The Conditional Forgiveness Of God Series

Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost

Extraordinary Form

“So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive–every one of you–forgive your brother from the heart.” From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.

There are very few of Christ’s teachings that I would consider to be terrifying. We are encouraged by so many of His words: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” “I am the Way and the Truth and the Light.” “Little girl, I say to you, rise up.” And, over and over again, He told us “Do not fear.” But this warning seems dark. We are promised an eternal dungeon if we do not forgive. As Fr. Ronald Knox said it: “Nothing is more certain about our Lord’s teaching than that God’s pardon is conditional on ours; the unmerciful servant forfeits, by one act, his sentence of reprieve.”

Let’s consider this Gospel, and the Epistle reading, from a different perspective. After all, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and it will always help us to cut through our own confusion to envision the Father’s will. Let’s look at it from the point of view of the person we fail to forgive. That’s something we can probably all get.

Original sin left human beings morally weak and stupid. Now our baptism into the death and resurrection of Our Lord has given us grace, the very life of Christ. That makes us heaven-capable. But the wounded human self is not magically changed into the perfect human being. No, the baptized are still morally weak and stupid, and we still sin, but the sacraments give us a means to be forgiven. Confession with true repentance and a resolve to amend our behavior can wipe away even the most horrendous mortal sin. Our participation in Holy Communion removes all venial sin. And both strengthen us for the combat with sin and Satan.

Think of a time when someone close to you did something that provoked you into a confrontation. You used harsh words or even cut off communication for a time. Then you felt the pain of loss and longed to be forgiven. You sent flowers; you wrote an e-mail; maybe you even tried snail mail. Silence. You had damaged the relationship and thought it might never be healed. Eventually your friend forgave you, and you were grateful. But what if that didn’t happen. Maybe the other person died and you never had a chance for reconciliation. What a hole in your heart opens up. When a breach cannot be repaired, the damage is literally eternal. Your status, your wealth, your other relationships don’t matter. Fr. Knox is right: “forgiveness is not something which can be bought; those to whom it is offered are bankrupts.” We cannot demand it from our human friends, for they are the ones who have been wronged. But we can implore forgiveness from our divine Friend, because Christ has already given His all, His very life, to restore that relationship. He will not withhold forgiveness when we are truly sorry.

Unless. Unless. Unless we are the unforgiving servant. Look at this guy. The Greek text says he owed his lord myrion talanton. We translate that “ten thousand talents” but the word myrion is the word used for “countless.” One commentator says it’s like you alone owed somebody the entire $21.5 trillion debt of the United States. It’s a sum that literally can’t be paid back. So the common protocol in such a situation was to sell the debtor and all his family into slavery. But this pathetic guy begs the master to give him more time and he would repay everything. The master was moved in the depths of his soul by the pathetic request. Unpredictably, He wrote off the whole amount just because He was asked.

There’s a line missing here on purpose. You have to think: if you owed somebody even $500 and the debt was written off what might you do? This jerk didn’t even thank the master for his generosity and compassion. Not a word. His response was to realize just how broke he was. Maybe he wanted to throw a party to celebrate and needed money for it. So he goes out and finds somebody who owes him what in today’s money would be about $183. The poor fellow servant doesn’t have the money, so he asks for more time in exactly the same language the jerk used with his master. This merciless fool won’t hear of it. He had the other servant thrown into debtor’s prison until the man’s friends would scrape up the repayment. But his friends immediately ran to the master with the tale.