The need to experience forgiveness (Mt 18:21-35)
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
When people (especially the young) ask me, why we Catholics have to go to a priest for confession, and why can’t we confess our sins directly to God, I try to offer them several reasons as to why I myself go for confession. One of the more meaningful answers that I give is: I want to hear through a human voice that God has forgiven me. This reason is consistent with the theology of sacraments – visible signs of internal grace.
When I was making the 30-day Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, one of the high points during that retreat was the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation. After the first eight days of silence and prayer, memories of hurt and guilt were becoming ‘distractions’ in prayer. I wanted to make a comprehensive confession and unburden myself. When I was having the plan to do so, I heard the Director speak about preparing for confession. Interestingly enough, St Ignatius has wisely timed it: the confession comes after the first week of the Spiritual Exercises. After the celebration, I felt forgiven. I experienced forgiveness of God, which drew me even more close to Him.
Some time back I was having a conversation with a psychotherapist about psychology of forgiveness (currently there is plenty of ‘scientific’ research being carried out on this topic). I am not too sure if the therapist is a believer, surely he is not a Catholic. In the course of the conversation he said, “Forgiveness is like love. Often people who are not able to forgive are people who have not experienced forgiveness.”
The story of unforgiving servant in its context
In the gospel reading of last Sunday, Jesus focussed on how to solve our disagreements through dialogue, and when dialogue failed then to have recourse to legal justice (Mt 18:15-20). Today’s gospel text is a continuation of that text, and on a theme closely related it. Jesus invites us to forgive the person who wrongs us, all the time (Mt 18:21-22). He invites us to go beyond legal justice. The parable that follows tells us that we may not be ready to forgive all the time, if we ourselves have not experienced forgiveness. Jesus expounds how forgiveness works in the Kingdom of God.
Let us pay attention to some details in the parable of the so-called ‘Unforgiving Servant’ (Mt 18:23-35).
The servant in question owed his king an unfathomable amount of money. Some calculations estimate the amount of ‘ten thousand talents’ to be amounting to 10,000 years of work, if a talent is one’s wage for the whole year! The king knew that “the servant had no means of paying” this amount (v.25). So selling the servant and his family as slaves would at least partly recover the debt. This was justified legally. The promise of the servant, “Be patient with me and I will pay the whole sum” (v.26) is simply an attempt to distract the king. It is a stupid statement. When some people are cornered, they speak nonsense. It is important to note that the servant never asks for forgiveness or the cancellation of the debt. Probably he is too proud to do that. The king, simply out of his magnanimity, lets him go. He was moved with compassion and he cancelled the debt (v.27). The servant’s debt is simply forgotten! He is given a blank slate! What a relief! But did the servant experience that freedom that came from the magnanimous forgiveness?
This same servant had a debtor, another fellow servant, who only owed him 100 denarii. It is a payable amount – enough to work 100 days. What is 100 days compared to 10,000 years? So when the second servant says, “I will pay you back”, he is being reasonable. However, the first servant, rather than sharing the forgiveness he was offered by the master, has recourse to legalistic justice. Legally speaking the unforgiving servant is just. But he is not being human. He is not part of the Kingdom of God.
The king learns of this and calls the servant to him, saying, “You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow-servant just as I had pity on you? (vv.32-33). The servant becomes a prisoner of his own unforgiving heart. By his own attitude towards the fellow servant, the unforgiving servant forfeits the opportunity to enjoy forgiveness, freedom and wellbeing (salvation?)!
What is happening here?
The need to experience forgiveness and healing
The servant was gratuitously offered forgiveness but he hadn’t really experienced that forgiveness. Have you noticed, he did not acknowledge the generosity of the master? There is no expression of thanks or reparation after his encounter with the master. He did not even take the time to process the graciousness of his master. His wounds are still fresh. Wounds of humiliation! When you receive something that you don’t deserve, you could feel humbled or you could feel humiliated. If you feel humbled you become deep – and you pay forward magnanimity! If you feel humiliated you become bitter – and pay vengeance (either to the one who humiliated you or to another less-able person).
This is not just an abstract parable. If we look at the history of the world we have ample examples of this psychological and spiritual process. People who have not experienced healing of their wounds inflict wounds on others. This is the story of many leaders of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Take the case of modern Israel, for instance, experiencing forgiveness and healing does not happen automatically. Just because people have been given a piece of land and the opportunity to form a nation their wounds don’t automatically get healed. Healing of wounds, of individuals and nations, requires a conscious spiritual effort.
A positive example, however, in an attempt towards national healing is the laudable efforts of Nelson Mandela and Desmund Tutu in South Africa in the 1990’s through what was called the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’.
So being given does not imply reception. What happens around you does not necessarily become an inner experience. Political freedom may not bring about the inner freedom of individuals and nations. Yes, experience of forgiveness and healing demands a personal and collective, conscious effort. Inner healing is a process that needs to be facilitated.
On a spiritual note consider this – and I think, this is the core of the gospel message of today: after all, God forgives us unconditionally all the time. But do we experience it? God offers forgiveness without even being asked. But do we take it? Jesus points out that our experience of God’s forgiveness is undeniably tied up with our own willingness to forgive our brothers and sisters. So to say, they are two movements in the same experience of healing.