Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Intention: For all who live in fear of violence, exploitation or abandonment, that people’s commitment to peace and justice will grow and help to end their suffering.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”
A Lenten Reflection
There is a story from the writings of the Desert Fathers in which a group of monks come to their elder with a question: “Tell us, when we see brothers dozing during the sacred office, should we pinch them so they will stay awake?” The old man said to them, “Actually, if I saw a brother sleeping, I would put his head on my knees and let him rest.”
Many of us struggle with the challenge of living nonjudgmentally. Like the monks in the Desert Father’s story, we search for ways to justify controlling others. Like Peter in Matthew’s Gospel, we search for ways to appoint ourselves arbiters of God’s justice. However, Jesus calls us to a spirit of humility, in which we see others’ transgressions as reminders of our own imperfections and of our shared need to bring ourselves closer to one another and to God. That is the importance and the power of forgiveness. It works to heal not only the forgiven but also the forgiver, allowing both to move forward by freeing us from the need to hold our hurts and mistakes so tightly that they come to define us. Forgiveness reminds us of who we are and of our realities.
Author Paul Boese has suggested, “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” Forgiveness builds community, and community reveals God’s kingdom. Lent is a good time to renew in ourselves the conviction that our light can always overcome our darkness. To both seek and accept reconciliation is to embrace the truth that, when it comes to our need for redemption and another chance to be at our best, God’s final word is never no, and ours cannot be, either.
Prayer
Eternal Father, Jesus called us to always treat others as we wish to be treated. Lead us to those that we have hurt or have hurt us. Deliver us all from hatred, cruelty, and revenge, and enable us to forgive and be forgiven, and to live reconciled to one another and to you. Grant that we will be persons of strength and courage who stand for truth and integrity, especially when it would be easier for us to walk away. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.