[stephenkhoo]

THE HEART OF MERCY IS FORGIVENESS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Daniel 3:35-43; Ps 25:4-9; Matthew 18:21-35]

The centrality of the gospel message is the unconditional love of God for humanity. The theme of God’s love prevails in the entire bible. This unconditional love of God is expressed fundamentally in His forgiving the sins and weaknesses of humanity, not just in answering the prayers of those who are sick or suffering. He never stops forgiving regardless how many times man sins and betrays Him. In the book of Hosea He said, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” (Hos 11:8f) In the book of Micah, the prophet said, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency. He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Mic 7:18f)

This is because God knows that we are weak. To be human is to suffer imperfection and temptation to sin. We are all not perfect. Even as Christians, we have frictions, misunderstandings, quarrels leading to hurts and injury. This includes Church leaders, bishops, priests and religious. No one is exempted from sin. St John made it clear, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 Jn 1:8-10)

Whilst the Church cannot deny that her members do not always live a holy life, no one can accuse the Church of lacking mercy and forgiveness. The Church does not withhold forgiveness to those who repent of their sins. The Church does not advocate violence or retaliation against our enemies. The Church always preaches forgiveness, tolerance and patience. Indeed, when the Church is attacked by terrorists, what do we do? Do we resort to violence in return? No! We forgive them and pray for our persecutors and those who hurt us. If the Church practices works of charity to the poor, the marginalized and the suffering but lack mercy for sinners, we have missed the centrality of the gospel message, which is forgiveness, reconciliation and healing. The Church never stops forgiving her enemies, regardless.

On this basis, today, the gospel speaks of the limitless mercy of God for sinners. In telling us the parable of the unmerciful servant, Jesus brought out the selfishness of man compared to God’s mercy and generosity. The servant owed the master 10,000 talents, an enormous sum of money that no one could ever repay or even owe! It is of course an exaggeration because the amount is even bigger than the revenue of the entire country. Yet, the master, on account of the servant’s plea for forgiveness, let him go scot free without punishing him or sending him to jail. In other words, God’s mercy and forgiveness for man’s sins have no limits. God’s mercy does not even demand any repayment for sins to be forgiven. He forgives freely and completely, without considering the sins we have committed.

But this is not true of man. Our forgiveness has limits. In the book of Amos, we are told, God would forgive only three times. (cf Amos 1:3,6,9,11, 13) This is why the Jews thought it was necessary to forgive only three times. Such a consideration is not entirely without basis. If we keep forgiving, the person might not sincerely repent of his past and takes our forgiveness for granted. So it was thought that if the person has not repented after three times, one should not forgive because he or she is unrepentant. From this perspective, there is some truth in this way of thinking since without repentance, no forgiveness is possible.

Hence, St Peter thought he was being extra magnanimous when he said, “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” Jesus answered, “Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.” This citation is in reference to Lamech who would take countless revenge for anyone who does him harm. He said, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Gen 4:23f) Instead of taking revenge, we must continuously forgive like God who never holds our sins against us the moment we repent.

But then how can we keep on forgiving someone who is unrepentant? The servant who was forgiven 10,000 talents was surely unrepentant. The fact that he was lacking mercy towards his fellow servant who owed him a debt that is totally incomparable to what he owed the master meant that he did not appreciate the mercy and kindness of his master who forgave him. He was not moved or touched or humbled. If he did, he would have felt for his fellow servant as much as the master felt for him. He would not have demanded that his fellow servant repay him that insignificant sum of money owed to him when he had just been forgiven a limitless amount of money he owed to the master. On the contrary, almost immediately, when he met his fellow servant “who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him and had him thrown into prison.

Even the master who heard of it was incensed. He sent for him and said, “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?” He added, “And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.” Unless we forgive our brothers from our heart, we are not forgiven. This is simply because the sign that we are truly forgiven by God or that we have received His forgiveness and mercy is when we are able to pass on the forgiveness we have received to those who have hurt us. What offences our fellowmen could do to us cannot be compared with what God has done for us.

In this example, it does not appear therefore that forgiveness is limitless and without conditions. That is why we must clarify that on God’s part, forgiveness is limitless. On man’s part, it depends on our capacity to receive His forgiveness. The servant received the forgiveness of God without realizing the cost of forgiveness. He is like many Catholics or Christians who subscribe to cheap grace. Many of us, Catholics, go to confession without a real desire to stop sinning again. In fact, we go for confession more to satisfy the legal obligation so that we do not have to feel guilty. Often, we lack contrition and the will to change or to give up our sins. Or for that matter, Christians who subscribe to the doctrine of justification by faith alone can also become legalistic, thinking that having faith in Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins is sufficient, without producing the corollary good works of being justified in Him. Unless we recognize the costly sacrifice of our forgiveness in the death of Christ, we will take God’s forgiveness lightly, just as the servant who was forgiven did.

As a consequence, the master had to throw him into prison so that he could come to awareness of the extent of his sins. “In his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.” Only then could he find true repentance. Indeed, we can forgive others only to the extent that we are aware of our own sinfulness. The more sensitive and conscious we are of our sins, the more we can empathize with others who sin against us. Just as God overlooks our weaknesses, so too we must all the more feel with our fellowmen and forgive them as well. Truly, the consequences of sins are themselves not so much punishment from God but they are permitted by God in His mercy so that we can come to self-awareness. This was what happened to the Israelites in the first reading. It was through their exile, their punishments, that they came to self-awareness and confessed their sins. “Lord, now we are the least of all the nations, now we are despised throughout the world, today, because of our sins. And now we put our whole heart into following you, into fearing you and seeking your face once more.” So even in punishment is God’s mercy shown.