WEBVTT 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:06.540 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:11.939 of the Holy Spirit. Today, our Lord and Savior 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:17.379 speaks to us through a parable. The story that 00:00:17.379 --> 00:00:22.539 he tells us serves as the answer in the form 00:00:22.539 --> 00:00:25.739 of a parable to the question of Apostle Peter, 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:30.339 not included in the reading today. If my brother 00:00:30.339 --> 00:00:34.039 sins against me, asks the apostle, how often 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:38.020 should I forgive? Seven times. The Lord responds, 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.039 not seven, but seventy times seven, meaning not 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:46.579 exactly that number, but meaning an incalculable 00:00:46.579 --> 00:00:50.500 number. The parable that the Lord tells after 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:54.600 this conversation is rather, on the one hand, 00:00:54.780 --> 00:01:00.020 is rather uncomplicated. It seems to be, an expression 00:01:00.020 --> 00:01:05.379 of the ancient saying, of the ancient golden 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:09.060 rule of the moral law, do unto others what is 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:13.000 done unto you, what you wish to be done unto 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.359 you. A king wanted his servant to repay his humongous 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:22.060 debt, but in response to his begging for mercy, 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:25.620 forgave him his debt. A man who was forgiven 00:01:25.620 --> 00:01:28.599 then pursued his fellow servant and required 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:34.260 his much lesser debt from that last person. He 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:37.480 was found out and punished for the lack of mercy. 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:42.500 In the parable, the Lord seeks to relate to us 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:45.959 the meaning of the kingdom. That's how the parable 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:50.060 begins. The kingdom of heaven is like this king. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:56.640 Thus, the meaning of salvation, and he speaks 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.719 about debt and forgiveness. The reality of debt, 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:05.640 of being in debt, is, of course, very much familiar 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:10.099 to us in our daily struggles. In our daily lives, 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.800 we often live in debt. We owe money to institutions 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.900 for anything, for our school or for other things. 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:23.759 And for us, being an independent person is to 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:27.879 be debt -free, not owing anyone anything, something 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:31.159 that we accomplish through our own efforts. We 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:34.020 have reached that goal. We have achieved it. 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.020 We are proud of it, that we don't owe anyone 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:41.939 anything. But if we look deeper into reality 00:02:41.939 --> 00:02:45.400 of our life, we see that it's not quite true. 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:50.189 We owe a debt of gratitude. in thanksgiving to 00:02:50.189 --> 00:02:55.090 so many people among many people our parents 00:02:55.090 --> 00:02:58.250 our teachers our colleagues our friends without 00:02:58.250 --> 00:03:01.909 whom we wouldn't be who we are we would not have 00:03:01.909 --> 00:03:05.789 come into existence as human beings or as the 00:03:05.789 --> 00:03:11.669 persons we are many of us have come into orthodoxy 00:03:11.669 --> 00:03:15.169 through through discovering this great truth 00:03:15.169 --> 00:03:20.250 about the meaning of concerning God, concerning 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:24.169 ourselves. And we stand here in gratitude and 00:03:24.169 --> 00:03:27.169 thanksgiving for being Orthodox, that we are 00:03:27.169 --> 00:03:30.530 now in the Orthodox Church. But we owe a debt 00:03:30.530 --> 00:03:33.810 of gratitude to those of our ancestors who were 00:03:33.810 --> 00:03:38.770 not Orthodox, thanks to whom we have reached 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:44.310 this point, we have come to this place. In a 00:03:44.310 --> 00:03:47.490 more profound sense, we are the creatures of 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:51.930 God, all of us whom God called from non -existence 00:03:51.930 --> 00:03:55.289 into being. And it is to God, the author of life, 00:03:55.409 --> 00:03:58.310 the maker of heaven and earth, that we owe our 00:03:58.310 --> 00:04:01.169 existence, the debt that we can never repay. 00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:04.870 We read in the Psalms, the heavens are thine, 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:08.469 the earth also is thine. All that exists, visible 00:04:08.469 --> 00:04:11.870 and invisible, is already in the dominion of 00:04:11.870 --> 00:04:15.990 God. All that is already belongs to God in our 00:04:15.990 --> 00:04:19.290 very life. And thus in the divine liturgy, when 00:04:19.290 --> 00:04:22.430 the deacon elevates the gifts above the holy 00:04:22.430 --> 00:04:27.470 table, the priest prays on behalf of us all that 00:04:27.470 --> 00:04:32.029 thy known of thy known we offer unto God. That 00:04:32.029 --> 00:04:37.050 is, we offer God what he already has in his possession, 00:04:37.449 --> 00:04:42.350 created gifts out of his own creation. But why 00:04:42.350 --> 00:04:47.329 then we offer it if he already has it? God speaks 00:04:47.329 --> 00:04:50.410 in the Psalms to the prophet, offer to God a 00:04:50.410 --> 00:04:53.970 sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:57.149 the Most High. We cannot repay God for everything 00:04:57.149 --> 00:05:00.319 that he has done for us. We humble creatures 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:03.759 cannot repay God, our Creator, with an appropriate 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.800 sacrifice, for we owe Him everything. What He 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:12.639 requires of us is our heart, our spirit, our 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.720 broken spirit, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, 00:05:15.899 --> 00:05:21.480 praise, glorification, and repentance. God speaks 00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:24.420 through Isaiah, Wash yourselves, make yourselves 00:05:24.420 --> 00:05:27.519 clean, remove the evil of your doings from before 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:30.750 mine eyes. For there is another debt that we 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:34.490 owe, the weight that lies heavily on us as human 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:37.889 race, our debts, our transgressions and sins 00:05:37.889 --> 00:05:40.870 that we commit before God and before one another, 00:05:41.069 --> 00:05:44.370 the corruption of the human nature