Thursday of 19th Week, Ordinary Time, August 17, 2006

Scripture: Ezekiel 12:1-12. Psalm 78. Matthew 18:21-19:1

God's merciful forgiveness is superabundant and Jesus, the Son of God, is the person who manifests that gift of forgiveness in today's Gospel. He is teaching Peter, the one apostle featured in Matthew, a lesson in forgiveness. He uses reality therapy with him--direct address and then a parable to help him grasp what is being said about forgiveness. Parables are like commercials. They are there to help us make a choice--a good choice! Jesus' parable is so descriptive that even Peter is able to understand what forgiveness is all about. That gives us a great chance of doing equally well as the apostle who would be put in charge of the Christian community at its inception. Our forgiveness of one another models that of Jesus and the Fatther. When we do not forgive we are like the unworthy servant who had been forgiven an awful lot and then refuses to forgive his fellow debtors.

At the beginning of today's Gospel Jesus hammers home the point of forgiveness by saying if someone offends us we are to forgive up to 77 times or seventy times seven according to some. "The number seven means completeness, so that there can be no limit to forgiveness." In other words, we are to always forgive and I might add, it is healthy to forgive and forget. Unfortunately, most of us are proud and stubborn on this point when we are offended, hurt, or made fun of. We hold on to this and keep it as power over the one who has offended us. Not to forgive is sinful and a sign that we have some work to do in our spiritual life. We have some disordered behavior to correct in order to be integrated persons.

With further reflection on this passage I noticed that this incident and parable fit into the great prayer that Jesus taught us, the Lord's Prayer. I saw an echo of this prayer in the ending which goes like this, "So will my Heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother (and sister) from his (her) heart." ( Matthew 18:35).