The Gospel for this Sunday, taken from Matthew 18:21-35, presents us with two very close characters: Jesus and Peter. As he often does, Peter wants a concrete answer before things happen. So he approaches Jesus and asks him: “If my brother sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter thought that forgiving seven times was enough. However, Jesus answers him: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” With this response, Jesus teaches us that forgiveness has no limits. Forgiving seventy times seven does not mean keeping count of how many times we should forgive, but rather understanding that forgiveness must become part of the way we live. Jesus invites us to forgive always, just as his Father does with each one of us.
Jesus highlights this teaching through the parable of a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One of them had an enormous debt and had no way to pay it. Faced with this situation, the servant kneels down and pleads: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.” When the king sees him and hears his plea, he has compassion on him. He not only completely forgives the debt, but also sets him free. God is that King who sees our poverty, our limitations and our faults, and has compassion on us. He does not look only at our debt; he looks at our hearts and offers us a new opportunity. His mercy not only wipes away our faults, but restores our freedom, peace and hope so that we can begin again.
Yet that same servant, who had been forgiven, later encounters a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount. Instead of having compassion on him, he treats him harshly and demands immediate payment. His fellow servant pleads with him using the same words: “Be patient with me, and I will pay you.” Precisely this same servant refused to have compassion on him because he had forgotten the words he himself had spoken, words that he now hears again from his companion. This man had experienced the king’s mercy, but was unable to offer that same mercy to his fellow servant. He had received forgiveness, but had not allowed that forgiveness to transform his heart.
How often does the same thing happen to us? Every day we receive God’s love, patience and mercy, yet when someone offends us, we find it difficult to forgive. We easily remember what others have done to us, but forget all the good God has done and continues to do in our lives. Sometimes we want to return the harm we have received, get even, or make the other person feel what we have felt. We think that forgiving means allowing the other person to do whatever they want, when in reality forgiveness is a decision that frees our hearts from resentment and allows us to look upon the other person with compassion.
When we speak of compassion, we speak of opening our hearts, going beyond ourselves and being able to put ourselves in the other person’s place. It is not about justifying what is wrong, but recognizing that the other person also has a story, wounds, difficulties and needs that we may not know.
The person who kneels, with tears in their eyes, acknowledging their poverty and asking for an opportunity. How many times in our lives have we encountered people who need to be listened to, understood, forgiven or simply accompanied? And yet, so often we turn our backs, withdraw into ourselves or build barriers that prevent us from drawing closer to others. Today we could ask ourselves: Who do I need to have more compassion for? Whose dignity do I need to restore?
Sr. Silvia Saquic
Province of San Martín de Porres
