“I’ll make you pay for this!”
How many times have we thought this? Someone cuts us off in traffic, so we find a way to get back at them. A person insults us, so we find a way to insult them. When we see some misfortune befall someone who has done us wrong, we say, “Ah, finally they get their payback!”
We may justify such thoughts and desires by saying, “Well, they’re only getting what they deserve” — as if the paybacks were justice. But what would we receive if we were treated with strict justice?
Because of our sins, all of us deserve to be separated from God. St. Paul says that “the wages of sin is death.” Consider — one unrepentant mortal sin is enough to condemn a soul for eternity! A lot of times we think, “Oh, I’m a pretty good person.” But if a prisoner were to appear before a judge and say, “Judge, I know I murdered that guy, but look at all the good things I’ve done too!” — do you think the judge would let him walk free? On the contrary! It says in Isaiah, “all of our good deeds are like filthy rags”. Just as one drop of poison makes a whole meal sickening, so our sins make our entire souls unfit for the glory of Heaven.
And when we consider Whom we have turned our backs on: the All-Holy God, Pure Love Himself, the One whose purity and holiness is so great that even the angels must shield their eyes… how good God is! How not-good we are! Although we were meant to become radiant saints, all too often we have chosen to wallow in the corruption and filth of sin! Even the smallest sins — the lack of charity, the unkind word, the unchaste glance — are offenses against the infinite goodness of God.
So, according to strict justice, we could never pay back our debt to God. In today’s parable, the servant owes the king “a huge amount” — the actual Greek says it was 10,000 talents. This would be approximately 200,000 years’ wages! It would have been impossible to pay that off in a thousand lifetimes. In the same way, because of our sins, we owed a debt to God that was literally unpayable — how could we make up for rejecting God’s goodness? We cannot — and that is the point of the Gospel.
Jesus alone can pay back the debt that we owed God. He took upon Himself the punishment for our crimes, wiping them away on the Cross. And look how easy it is to be forgiven now! A simple Confession to a priest forgives even the most heinous sins. You could have a thousand mortal sins and be one step away from Hell, and in ten minutes be washed as clean as a baptized baby and regain your citizenship in Heaven. Amazing! We don’t have to fast on bread and water or walk a hundred miles barefoot on sharp rocks — no, all we have to do is ask for mercy, and it is given. What a gift — freely given, gratefully received!
One of the main reasons why people find it hard to forgive is that we forget how much we have been forgiven for. If you struggle to forgive, look at the Cross — as He was hanging there, thinking of you, loving you, He said, “Father, forgive them.” Not just His executioners, but all of us down through the ages who need His mercy. When we realize just how much we need to be forgiven, then it is easier for us to extend that mercy to others.
Please understand — forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. It is a choice to acknowledge, “What you did was wrong, it mattered, it hurt — and now I release you from my anger and I do not wish you harm.” We often have to forgive over and over again — every time the anger boils up within our soul, we make a choice to forgive again. Pray for the person who offended you — pray with your lips and mind, even if your heart’s not in it, and eventually your heart will come around.
Back in the early 1940s, a young, talented girl from Paris named Marie Girtanner was on her way to becoming a famous concert pianist. She had been giving concerts from the age of 9, and was playing before concert halls at age 18. But when Hitler’s Nazis invaded France, she decided to use her talents in a unique way — she would play concerts for the Nazis in order to spy on their activities and gain information for the Resistance.
Such a daring plot worked for a while, but in 1943, her ploy was uncovered and she was arrested with several other Resistance members. In custody, she was tortured by the Gestapo so badly that she lost the ability to play the piano.
She was finally rescued the following year, but was devastated that she could no longer play music. Turning to her Catholic faith, Maria became a Third Order Dominican, and for the next forty years, prayed to forgive the man who tortured her. It was a daily struggle. As she would later write,
“Forgiveness does not come about in the abstract; it calls for someone to whom it can be addressed, someone to whom it can be received.”
Finally, in 1984, the doctor who tortured her reached out and asked for a visit. What would you say to the man who ruined your life? When she walked into his house, Maria embraced him, and granted him forgiveness. Later she said, “Forgiving him has liberated me.”
Many times we want justice for those who offend us, while we desire mercy for ourselves. And mercy has been granted to us through the death of God on the Cross. But how we ever pay back the Lord Jesus for His incredible sacrifice on our behalf? We cannot pay Him back. But we can pay it forward — by extending that same mercy to others.
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Originally published at The Cross Stands While the World Turns.
Photo: Priscilla Du Preez, Unsplash / PD-US
