Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent
Daniel 3:25,34-43 | Psalm 24(25):4-6,7a-9 | Matthew 18:21-35
Peter went up to Jesus and 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. (Matthew 18:21-22)
I once had a comical conversation on this very passage that went like this:
Other: “Seventy-seven times” only meh? I remember “seventy times seven times”, that’s 490 times!”
Me: Um, you know that’s not the point, right? The point is to always forgive.
Other: Yeah, I know, but Bible got number, must get it right mah!
Me: Why, are you actually counting the number of times you forgive someone else?
Other: Of course lah! I must at least play fair and give each person the same number of chances, before I say “enough is enough”, right?
Me: …
Forgiveness is a surprisingly touchy subject even among Catholics. We have been taught, even before our faith instruction, Alexander Pope’s famous dictum: “to err is human, to forgive, divine”. I was even taught an unofficial postscript: “to seek revenge, diabolical“.
But when friends cheat you, when bosses undermine you, when even your loved ones quietly desert you, it can be almost impossible to say, even to yourself, “you know, even though you absconded with my money, and you make my work life a living hell, and my own family treats me like a pariah, it’s OK, I still forgive you all”. The more likely response would be “BURN IN HELL, YOU TURDS!”
Yet Jesus suffered far more pain than any of us would ever experience in our lives. In a few short weeks, we will revisit His abandonment, miscarriage of justice, torture, indignities, and eventual fate reserved for criminals. We will, in singing the Reproaches, be reminded of how far we have fallen, as He remonstrates with us:
My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?
Answer me!
Let us never forget that God is always ready to forgive us, no matter what transgressions we’ve committed. Let us resolve to be absolved during this Lenten season, to seek the forgiveness of our Creator, and to forgive in turn those who have done us harm, in body or in spirit.
Whether they betrayed us 7 times, or 77, or 490, or even more.
Amen.