Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome to Feed Your Soul. Question for us this week is, "Are you a good servant?" Yeah, are you a good servant? I think most of us probably don't think of ourselves very much as servants. Most of us don't think of ourselves as serving other people. We probably spend a lot more time thinking about our own needs and whether or not they're being taken care of. And this Sunday's gospel has two components. The first one is fairly short and one we're very, very familiar with. And the second part is the story about the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you 7 times but 70 times 7." 70 times 7, that's a lot of forgiveness. That's a lot of-- that's a lot of putting up with stuff. That's a lot of tolerance and patience and all that sort of stuff required there. Why is it so important? Why is forgiveness so important to our lives as human beings, so important to society, so important to community, so important to relationship, and so important to our own spiritual growth? One of the reasons is because unforgiveness is toxic. It's a poison. And it's a poison we inflict upon ourselves. It's a poison we can continue to consume over and over and over again. Very often, our need to forgive is greater than the person's need to be forgiven.

In many cases, the person may not even be aware that they have harmed you or offended you or hurt you, even sometimes in fairly significant ways. So their need to be forgiven is just sort of out there, but our need to forgive is real and present and if we ignore that, can cause great harm to ourselves, to our relationships, even our relationships with people other than the person that we're being called to forgive. Because when we don't forgive people, it affects all of our relationships. It affects our community. It affects society. The second part of Sunday's gospel goes on. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. So we got this servant, right? Are you a good servant? That's the question we're pondering. We've got this servant. When we were talking about the servant, did you think about yourself? Did you think, "Oh, I'm a bit like that, or, "I've got a situation like that"? The servants call before the king, and the servant asks to pay his debt. What are your debts? What are your debts? What is it that you owe? Do you ever think about that? Do you ever think about, "Okay, what do I owe to God in gratitude for what he has done for me, what he has saved me from, what he has rescued me from, what he has brought me through? What do I owe? so the servant fell on his knees, imploring his master, "Lord, have patience with me and I will pay you everything." 

It's interesting. So the servant is asking his master to be patient. And very often, we want other people to be patient with us. Or we even expect other people to be patient with us. But I think we have to ask ourselves, "How patient are we with the people who irritate us? How patient are we with the people who maybe have wronged us and maybe even wronged us in very, very serious ways?" But the master is patient. And he says, "And out of pity, the lord of the servant released him and forgave the debt." But that same servant, he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii. So what's important to understand here is that the debt, 100 denarii, is almost nothing compared to the debt of 10,000 talents. So we're talking about just a minuscule debt. And seizing him by the throat-- think about that. Like when someone grabs someone by the throat, right? He doesn't just grab him by the arm. He grabs him by the throat. Seizing him by the throat, he said, "Pay what you owe." So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, "Have patience with me and I will pay you." Exactly the same thing that the servant said to the master. But he refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt.

Now, when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. It's a beautiful line, right? His fellow servants, they've witnessed this and it causes them distress. And there's a great sense of justice there. There's a sense that injustice is before their eyes. And so they act. They didn't have to act. They could have just gone on with their day. They could have just said, "Well, he owes him the money so he should pay him the money," and they got on with their day. But they have a deep sense like, "This is wrong. This is unjust." They went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. And then his lord summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?" He forgave all our debt. Our debt, right? Are you a good servant? So God has forgiven all our debt. And we are the ungrateful servant. Imposing upon other people, in so many ways, the same things that God has already forgiven us for. But when you read the parable, do you see yourself in that servant or do you see yourself in the master? Or do you see yourself, oh, I'm the righteous other servants who saw that there was a real injustice here and went to their master and made it right? Who do you see yourself as in the scripture? And of course, the answer is to learn to see ourselves in each and every single person in the story. To see ourselves in each and every single person. To see ourselves, okay, I'm capable of that goodness. I'm capable of that injustice. I'm capable of that in gratitude. I'm capable of recognizing justice and pointing it out. I'm capable of rectifying things. To see ourselves in each character in the scripture is important.

And then the last two lines of Sunday's Gospel, "And in anger, his lord delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." A few things there, so the first thing is anger. So there is a righteous anger. And in anger, his lord delivered him. In righteous anger, his lord delivered him. And then he goes on to say-- Jesus goes on to say, "So also, my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." So a couple of things there is easy to slip through that one, right? But what is Jesus saying? There are real consequences for not forgiving. You are going to have to answer for not forgiving. So whatever it is you're struggling to forgive, it's time to get into it, go deep into it, work out how you process that, work out how you give that over to God, work out how to forgive. But the most important word in this whole reading, heart. He doesn't just say, "Forgive your brother, just forgive your brother from your heart." And the truth is sometimes we forgive. We forgive in the mind. We think, "Yeah, I got to forgive this person." Maybe even say, "I forgive this person."

We forgive in the mind. And we forgive with the lips. But in our hearts, we search our hearts, we know I still haven't forgiven that person. And now we circle all the way back to the beginning where Peter comes to Jesus and said, "How many times I got to forgive, seven times?" And Jesus says, "No, 70 times 7." And the thing that's always struck me here is that sometimes when someone wrongs me, I'll say, I forgive them. I will say, "I forgive you." And sometimes when someone wrongs me, I will think, "I forgive you." And sometimes I may even believe I have forgiven this person in my heart. But then a week later or three weeks later or five years later something will happen. And there'll be something stirring my heart. And it will be maybe a resentment, maybe just a tiniest bit of resentment. And I think, "Resentment towards this person who did this to me, who wronged me in this way." And what do I discover? I need to forgive again. I need to forgive again. And so, was Jesus talking about forgiving 70 times 7 sins? Or was he talking about sometimes we have to forgive people and re-forgive people over and over for just wronging us once? Because we think we've forgiven, but then it resurfaces in our hearts as anger or as resentment or as hatred or as so many other things. Are you a good servant? Are you a good servant? And who is it that you need to forgive today.