The Gospel for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity is from Matthew 18:21-35. This passage consists of two sections on forgiveness. In the first brief part (18:21-22), St. Peter wants to know the limits of his responsibility to forgive. According to one Jewish tradition, forgiving someone three times was sufficient. So when Peter suggests that forgiving seven times might be enough, he is being generous. Jesus, however, tells Peter that it should be "seventy times seven." Of course, keeping a mental count of 490 incidents would be impractical and unlikely. Thus, in other words, our Lord is telling Peter and us that we are not to keep count of how often we forgive. We should be gracious as God is gracious.
The second part of today's Gospel (St. Matthew 18:23-35) has been called the parable of the unjust or unmerciful servant. In this parable, a servant owes his king an enormous debt, a billionaire's debt. He and his family are about to be sold into slavery. The man begs for an extended payment plan, and the king writes off the whole debt. Rather than being humble, grateful, and kind, the servant goes out and ruthlessly tries to get every penny from a fellow servant who owes him a comparatively minuscule debt. When the king hears of this lack of mercy, he revokes his previous decision and punishes the unjust servant to the full extent of the law. Then our Lord adds the key conclusion in Matthew 18:35, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also to you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every man his brother their trespasses."All the debts that we human beings owe each other are minuscule in comparison to what we owe our heavenly King. We can never repay God for what He has given us and forgiven us. Our trespasses are enormous offences against divine goodness, and we are completely dependent upon divine mercy. So we too must show mercy by forgiving others. As we pray repeatedly, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
