In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
I think from about the earliest times that I
can recall, when I heard this parable of our
Lord, my initial thought and reaction was pretty
much the same as it was when I read it this week.
And that is that... My first impulse on hearing
this parable is, oh, it's a story about generosity
and liberality. Because the one servant owed,
I looked it up once, I didn't even bother this
week. It's an incredibly different amount of
money, like $100 million compared to $10. I mean,
it's something as vast as that. And the $100
million debt, so to speak, was readily forgiven.
I thought, well, you know, that's a good lesson
for us in being generous and not stingy. But
then it comes to the very end of the parable
where our Lord tells us what the real meaning
is. So will your Heavenly Father do to you if
you do not forgive your brother from your heart.
So this is what's called... This is the literary
device that the evangelists so often have. They
tell a story or a parable, and then it comes
to a conclusion, the last verse, with Jesus explaining
it to us, as if, you know, we don't get the message
from the story itself. So it's one of forgiveness.
And our Lord so often, as we're all aware, speaks
about the importance of forgiveness. And this,
I think, has to be seen in the background of
that concept of forgiveness was very indistinct
in the Old Testament period. There was that attitude,
well, you know, love your friends, but your enemies,
those who dislike you, you know, you can... think
ill of them or say bad things, curse them, whatever
it might be. But our Lord over and over and over
again tells us to love our enemies, to forgive
others. And the particular aspect of our Lord's
request, indeed it's a command that we forgive
others. The phrase that's used in the final verse,
the pronouncement here, so my heavenly father
will do to you. Notice he doesn't say if you
don't forgive your brother, but if you don't
forgive your brother, what's that phrase? From
your heart. From your heart. That's probably
the hardest thing to do. There are different
levels of forgiveness. Of course, the one which
isn't forgiveness is just be right out and say,
no, I don't forgive you for that, and then just
walk away. Well, that obviously isn't forgiveness.
And another level is you could clench your teeth
and say, yeah, I forgive you. And, you know,
the words mean it, but the mind and the thoughts
don't mean it. And sometimes that's depending.
We all probably have done that. We say, well,
I'm going to say it even though I really don't
mean it from my heart. Then the next level would
be, I wish my mind would forgive as readily as
my words do. That's when it becomes more difficult.
It's not just with the words, but with our intentions,
our thoughts. to forgive others that i think
is the most difficult thing and i would say there's
even a further level beyond that and that's not
to hold grudges and more specifically not to
have preconceived notions so so often if someone
harms us and i think we're more we can more readily
forgive people who harm us than people who harm
our spouse or our children or our parents. I
think that's harder for us to do. But regardless
of who did what to whom, the notion of forgiveness
is there, clear cut. And not to do this grudgingly,
but to mean it as much as we can. And then also
not... I'd say not to hold preconceived notions
because if somebody can harm you and you say,
okay, I forgive them, but I still remember. I
can't get that out of my mind. I still remember.
We have to work on that and get rid of that.
I'll give you an example. Rather recently in
my own life, I heard about a longtime friend
who was having a celebration. And I thought,
eh, you know, he's not interested in me anymore.
So I'm not going to, you know, say anything.
I thought, eh, that's not the right attitude.
So I sent off a congratulatory email. to this
person. And I meant my words, but they weren't
wholeheartedly. You know what I mean? There's
a difference. And then our Lord taught me a lesson
because I received an email in return which was
very gracious and very cordial. And I thought,
boy, even at this stage in my life, I've got
a way to go. to follow our Lord's commandments
as unreservedly as possible. And not to hold
grudges or not even to have a peek in our hearts
about someone. And then even trying not to think
good things about other people as well. Instead
of have that image, you know, that person is
a loser. a knucklehead. I'll be nice to him,
but I don't like him. We have to try and erase
these kinds of thoughts from our mind. It's not
easy. Hey, I've been trying for 78 years, and
I still have a way to go. But that's what our
Lord wants when he asks us. Don't just forgive,
but forgive from your hearts. Amen.