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' reply is analogous to something most of us heard when we were kids andswore we would never say upon becoming parents or uncles. But we do. “If I told you once I told you a thousand times.” Sometimes a thousand underestimated 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 a man who couldn't or wouldn't forgiveas 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.
The message Jesus gave to Peter is to forgive as God forgives. Perfectly and without limit. That is an ideal humans can’t attain save for exceptional circumstances. An instance of those exceptional circumstances went on international display twenty years ago.
Charles Roberts, IV entered the Amish one-room school house in Nickel Mines, PA on October 2, 2006. After sending all of the boys out Roberts murdered five girls between the ages of nine and thirteen. He critically injured five others, one of whom was severely brain-damaged. 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 in an attempt comfort him. Thirty members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral.
The Amish may or may not know the Book of Sirach. Sirach is considered canonical by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches but apocryphal in the Protestant churches. It does not appear in the Jewish Bible. 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 that most of the world found incomprehensible.
Most of us are willing to forgive. Sometimes. Under certain circumstances. For a limited number of times. For some things. Jesus instructs us that seven times is not enough. Through the use of hyperbole Jesus is telling us we must always forgive.
It is not an easy instruction to understand.
It is not an easy instruction to accept.
It is definitely not an easy instruction 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 man who killed their daughters
and traumatized the entire community.
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 that I have sinned.”
And ask for pardon and forgiveness.
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My two alma maters met on the football field today. Penn State and Temple. No, there were no divided loyalties. The medical school was many blocks away from the main campus north on Broad Street. One friend observed about my feelings about Penn State, "You didn't go to college, you joined a cult." So true.
Fr. Jack SJ, MD
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