can I pass judgement on others if I reflect on my own faults? How can I insist on reparation from others for offences that are relatively minor in comparison to the offences I have committed against God? God, after all, knows my heart. No matter how wholesome my life might appear to others, he knows my thoughts, he knows of the ten thousand talents that I can never restitute to him.

            There is a road of mercy and there is only one way to tread it, and that is to realize that the mercy that has been shown to us is unconditional in nature. In the Gospel of Luke we read: "He who is pardoned little, loves little". Even though it might make our hearts bleed, we must accept the negative fact that we cannot repay our debts by our own efforts. We must escape from the illusion that, if we only apply ourselves, we might accomplish great things. This illusion cripples our ability to show forgiveness to others. We are slow in the act of pardoning others because, at the end of the day, we persist in the illusion of our own innocence.