Speaker 1: The name of the Father, and some of the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: glory to Jesus Christ. In today's Gospel, our Lord gives
Speaker 1: us one of the most striking parables in all of Scripture,
Speaker 1: the parable of the unforgiving servant. In the Gospel Today,
Speaker 1: a king calls his servants to account, and one is
Speaker 1: brought before him, who owes ten thousand talents. Now, that
Speaker 1: amount is almost impossible to comprehend. Even the most conservative
Speaker 1: estimates who have tried to translate that to a figure today,
Speaker 1: tells us that ten thousand talents today would be billions
Speaker 1: of dollars. And the Lord's point in this parable is
Speaker 1: very simple. This debt is so enormous that there's absolutely
Speaker 1: no possibility of repayment. It is hopeless. And yet when
Speaker 1: the servant falls to the ground and begs for mercy,
Speaker 1: the king does something astonishing. He does not merely grant
Speaker 1: him more time to pay. He doesn't give him a
Speaker 1: plan to pay. He doesn't reduce the debt to a
Speaker 1: payable amount. Instead, he forgives it entirely, every penny or
Speaker 1: every denari. The fathers tell us that this immense debt
Speaker 1: represents our sins before God, as saint Augustine notes the
Speaker 1: ten thousand talents signify the countless ways in which man
Speaker 1: transgress us is God's commandments. Every day we stand before
Speaker 1: God unable to repay what we owe. We cannot undo
Speaker 1: our sins, we cannot earn our salvation, we can't balance
Speaker 1: out the scales of debt through our own efforts. Yet
Speaker 1: the mercy, the measure of God's mercy, is greater than
Speaker 1: the measure of our sin. Saint John Christystem marvels at
Speaker 1: this generosity. The servant only asked for patience, but he
Speaker 1: received a complete remission. He asked for time, and he
Speaker 1: was given forgiveness. Such is the love of God. He's
Speaker 1: always more ready to forgive than we are to ask.
Speaker 1: This is beautiful and reassuring to all of us who struggle.
Speaker 1: What a loving and merciful God we have. But this
Speaker 1: is only the first half of the parable, because the
Speaker 1: forgiven servant then immediately encounters a fellow servant who owes
Speaker 1: him a hundred dinari. And this is nothing, but compared
Speaker 1: to ten thousand talents, it's insignificant. But instead of showing
Speaker 1: the same mercy that he himself had just received, he
Speaker 1: grabs a man by the throat, and he demands payment.
Speaker 1: The very one who had been forgiven an unimaginable debt
Speaker 1: refuses to forgive a comparatively tiny one. And this is
Speaker 1: where the Gospel starts being a story about someone else,
Speaker 1: and it becomes a story about us. The obvious question
Speaker 1: is how do we respond when others offend us or
Speaker 1: transgress against us. Every one of us has been hurt
Speaker 1: by somebody else. Every one of us has experienced insults, betrayal, slander, disappointment,
Speaker 1: broken promises, even just unkind words. And some wounds are
Speaker 1: small and some cut very deep. Yet Christ teaches us
Speaker 1: that no matter how great the injury may be, it
Speaker 1: is still small compared to what God has forgiven us.
Speaker 1: And there's another lesson here that is perhaps less obvious.
Speaker 1: Noticed the attitude of the first servant when he stood
Speaker 1: before the king. He fell down, He humbled himself, He
Speaker 1: confessed his helpless condition, and he acknowledged his debt. Before
Speaker 1: he ever received forgiveness, he recognized his own need for mercy.
Speaker 1: Saint John Christen says that Christ requires two things from us,
Speaker 1: First that we condemn our own sins, and second that
Speaker 1: we forgive others theirs. The first is meant to make
Speaker 1: the second one easier. The man who remembers his own
Speaker 1: failures becomes more patient with the failures of others. The
Speaker 1: man who remembers how often he has been forgiven becomes
Speaker 1: more willing to forgive. When we can remember our own plight,
Speaker 1: face down before the Almighty God, begging the remission of
Speaker 1: our own sins, it becomes much harder to condemn the
Speaker 1: one who has offended us. And this is why genuine
Speaker 1: repentance and genuine forgiveness always go together. A person who's
Speaker 1: constantly examining his own soul finds it difficult to remain
Speaker 1: harsh towards a neighbor. But a person who forgets his
Speaker 1: own sin quickly becomes a severe judge of everybody else's.