by death and 00:05:44.370 --> 00:05:48.209 sin that alienates us from God, that enslaved 00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:51.589 our existence to the vicious cycle of seeking 00:05:51.589 --> 00:05:55.550 futile pleasures. living the life alien to God 00:05:55.550 --> 00:05:59.810 and to each other, ending in death. Throughout 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:03.569 its history, human beings were extremely inventive 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:07.490 in manifold ways to oppress one another, to enslave 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:11.149 one another, to hate one another, and to turn 00:06:11.149 --> 00:06:14.689 the reason given to us by our Creator into the 00:06:14.689 --> 00:06:19.779 instrument of hatred. countries and nations went 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:23.240 to war against each other and still do and pass 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.800 on to the alienation and prejudice to the subsequent 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:30.160 generations. And it is only the mercy of God 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:34.540 that human race has not obliterated itself from 00:06:34.540 --> 00:06:37.970 the face of the earth. In our own individual 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:40.930 lives, we hold grudges, we remember offenses, 00:06:41.209 --> 00:06:45.269 and it is so hard for us to let go of the memory 00:06:45.269 --> 00:06:49.930 of someone slighting us, hurting us. In our own 00:06:49.930 --> 00:06:53.589 weakness and sinfulness, we perpetuate in our 00:06:53.589 --> 00:06:56.290 souls the fruit of another person's offense. 00:06:56.670 --> 00:07:01.209 It is easy to say that we have to forgive, but 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:07.100 it is sometimes so hard to forgive. of the lord 00:07:07.100 --> 00:07:10.720 is clear in the prayer that he gives his disciples 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.800 so to us too in the lord's prayer we say the 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:19.120 petition every day forgive us our debts as we 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.740 forgive our debtors we are called to forgive 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:26.600 for how can we ask forgiveness of god if we do 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:31.040 not try to forgive how can we say lord have mercy 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:36.459 if our hearts are not merciful In the parable 00:07:36.459 --> 00:07:40.139 that we read today, we see our Lord further expanding 00:07:40.139 --> 00:07:43.800 to us his commandment. We are called to forgive 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:48.459 one another, for we were forgiven first. That's 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.860 how the parable is structured. King forgives 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:57.959 an enormous debt to this person. He forgives 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.699 that debt. And then the person who leaves the 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:06.199 presence of the king does not forgive his much 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:11.399 lesser debt. And so this, of course, shows that 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.899 we are called to forgive, for God forgave us 00:08:14.899 --> 00:08:20.040 first. The debt of sin and transgression, the 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:22.959 slavery to the devil and corruption, was lifted 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:27.069 and repaid, and we were set free. For Christ, 00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:30.329 the Word, the Light, the Power of God, the Immortal 00:08:30.329 --> 00:08:33.629 Son of God, came to dwell among us as the one 00:08:33.629 --> 00:08:37.669 mediator between God and mankind and gave himself 00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:41.669 as a ransom for all people. Through our Lord 00:08:41.669 --> 00:08:46.149 Jesus and in him, God reconciled to himself all 00:08:46.149 --> 00:08:49.529 things, making peace through the blood of his 00:08:49.529 --> 00:08:53.190 cross, where Christ has offered himself as the 00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:58.100 perfect sacrifice for our salvation. Of this 00:08:58.100 --> 00:09:02.159 sacrifice, the fruit of thanksgiving and praise, 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:06.879 of this sacrifice we partake when we gather as 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:09.559 a church for the Eucharist, the thanksgiving, 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:14.120 and the liturgy that we offer to him who has 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:17.740 already all things and who gave us everything 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:21.840 needed for our salvation. He showed his love 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:26.320 for us by dying for us sinners to grant us reconciliation, 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:32.279 freedom, salvation, and forgiveness. If we are 00:09:32.279 --> 00:09:35.279 truly the disciples of Christ, we are called 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:38.879 to forgive one another, for we were forgiven 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:43.759 once and for all. If it is hard for us to forgive, 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.360 we call upon God through his power, for his mercy, 00:09:48.460 --> 00:09:52.500 for his grace, to give us an ability to forgive, 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:57.039 to enable us to forgive. For we cannot do this 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.379 with our own strength. But we are called to forgive, 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:05.940 not once, not seven times. but to live our life 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:10.139 in repentance and forgiveness and humility, remembering 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:13.299 the great debt that our race has owed to our 00:10:13.299 --> 00:10:16.759 Creator and the immeasurable mercy and forgiveness 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.159 that flowed from the tomb of Christ who rose 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:23.659 from the dead. It may be beyond our capacity 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.620 to stop all hatred and violence in the world. 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:30.259 It is likely that it will never stop until the 00:10:30.259 --> 00:10:33.889 world will end. But we begin with ourselves. 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:37.590 As Saint Seraphim of Sarov has famously said, 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:41.490 acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around 00:10:41.490 --> 00:10:45.730 you will be saved. Let us take care of our own 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:50.350 spiritual house, our hearts, our souls. Let us 00:10:50.350 --> 00:10:54.250 forgive one another, pray for one another, offer 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:58.149 our praise and thanks unto God, for we were the 00:10:58.149 --> 00:11:02.950 lost sheep. And Christ, our shepherd, came, forgave 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:06.269 us, and opened to us his kingdom. Amen.