My personal library is filled with books. Most of them I’ve read cover to cover. Some of them are used as reference books to look up writings of those superior to me in wisdom, in spirit, and in general people (saints) who are beacons, lighting the way when I allow myself to get bogged down in the world around me.
Of
all the books I’ve read, I remember so very little about what was written.
Take
for example the writings of Saint Herman.
All of us remember his words depicted on his icon: Let us make a vow to ourselves, that from
this day, from this hour, from this very moment, we shall strive above all else
to love God and to fulfill His Holy Will!
Easy, right?
We
have no trouble remembering things that “click” in our minds. Something that grabs our attention and holds
on, won’t let go. But others are all too
easily forgotten.
In
today’s Gospel, our Lord is directing us not to remember, but to forget! Jesus today gifts to us the parable of the
man who owed ten thousand talents. Within the parable we find the Master calling
for the man to “pay up”! And the man
pleads with the Master, not to forgive the debt, but to be patient, to
give him time, and if the Master will do so he promises I will pay you all.
The
Master is infinitely wise. He knows such
a repayment is not possible. But the
Master is full of compassion, and so he does not extend the clock, he instead
forgives the entire debt!
There
is certainly more to the parable in terms of spiritually profitable
content. But I ask the reader to pause
here, and to ponder this issue of such a massive debt being forgiven.
We
all understand that the Master in the parable is God. Buried in the teaching offered by our Lord is
the message that when God forgives a debt, He no longer remembers it.
Now
let’s merge the two natures of the word ‘debt’ and come to understand what
Jesus is really teaching us.
We
say the Lord’s Prayer multiple times each day.
In our use locally, we say forgive us our trespasses. The more technically correct wording is forgive
us our debts, for a ‘trespass’ is indicative of sin, and a sin is a debt to
God.
And
so God is shown in the parable to be forgiving of our debts, our sins. And like the great debt of 10,000 talents
which He forgave, He ‘forgot’, He in like manner forgets our sins – when we are
faithful to confess them.
We
started with a focus on reading, noting how easy it is to forget the content of
something we’ve just read. And we noted
that our memory is ‘keyed’ to things that “click” in our minds. One such thing is when someone does something
to harm us. Forgiving becomes difficult,
doesn’t it? Why? Because we’re not willing to truly forgive,
which means that we must truly forget!
Jesus
ends today’s parable with a stern warning.
So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his
heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Understand that in the parable, do to you
points back to the Master being angry, and His delivering the servant to the
torturers.
Let
us all learn to forgive – and to forget!!!
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