Once again, the disciples come to Jesus with a question of faith and once again Peter is the spokesperson for the group. You and I come from a background of many centuries of Christian culture and listening to the Gospel. I am not saying that the Gospel has really penetrated our culture, but overall, we are familiar with the general Christian principles and point of view. For that reason, Peter’s question and proposal can seem strange to many of us.
Forgiveness was not a big moral imperative during that time. Many people and even religious teachers, like some Pharisees, had a rigid legalistic approach to religion and moral life. Forgiveness was structured and limited to close family members and sometimes friends. To us Peter’s proposal of limiting forgiveness to seven times seems rather silly. But at that time, the legalistic moral responsibility was to forgive a person was limited to three times according to norms established by rabbis. Consequently, Peter’s proposal to Jesus is extremely generous. Peter is proposing to more than double the “forgiveness rate”.
Jesus’ response is completely shocking as he says: I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times and then he tells the parable of the unforgiving servant who in the end is punished for not being more forgiving and compassionate. Jesus ties our relationship with God and the unending or unlimited forgiveness we have received from God to our forgiveness of others in our life. All of us like to keep that record of felt offenses and hurts in the back of our minds. We hold grudges up to a determined point, many times thinking we are being pious, compassionate and generous. Once our predetermined limit is reached, we feel we are free to act out what we perceive as personal justice. Usually that involves some sort of vengeance, violence, or abandonment towards the other person. In Christian life there is no keeping track of how many times we have forgiven someone. There is no keeping track of how many times someone has offended us. Jesus does away with the tally system or score card. Jesus takes us from the rabbis’ 3 to Peter’s 7 to 77 and then to God’s wide-open compassion and forgiveness. Jesus takes us from numbers to uniting the soul of God to our soul or heart, living with others as God lives with us. Christians live with their hearts united to the heart of God; forgiveness is a constant way of life.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.
Image: https://www.rosminians.com/24th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-september-17/