Speaker 1: The saint doesn't think, look how terrible everyone else is.
Speaker 1: The saint thinks, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner,
Speaker 1: and from that humility springs our own mercy. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: Lord goes even further. He does not merely say that
Speaker 1: we must forgive. He says we must forgive from our hearts.
Speaker 1: And this is a rightening phrase, because we all know
Speaker 1: how to forgive with our lips. We can say the words.
Speaker 1: We can maintain outward civility when we pass in the halls,
Speaker 1: we can avoid arguments, but deep within we may still
Speaker 1: rehearse in our mind the old wounds, the old grievances,
Speaker 1: the old injuries, and nurture those old resentments, because Christ
Speaker 1: is asking from us something much deeper than just external politeness.
Speaker 1: Blessed the all Flack says, he wants us to forgive
Speaker 1: from our hearts and not only from our lips. Understanding
Speaker 1: what a great evil is remembrance of wrongs, since it
Speaker 1: revokes the gift of God. The real danger is not
Speaker 1: merely anger. The real danger is keeping anger. It's the
Speaker 1: deliberate preservation of the old wounds. Listen to Saint John
Speaker 1: Crusistm's warning. He says that when we refuse to forgive,
Speaker 1: we thrust the sword into ourselves. The person who injured
Speaker 1: us may have caused pain, but we continue that suffering
Speaker 1: when we nourish that resentment. The offender may have struck once,
Speaker 1: but our bitterness wounds us every single day as we
Speaker 1: hold on to it, and the devil delights in convincing
Speaker 1: us that holding a grudge is a form of justice.
Speaker 1: We often even excuse our own unwillingness to forgive as
Speaker 1: part of God's justice, or is necessary for the rehabilitation
Speaker 1: of another. I can't forgive him until he's really made
Speaker 1: a change. But in reality, it's just a prison for
Speaker 1: our own soul. How so, you might ask, well, John
Speaker 1: Grisassum says that those who wrong us can become occasions
Speaker 1: for our salvation. Every insult gives us an opportunity for patients,
Speaker 1: every offense an opportunity for mercy, and every injury chance
Speaker 1: to immtite Christ himself, who prayed for his enemies even
Speaker 1: as they crucified him. This doesn't mean that pretending evil
Speaker 1: never that pretending This doesn't mean pretending that evil never happened.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean a proving sin. It doesn't mean abandoning
Speaker 1: our own discernment. But what it means is we surrender
Speaker 1: our claim to vengeance and place the judgment into the
Speaker 1: hands of God. We forgive because we ourselves have been forgiven.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters. As we stand here again before the
Speaker 1: Holy altar, let us remember the servant's posture before the king.
Speaker 1: Let us fall down before God with humility. Let us
Speaker 1: examine our consciences honestly and let us confess our sins
Speaker 1: and seek his mercy. And when we have received that mercy,
Speaker 1: then we are called to extend it to others. And
Speaker 1: that forgiveness will not be merely with our lips, but
Speaker 1: it must be from our hearts. Let Us put away
Speaker 1: remembrance of wrongs. Let us release old grudges and old resentments.
Speaker 1: Let us show to those who have sinned against us
Speaker 1: the same compassion that we beg the Lord to show
Speaker 1: to us. For we're all debtors before a merciful King,
Speaker 1: and the measure of our forgiveness towards others reveals whether
Speaker 1: we truly understand the forgiveness that we ourselves have received.
Speaker 1: So may the Lord grant us repentant hearts, merciful hearts,
Speaker 1: and forgiving hearts, and may we receive the abundant mercy
Speaker 1: of the King who forgives debts beyond all measure. In
Speaker 1: the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: a man glory to Jesus Christ.