Anger. It is not a sign of Christianity but forgiveness.

Forgiveness. Who among us would not encounter the content of this word? Not only in prayer but in personal life. Forgive! Sorry! Forget! The Pope forgave his assassin Ali Akcha after the assassination on 13.5. 1981. To Peter: “How many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me?” Perhaps seven times?” Jesus answers him: “I tell you: Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:21). In one sentence, we should always forgive without any conditions.

In the parable, Jesus wants to raise a serious challenge, a souvenir. Who among us can be so hard on his little debtor brother that he would not forgive him when God forgives us so much? God forgave the debtor ten thousand talents, and the debtor did not forgive his debtor a hundred denarius. God is inherently good, infinitely good; always, while we live, forgive us. This means that we will behave adequately toward his forgiveness. As we find forgiveness from God, we must also forgive our brothers. We must not be “heartless” people. The parable’s conclusion should not escape any of us: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive each of his brothers from the heart” (Mt 18:35).

Jesus puts in the Lord’s Prayer: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive our trespassers” (Mt 6:12). The parable is God’s current motivation for all people until the end of the world. In the Old Testament, in the Book of the Son of Sirach (27, 33-28,9), it is clearly stated that insults, anger, revenge, or hatred do not belong in our hearts. Our forgiveness is a blessing to us. The wound heals after the ulcer, but what anger causes is…

In Small Stories, Mikuláš Chaytor writes in the story Two Necrologies: Two men died in neighboring houses on one day. In one, a retired officer, and in the other, a landlord already retired. They were relatives; they lived side by side for years, but for twenty-four years, they were angry, living in sin, judging each other – and what was the cause? Six square meters of land. Commissions, hearings, and courts sometimes found one person right, sometimes the other. When the last court found the officer in the right, the owner became so angry that he lost his appetite, fell ill, and died three days later. The news of the death of a relative and neighbor so controlled the soldier that instead of going and at least asking others for the forgiveness of the dead body, in the sinful joy that God is on his side and has punished his enemy with death, he falls to the ground and dies in sin. Both passed with evil in their hearts. Allegedly, shortly before, they begged theirs to continue and bring the dispute to an end in their favor. Chaytor ends the story with a note: Someone told me yesterday, I want to believe that it is a hoax, that the sons of the two deceased have decided to continue in their father’s footsteps. It means a new battle for six square meters, new insults, and new sacrifices on the altar of sin. It is no wonder that great people know how to forgive.