Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 18, 21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“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.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
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.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
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.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had him put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
Moved with compassion
1) Peter approached Jesus. This passage comes after the mother of Zebedee’s sons asked Jesus that her sons might have a special place in his kingdom. This is sure to have made the others angry, especially because power tickles all of us at some point. But Peter approaches Jesus. He surely he had some issue with someone in his heart. And that’s something that can happen to you and me: feeling anxious or angry with someone, because of something that bothered or even annoyed us. The question he asks Jesus is, “how can we forgive?” Because we all have a hard time with this, and just look at the situation, even the first Pope had a hard time forgiving, so why not us?
2) The King had compassion. Forgiveness is a process; it’s not achieved from one day to the next. The first step is to be aware that forgiveness is absolutely supernatural. It does not come to us in our human nature. We must realize that God forgives us over and over again. There are so many mistakes that you make and that only you and He know about, and, nevertheless, He has compassion. He keeps on helping you to get out of that swamp you got into with your sins. So, in the face of an offense committed against you, look to heaven, and ask God for a little bit of the compassion that He has for you. Because clearly, you and I are not immaculate, we are forgiven sinners.
3) Compassion. Compassion means to suffer with the other person, to suffer together. It’s what will help you to get resentment and anger out of your heart. Ask God for the strength to move forward, to look at life in a different way. Stop chasing people who hurt you and start enjoying life as from today. Don’t let resentment and anger come into your life and into your family. Hate makes you numb, because it makes you subjective and passionate, hate doesn’t produce anything. Don’t breed hatred in your life or in your heart or in those around you. Hatred makes you lose objectivity in the face of things; it’s as blind as love, but love builds while hate destroys. So, help to build the future. This can only be achieved by changing everything that is not constructive in your life. You know I have gone through many things in life, someday I’ll tell you about them, but I don’t hate anyone. Because to succeed in life isn’t to win, to succeed in life is to fall down and get up again. It’s to start again every time you fall. Let’s thank everyone who’s helped us get up again.
And don’t forget that something good is on the way! God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
