Jesus’ parable teaches us about mercy — about what mercy looks like and how we are to give it to others. Recall the time when you were a child and you acted badly — most likely toward a brother or sister or other relative. Recall that moment when you knew you “were in big trouble” and had to go to your parent for confession and mercy. Recall that feeling in your stomach, or your head, and your heart. Jesus tells Peter what mercy looks like: If your brother sins against you, forgive him not seven times but seventy-seven times. There is discussion in the Babylonian Talmud — one of the sources of Jewish law and teachings — that forgiveness must be unconditionally given three times — so we should understand seventy-seven as an indefinitely large number. In other words — forgive your brother again and again, always and forever.
We believe that God is merciful, and will show mercy to us. But this tells us that it isn’t for nothing that he grants mercy. We, too, must be merciful to receive mercy. Again, we must forgive those who trespass against us always, as many times as needed. This message so important that it is in the prayer we pray most often — at every Mass, at every service: when we gather together with other Catholics, when we gather together with other Christians, and even when we gather with those who are not Christian but who know this prayer — because it is The Lord’s Prayer. We ask God to “forgive us our trespassers as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Why must this be? There are those who have greatly wronged others — the coworker who lies and gets you fired; the banker who refuses to give you relief on your debts; the sister who keeps you from seeing your parent; the criminal who assaults your child or husband. Must you forgive them? This is America! I have rights — the right to sue, to accuse, to demand, to fight, to pursue Justice.
I won’t tell you that that is not so. There are times when you do need to defend yourself in the courts on earth against those who have harmed you. But even when you need to take those steps, you still need to forgive the person or persons who trespassed against you.
Why?
Because Jesus forgives. Because failing to do so injures your own heart and keeps you from your connection to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is a block, a stone, a pebble, a shard, a nugget of pain and resentment and anger. Or, as Pope Francis calls it, “a bothersome fly in the summer that keeps coming back” It keeps you from fully taking in the Word of God, the lessons of Christ, and the works of the Holy Spirit that are active, alive and giving us grace and mercy every day.
--Marcy St. John,
OLMC Communion Service,
March 5, 2024
OLMC Communion Service,
March 5, 2024
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