Today, on the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Saint Matthew recounts the parable that Jesus Christ told about the unforgiving debtor in order to teach us something about the forgiveness that God grants to us, but also expects us to show to others.
Forgiveness is at the very heart of our Christian faith. It is not only something that we receive from God, but also something that God expects us to share with others. It is something that can be excruciatingly difficult and yet it is also the test of whether our faith is genuine.
However, simply to view forgiveness as a moral command, as something that we are expected to do, is not always very helpful. If forgiveness is to be genuine and not simply hollow words, then we need to find the resources within ourselves that can enable us to forgive others.
In today’s parable Jesus Christ gives us a clue to the mystery of forgiveness by pointing to the forgiveness that we have received from God. It is only when we are able to see ourselves as sinners who have been granted God’s forgiveness that we will in turn be able to forgive others. When we contemplate our own sins, and the greatness of God’s mercy, we are able to see what others have done in a different perspective. And, as we recognize ourselves as sinners who have been forgiven, we can perhaps even eventually acquire a certain sympathy for others as we recognize them as suffering from the same passions that we too suffer from.