Homily: Forgiveness is a Christian Virtue

In the first reading of today Sirach tells us that we must forgive our neighbor if we want God to forgive our own sins. We must be merciful if we want to obtain mercy from God. We must not seek revenge on a neighbor of ours lest God should take vengeance on us.  If we remember our end in life we will keep God’s commandments and we will not be angry with our neighbor who offends us.  He says it is possible only for a sinful man to be angry with his neighbor. The man who repays the neighbor in kind must expect God to do likewise to him.   Only when we forgive the other person generously, then only God will forgive us. While we expect mercy and forgiveness from the infinite God whom we have offended, we often refuse a brother even a small measure of mercy and forgiveness.

In the second reading Paul reminds the Romans of the fundamental privilege which the incarnation has conferred on them.  By his life and death Christ did atone for all the sins of the world. But he did something much more basic for our welfare, namely, he fulfilled God’s plan for our elevation to make us his adopted sons and daughters. Thus when the Son of God took our human nature, that human nature was united with the Godhead and we became brothers in Christ. Here Paul emphasizes the fact that through our Baptism we have been made members of Christ’s mystical body, we have become brothers of Christ, intimately united with him in his death and resurrection. He tells the fact that whether living or dead a Christian belongs to Christ. It was for this purpose, to unite all men closely to him, not only in this life but more specifically in the life to come, that Christ became man and made his dwelling among us. 

Jesus taught his disciples how it is necessary for them ever to be ready to forgive their fellowmen who injured them.  Today’s Gospel opens with one of Peter’s straight forward questions, asking the Lord how often he ought to forgive. If he forgives seven times was it sufficient. According to the rabbinical tradition forgiveness apparently extends to three offences and the fourth offence calls for punishment.  Good hearted Peter doubles the forgiveness of the rabbis and adds one for good measure and considers himself very generous. To his surprise Jesus is not impressed and tells him that it is not seven but seventy seven.  Luke makes it further more difficult to count saying seventy times seven. In other words you may not attach a number, a limit, to the times you forgive. He then tells them a parable to bring out the lesson: unless we forgive our brother, God will not forgive us. If we take revenge on our offending brother, God will take revenge on us. We have the solemn word of Jesus that our heavenly Father will punish us if we do not forgive our brother from our heart. In the Sermon on the Mount he tells us that if our brother has done something wrong, and you are offering the sacrifice, leave it there on the altar, go and reconcile and come to offer.

The forgiveness that Jesus teaches originates with God and the Bible elaborates this forgiveness.  This is given to us in the Book of Jonah and more specifically in today’s responsorial psalm which tells us: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; the Lord does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities.  As far as the East is from the West, so far does our Lord remove our transgressions from us.” God’s forgiving love is presented by Isaiah.  When the Jews complained that God has forgotten them, the Lord replies saying, can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even if these forget, yet God will not forget his people. Look, he says, I have carved you on the palm of my hand.  Thus the Bible gives us the picture of a God who is compassionate; he is a God of forgiveness. 

Coming to the parable itself, we see the first servant owed the master ten thousand talents and the second servant owed the other just one hundred denarii. A talent was worth 15 years’ wages for a worker and a denarius was a day’s wage.  The first servant would have taken 410 years to pay off the debt while the other only three months of work.  The generous master forgave the debt that would have needed more than four hundred a year’s of work while the second servant was put in prison for three months wages.  We note here that the master in the parable is God.  We humans have been forgiven a debt so enormous that we could never pay for it. It is the debt of our sins and all its consequences like the enmity with God.  To pay our debt we remember that Jesus was crucified and he expects us to forgive others the little mistakes they may have done.

We are told by Jesus in the parable to forgive others as God has forgiven us, to live the Our Father: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  For God to forgive us means to change us and accept us into a new relationship with him.  It is make our entire relationship alive with the life of God.  It is an invitation to be one with God and become his new creation.  Only God can forgive us and show us the new way in which we can live.  When Bl. John Paul II forgave Mehmet Ali Agca, he did not change his heart, but God changed it. We as his followers only prepare the way for others to change.  There are two remarkable benefits that come from forgiving. First benefit touches us who forgive: If you forgive others their wrong doing, the heavenly Father will also forgive us. The second benefit accrues those we forgive: we can be an instrument of God’s grace to others, help to make them better than they are.  Today Christ applies the lesson of the parable to his disciples telling them that if they do not forgive the other from their heart they will not receive the forgiveness from God.

Indeed there are two different approaches to offence and forgiveness, to reconciliation. One approach is human approach where we expect the person to repent the wrong done, apologize the other for it and repair the injury. Finally receive the pardon for the same.  The other is the Christian understanding of reconciliation, where we see how freely God has forgiven us and the grace of forgiveness given to us. Inspired by the divine forgiveness, we repent and also extend the forgiveness to the other. Here reconciliation does not begin with the offender but with the victim. God will forgive the soul that forgives others. God will welcome the return of such a child into the Body of Christ to continue its sanctification. The Holy Spirit will once more dwell within the body of the repentant individual. God will bless the person with numerous graces, this being God’s way of rejoicing in this great moment.

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant raises the frightening prospect that pardon already granted by God could be revoked. There are two very clear messages from both the parable and the words from the Sermon on the Mount: The first is that we dare not hold back forgiveness from those God forgives. We know from the Gospel, God’s attitude towards wrong doers and his penchant for forgiveness. But the second message is that the divine patience is not infinite. God, as Jesus tells us to do, is ready to forgive 77 times. And, when it comes to the forgiveness of our own sins, we take this for granted.  At the same time, there is a limit to the extent of God’s forgiveness in the sense that it is conditional.

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Once two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms, fell into conflict. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence. One morning there was a knock on John’s door. He opened it to find a carpenter looking for a job.  The older brother said “I do have a job for you.”  Showing his brother’s farm he said, Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer and has made a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me and I want you to build me a fence –an 8-foot fence — so I won’t need to see his place or his face anymore.” The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation. Give me the material and I will do the needful.” The older brother had to go to town. The carpenter worked hard all day. About sunset when the farmer returned, his eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all — and, his younger brother was coming toward them, his hand outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done.”  The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and embraced each other.  They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I’ve a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother. “I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said, but I have many more bridges to build.