To forgive.

Many of you have surely heard or asked yourself the question: Will God forgive me of my sins? Or they uttered the sentence: God will not forgive me, my sins are great and terrible. In today’s Gospel, Lord Jesus talks about forgiveness, about the dependence between God’s forgiveness and human forgiveness. “So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not forgive each one of his brothers from the heart” (Mt 18, 35). Today’s Gospel begins with the apostle Peter approaching Jesus and asking him: “How many times must I forgive my brother?” Perhaps seven times” (Mt 18:21)? Peter asks this question not because he doubts that it is necessary to forgive, but he wants to know from Jesus how many times he should forgive, what is the upper limit. He probably asked this question because the rabbinical schools of the time taught that it is possible to forgive only seven times. Peter receives the answer from Jesus: “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:22). If the Jews expressed with the number seven the same thing that we express with the word many, then Peter should have known that the number seventy-seven means that there is no limit, he must and must always forgive.

But why should we always forgive? Jesus answers this question of ours and certainly also of Peter with the parable of the unmerciful servant. The parable is about a big and a small debtor. Why about the big and small borrower? The great debtor was to return ten thousand talents to his Lord. One talent was about twenty-six kilograms of silver, then ten thousand talents was two hundred and sixty tons of silver. It was a huge amount. It is certain that such a debt could not be paid by the servant in question. The small debtor owed his fellow servant a hundred denarii, which was a little more than the average of three months’ earnings. Compared to the previous debt, it could not even be considered a debt. In this case, the promise to repay the debt was indeed real. The Lord took pity on the great debtor. He released him and forgave him all his debt, although it was very great. The big debtor behaved differently towards his small debtor: “He threw him into prison until he paid the debt” (Mt 18:30). But it didn’t help him. “When the Lord found out about it, he not only revoked the forgiveness of the debt, but “handed him over to torturers until he paid the whole debt” (Mt 18:34). In conclusion, Lord Jesus points out: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive each one of his brothers from the heart” (Mt 18:35). 158 The Gospel parable is clear and impressive. We are great debtors to the Lord God, just like the servant in the parable is to his Lord. Our debt is our sins, which stem from disobedience to fulfill God’s will, to live according to God’s and church’s commandments. That is why we constantly need God’s forgiveness. Many people today are convinced that their sin is very great and God cannot forgive them. But this opinion is wrong. After all, we know from the Gospels that the Lord Jesus forgave even very serious sins. He forgave the public sinner, who committed sins of sexual immorality. He forgave the woman who was caught in adultery and wanted to stone her. He also forgave the criminal on the cross who committed robbery and murder. All these were great and grievous sins. It follows that the magnitude of the sin is not an obstacle to God’s forgiveness. That’s why we are asked, what is an obstacle to God’s forgiveness? The obstacle that prevents God from forgiving us is when we do not forgive our neighbors, when we do not forgive our small debtors. God’s mercy to us is strictly tied to our mercy to our neighbors. Whoever does not have mercy for his brother or sister will not receive God’s mercy, because sinful man has anger in him, and God does not like any anger. Since it is a very important requirement for our life, so that we do not forget it, Lord Jesus included the request in the daily Our Father prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our trespassers. As we can see, forgiving our neighbor is vital for us, significant for our salvation. That is why the Lord Jesus gave us an example of his forgiveness while he lived here on earth. He lovingly forgave those who wronged him. He experienced the most severe and greatest harm during his crucifixion. He was mocked, spat on, beaten, scourged all over, crowned with thorns, and finally nailed to a cross. Although he suffered in terrible torment, hanging on the cross he prayed for his tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This great forgiveness shines like a great light before the eyes of all people. And indeed many people throughout history have forgiven their neighbors in the light of Jesus’ example. important for our salvation. That is why the Lord Jesus gave us an example of his forgiveness while he lived here on earth. He lovingly forgave those who wronged him. He experienced the most severe and greatest harm during his crucifixion. He was mocked, spat on, beaten, scourged all over, crowned with thorns, and finally nailed to a cross. Although he suffered in terrible torment, hanging on the cross he prayed for his tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This great forgiveness shines like a great light before the eyes of all people. And indeed, many people throughout history have forgiven their neighbors in the light of Jesus’ example. important for our salvation. That is why the Lord Jesus gave us an example of his forgiveness while he lived here on earth. He lovingly forgave those who wronged him. He experienced the most severe and greatest harm during his crucifixion. He was mocked, spat on, beaten, scourged all over, crowned with thorns, and finally nailed to a cross. Although he suffered in terrible torment, hanging on the cross he prayed for his tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This great forgiveness shines like a great light before the eyes of all people. And indeed, many people throughout history have forgiven their neighbors in the light of Jesus’ example. beaten, scourged all over, crowned with thorns and finally nailed to the cross. Although he suffered in terrible torment, hanging on the cross he prayed for his tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This great forgiveness shines like a great light before the eyes of all people. And indeed many people throughout history have forgiven their neighbors in the light of Jesus’ example. beaten, scourged all over, crowned with thorns and finally nailed to the cross. Although he suffered in terrible torment, hanging on the cross he prayed for his tormentors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). This great forgiveness shines like a great light before the eyes of all people. And indeed, many people throughout history have forgiven their neighbors in the light of Jesus’ example.

Yes, only love can forgive. Jesus forgave his tormentors based on his infinite love, love for us humans. He offers this love to us too, so that we too have the strength to forgive our culprits, our little debtors. We must remove all enmity from our lives and love everyone in God, because at the end of life we ​​will be judged by love. Today, the world will not change through various global programs, but through the conversion of hearts to love. We will achieve this conversion when we draw from the inexhaustible source of God’s love, from the Eucharist. Let’s look into our heart at this moment. Do we harbor forgiveness, anger towards relatives, neighbors, superiors, towards our neighbor? If so, let us realize that it is an obstacle placed in the way of God’s mercy towards us. Let us realize that the heavenly Father will not forgive us until we forgive. therefore now at this moment, let’s decide to forgive everyone with whom we are angry, so that we can pray the Our Father prayer before Holy Communion with full sincerity: Forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive our trespassers.