Last weeks gospel and homily on forgiveness, touched a lot of souls. Many parishioners asked if I could share my notes. I have captured them here in a manner fitting the bulletin:
What is forgiveness, which our Lord describes in such dramatic terms as absolutely necessary?
If we don’t forgive as we are forgiven, we will find ourselves burdened with unpayable debt. In the parable, the debt forgiven is a sum equal to 160,000 years salary. At 50k a year, that is $8 billion. What is the sum the same man refuses to forgive? 100 days wages, about $14,000 at the same pay rate.
So let’s talk forgiveness, lest we be thrown into the fires to pay off the unpayable debt. But let me begin with what it isn’t:
Forgiveness is NOT Pretending. It is an offense against truth to try to pretend that sin does no harm. “Oh, it’s no big deal,” is not a path to healing and forgiveness. Pretending sin does not harm is repression, not truth. Acknowledging harm is the first step.
Forgiveness is NOT Forgetting. I have heard, and even said, “forgive and forget.” The scriptures speak
of the Lord forgetting, precisely because it is a super- natural possibility. Here is a startling sentence from the Catechism where it is addressing the Our Father and the parable (CCC 2843):
It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
It is not in our human power “not to feel or to forget an offense.” But the heart that forgives in sanctifying even the very wound!