17 September 2023
Sir 27:30-28:7
Mt 18:21-35
Peter asked, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Forgiving someone seven times seems reasonable. Indeed forgiving someone seven times seems positively magnanimous, even saint-like if you will. Jesus’ reply must have startled Peter. Not seven times but seven times seventy-seven times. Jesus was not giving Peter a specific number or setting limits on forgiveness. Rather, by using hyperbole he was indicating that forgiveness must be infinite. Jesus' hyperbolic reply is analogous to something most of us heard when we were kids and swore we would never say upon becoming parents, aunts, or uncles. But we do.
“If I told you once I told you a thousand times.” Most of the time a thousand times underestimates the real number but mostly it was hyperbole for effect.
The gospel parable is chilling on two levels: The first is the servant’s callous behavior toward a fellow servant where he showed himself as man who couldn't or wouldn't forgive as he was forgiven.
The second chilling element is the punishment meted out to him when the master learned of his actions. One could ask why the master was not forgiving toward the wicked servant. It is a good question. Perhaps there are actions that are unforgivable even once.
Jesus’ message to Peter is to forgive as God forgives. He instructs Peter to forgive perfectly and without limit. Perfect and unlimited forgiveness is an ideal humans generally can’t reach except under exceptional circumstances. But, an instance of those exceptional circumstances went on international display in 2006. The painful 17th anniversary will be in a few weeks.
On October 2, 2006 Charles Roberts, IV entered the Amish one-room school house in Nickel Mines, PA. After sending all of the boys out Roberts murdered five girls between the ages of nine and thirteen. In addition he critically injured five others, one of whom was severely brain-damaged and remains mute and paralyzed. He killed himself when the police arrived.
His actions horrified the world. The actions of the Amish community horrified much of the world even more. Roberts horrified the world by the brutality of his act. The Amish horrified the world by their forgiveness.
On the day of the shooting the grandfather of one of the murdered girls told young relatives, "We must not think evil of this man.”
Another Amish man noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."
Still another Amish man held the shooter’s sobbing father in his arms for an hour as he attempted to comfort him.
Thirty members of the local Amish community attended Roberts' funeral.
Though the Amish have been described as an Old Testament people, they may or may not know the Book of Sirach which is considered canonical by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches but apocryphal in the Protestant churches.
We just heard, "The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven." This explains the behavior of a group of people that most of the world found incomprehensible. Most of us are willing to forgive. Sometimes. Under some circumstances. For a limited number of times. For some things but not all.
Jesus instructs us that forgiving seven times is not enough. By using hyperbole or exaggeration Jesus is telling us we must always forgive. We rarely meet this standard. Jesus’ instruction to not easy to understand. It is not easy to accept.
It is not easy to follow. And yet, that is what God gives us. God offers us forgiveness even more heroic than the forgiveness the Amish extended to the murderer of their children, to the man who killed and maimed their daughters.
The psalm assured us.
"The Lord is kind and merciful,
slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion."
God offers us forgiveness every time we receive the sacrament of confession.
We need only begin, “I confess to Almighty God that I have sinned . . . ”
And then we ask for pardon and forgiveness.
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The photos come from Sydney Australia on 31 July 2011, St. Ignatius Feast. Took tripod. Exposures of up to 25 seconds.
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