Forgive from the Heart

 There is something very human about keeping records of what people have done to us. Someone says something hurtful, and we remember it. Someone disappoints us, and we keep the incident in our minds. Sometimes we even remember the exact date, the words that were spoken, and who was present.

Peter comes to Jesus today with a question that many of us might ask: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter probably thought he was being generous. Seven times is a lot! But Jesus responds: “Not seven times but seventy-seven times.”

Jesus is not asking us to count how many times we have forgiven someone. He is teaching us that forgiveness is not supposed to have a limit.

The reason becomes clear in the parable. A servant owes his master an enormous debt. He cannot possibly repay it. The master has compassion and forgives the entire debt. But that same servant goes out and finds someone who owes him a much smaller amount. Instead of showing the mercy he himself received, he grabs the man and demands payment. The tragedy is that he received mercy but refused to give mercy.

And this is where the Gospel becomes very practical for us.

We are all people who have received mercy. Before we think about the people who have hurt us, Jesus wants us to remember how much God has forgiven us.

Every time we come to confession, every time we pray, “Lord, have mercy,” every time we ask God to forgive our failures, we acknowledge that we too are debtors before God.

How can I continuously ask God to forgive me while refusing to forgive another person?

Sometimes we want God’s mercy for ourselves and God’s justice for everyone else.

We say, “Lord, please understand my weakness,” but when another person makes a mistake, we say, “How could he or she do such a thing?”

The Gospel challenges us to become people who receive mercy and then become instruments of mercy. Forgiveness does not mean pretending that nothing happened. Forgiveness means that I refuse to allow the wrong that was done to me to control the rest of my life. Forgiveness is not primarily a gift we give to the offender. It is also a gift we give ourselves. Lord, teach us to forgive as you have forgiven us.