11 August 2022
Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin
Whenever I gave an essay assignment to my high school students, they always asked many questions about the requirements in order to determine exactly what they had to complete for the assignment. In most cases, this was so that they could better understand the task; at times, however, I could tell that a student simply wanted to know the minimum amount of work required for them to pass. If an essay was 500 words minimum, those students would write 500 words. To me, as their teacher, those questions were aggravating, since the student clearly had little desire to learn and was motivated primarily by a letter grade. They had missed the real point of their education.
Peter’s question to our Lord in today’s Gospel (Matt 18:21–19:1) is in a similar spirit to my students’ questions: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” He wants to know the requirements for forgiveness. Jesus’ response—that of a master teacher—offers ample food for our prayer and contemplation. Not only does Jesus indicate that forgiveness should be without limit—hence the “seventy-seven times”—but he also demonstrates that forgiveness ought to be “from [the] heart” through his parable of the king and the unforgiving servant.
In our prayer today, then, we can contemplate both the boundless forgiveness that Jesus shares (and asks us to share, too) as well as the way that Jesus patiently teaches us, even when we seem to miss the point!