Tag Archives: forgiveness

A Barrier to Evil

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We should certainly hear an echo of the Lord’s Prayer in today’s gospel: ““Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” The mention of “forgiveness” should echo Jesus’ teaching about prayer. In the Lord’s prayer we are told to forgive others as we are forgiven: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Mt 6:14-15)

OK, the principle is clear, but the practical outworking still needs to be clarified, since its open-ended demand may easily be exploited by a manipulative person; surely there must be a limit? If Mishna B. Yoma represents rabbinic teaching, three times was regarded as sufficient. So, Peter’s proposal of up to seven times is probably intended to express a new limit of generosity. Or maybe it is a reference and contrast to sevenfold vengeance in the case of Cain (as in Cain and Abel). When Cain, doomed to wander homeless, worries that “Anyone may kill me at sight” (Gen 4:14), the Lord promises “Not so! the LORD said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged seven times.” (Gen 4:15) 

And so Jesus’ reply in our reading is all the more startling: “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” (Mt 18:22)

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The Things We Store Away

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The Rich Fool of our parable gets a bad rap.  Compared to other parables, there is no wrongdoing, no theft, inflating invoices, skimming off the top, no taking advantage of workers in the vineyard. Maybe he is just preparing for his retirement where he and his family can finally rest and relax, – and sure, eat, drink, and be merry. His goals seem similar to our own concerns with our savings and retirement plans.

Let’s be honest if you or I had a bumper crop like the Rich Fool we would be figuring out ways to store and preserve our good fortune. Maybe not the way in which the Rich Fool does.  Hopefully we would thank God for his harvest, from his fields, via his rains. Hopefully we would not consume and possess things indiscriminately, relentlessly grabbing for all that we can, hoping to insulate ourselves from our insecurities and our fears.  Those are the concerns of this life, but what about eternal life?

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The Bulwark

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We should certainly hear an echo of the Lord’s Prayer in today’s gospel: ““Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” The mention of “forgiveness” should echo Jesus’ teaching about prayer. In the Lord’s prayer we are told to forgive others as we are forgiven: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Mt 6:14-15) Continue reading →

Forgiveness

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The recent issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald, the diocesan newspaper (print and online), regularly carries a column from Mary Beth Bonacci, a syndicated Catholic columnist, who regularly writes on living out faith in everyday life.  Her recent article on Forgiveness is well worth the five minute read. Enjoy.

Image credit: Pexels

Lessons in Forgiveness

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How do you offer forgiveness? I suspect that the most common offer consists of “I forgive you” or “Don’t worry about” “Don’t give it a second thought” or “It’s nothing.” And that all might be true, but sometimes it is only the socially-expected response. It is what we do because we are Christian and we are called to forgive 70 times 7 – or about 490 times…and maybe, just maybe, some of us keep track. But, are we really at peace with our response? Continue reading →

What goes around…

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

31 Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.32 His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.33 Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’34 Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. 35 So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” Continue reading →

Unto others…

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

28 When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’29 Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’30 But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Continue reading →

The Debt

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

24 When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.25 Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.26 At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’27 Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. Continue reading →

Parable of the Debtors

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 23 That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. The parable which makes up most of the rest of the discourse underlines the principle of unrestricted forgiveness which Jesus has just enunciated. Most of Matthew’s parables are introduced as illustrations of “the kingdom of heaven” (13:11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52; 20:1; 22:2; 25:1). Here that formula is especially appropriate, since the parable concerns a king and his subjects:  this then is how God rules. That application of the story will be made explicit in v. 35: the king’s action represents how “my heavenly Father” will deal with you. Continue reading →

How much forgiveness?

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This coming Sunday is the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As mentioned in the previous post, we are in a part of Matthew’s gospel in which the focus is forming the community of disciples for their post-Resurrection mission to the world. Jesus has just finished speaking to the disciples about what to do if a brother sins against them. The verses leading up to our passage (vv.15-20) outline the manner in which the individual and the faith community are to deal with the incorrigible members caught in the life of sin. The focus of the teaching is about forgiveness, reconciliation, and doing what is needed to bring the brother back to the community and the fullness of the Faith. Continue reading →