In today’s gospel, we see a servant who owes the king a huge amount of money, somewhere around one billion dollars in today’s money. He begs the king to forgive him this debt and the king is moved with pity and does forgive his servant. Then later this servant meets up with a man who owes him about one thousand dollars and refuses to forgive him this debt, and has him put in prison until he pays it all back. So how selfish and unloving is that? Our God has already forgiven us our sins, which is a debt we could not possibly repay, but this forgiveness will be taken away from us at the final judgment if we are found to not have forgiven those who sinned against us. Granted, some people are harder to forgive than others and you will need lots of patience toward those who keep offending you. But remember that God does not overlook your kindness and patience toward others and you will be rewarded on the last day. Don’t expect forgiveness from God if you refuse to show kindness and love towards others.

The first reading today is from the book of Sirach which says wrath and anger are hateful sins. Jesus tells Saint Peter to forgive your neighbor not 7 times but 77 times, which shows us how important forgiveness is. The commandments also instruct us to not hate our neighbors but show love and kindness toward them. Today’s responsorial psalm is Psalm 103 which reads, “the Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in compassion”. Let us strive to follow these teachings so that we may become better followers of Jesus Christ and be more pleasing to our God.

Thanks be to God

Lloyd Lapierre