UNFORGIVABLE, THAT’S WHAT I HOPE WE AREN’T
Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Can you imagine anyone being like that official in our gospel today? The king forgave him a huge debt that he owed instead of selling him off with his wife and children in payment of the debt. But instead of being grateful and doing the same toward another man who owed him a lot less money than he had owed the king, he had the man thrown into prison for not paying. To put it mildly, that was not fair play. The pardoned debtor refused to give to another man the forgiveness which he himself had received.
How often do we do the same thing?
You’ve heard the expression, “That’s unforgivable!” You’ve heard people say, “I will never forgive him for what he has done to me.” And some people don’t. Even relatives go through much of their lives, maybe even to the grave, never forgiving other relatives. Many friendships end in disaster because one refuses to forgive the other for some very insignificant word or action.
Let us never forget this. Jesus is that king in our story. He forgives us all our crimes, all our stupidities, all our sins. And he forgives us over, and over, and over, no matter how many times we do the same thing.
God’s forgiveness is unlimited. “How often must I forgive someone,” Peter asked Jesus. “Seven times?” “No,” Jesus replied, “not just once, not just seven times, but seventy times seven times.”
We are to do likewise. For we are to be like Jesus Christ.
