All of us make mistakes in life. The longer we live the more mistakes we accumulate. Many are minor, some are serious, and some require an act of will on the part of another person to free us from the burden of guilt and responsibility, we term this "forgiveness". The act of forgiveness is a profound act of love and mercy; forgiveness and love are glimmers of the face of God that we can find in our hearts and souls.

Perhaps this is why forgiveness has a fundamental attraction to us, something we like to see, and in particular experience in our lives. We will all have had the experience in the sacrament of confession, of those times when we have been forgiven when we feel like a drowning person breaking the surface and taking a gulp of beautiful clean air.

Forgiveness is beautiful, it is something we instinctively desire, something that we know we need, something of the face and tenderness of God.

The paradox is that despite this being so, though we like to receive it, there are times when we are more reluctant to offer it. The devil tempts us to hold onto hurt, real or imagined. We are somehow more comfortable in the pain of hurt rather than in the warm glow of forgiveness.

Somehow for most of us forgiveness has limits, not for ourselves of course, but for the other person. This is reflected in Peter’s question to Jesus in Sunday's gospel about how many times to forgive. Peter thinks he is being generous, as some Rabbinic teaching suggested 3 times rather than Peter’s offer of 7. Jesus’ response is meant not to give a specific number of 70x7, but to be an exaggeration of the standard of perfection as 7 was considered to be a perfect even a holy number; God created the world in 7 days, there are 7 major feasts in Judaism, among other things. In essence Jesus is saying forgiveness is unlimited.

As he so often does in the gospel Jesus uses extravagant language and vivid imagery in the parable that follows to engage us and to make his point. In ancient times kings and emperors would look at how much was coming in in taxes and revenues. The 10,000 talents in Sunday's gospel, based on the UK's average annual salary of roughly £35,000, would be worth a staggering £7 billion. The official had obviously fallen way short of the king’s tax and revenue assessment and asks for more time to bring the money in, which was not unknown at the time. The king does not only grant the request for extension but wipes the slate clean.

In contrast one denarius was the equivalent of a days wage for a labourer. The 100 denarii owed by the other King's servant was 100 days labour. In cash terms from £50 to £110. The first servant is absolved from billions whilst cruelly extracting the small debt from the second servant.

In a sense the numbers are not important, the scale of the generosity of the king and the contrasting vindictiveness of the bad servant in ruthlessly exploiting the other is the point being made.

Who are you more likely to be in this story, I suspect at times everyone. Sometimes we are the generous king, sometimes the wicked servant, when we gratefully absorb the gift of the forgiveness of God or the other person, but keep it locked inside ourselves. Sometimes we are the terrified second servant seized by the throat for fear of our lives, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Where are you with your capacity to forgive? Remember that every time we pray the Our Father we directly invite God to forgive us as we forgive others. Do we really mean this when we say it? It’s something that somehow trips off the tongue but its implications for each and every one of us is enormous.

Remember, forgiveness is part of the “God-ness” in us. It is planted in us at our baptism when the first sin, original sin, is literally washed away. Forgiveness is about offering new beginning a beginning that, along with love, God willing, ends in eternal life. 

As always, please accept an assurance of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions.

God bless and keep you.

Fr Chris