The chilling conclusion to the parable we have just heard does not lessen the joy I feel when Our Lord teaches about forgiveness. When we seek forgiveness we begin to deliver ourselves from guilt, when we forgive we begin to deliver ourselves from the desire for revenge and from feelings of resentment. I say “begin” because we so often discover that the business of forgiving, granting forgiveness, receiving forgiveness, can be a much longer process than expected. Although we are made in the image of God, that divine action of forgiving is a difficult one for us who are so slow in learning to love rightly. We need the encouragement of the Paraclete, because it is a nasty shock to be pulled up short by negative feelings where we had thought that all was done and dusted. The toxic infection of our poor weakened human nature needs the ministry of our divine physician. What is important is our will to forgive: this willing is the indication that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, the Holy Spirit who is sent among us precisely for the forgiveness of sins.
A feature of the parable is the absence of any proportion in the two debts: the first a king’s ransom, the other three months wages of a labourer. The point is that our indebtedness to God is beyond our comprehension, yet all that he asks in return is our love. We express that love in prayer and praise, in forgiving and in seeking forgiveness. Our gratitude to God for our creation and our redemption keeps us from the ingratitude and pride of the wicked and unforgiving servant. Gratitude, the song of the heart, the companion of joy and peace, helps us to receive God’s gifts, which are so much greater than we can cope with, yet the greatest of them is new every morning. It is so right that we should pledge ourselves to forgive so soon before our Communion, before we receive our Master who prayed: ”Father forgive them.” Today, as every Sunday, we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is of first importance. He died for our sins, shedding his blood so that sins might be forgiven, he rose for our justification. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. This is the Good News, this is our joy. By the Cup of Blessing which we share and by the gift of the Holy Spirit we, too are enabled, all but compelled, to forgive. (We are invited, not compelled, to follow our Leader to Life.) Our joy is to forgive: that is how we strive most effectively to build up our community, to strength the bonds of our family life. This is how we die, little by little, to self, and how we glorify God.