(See the readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Jean Valjean, the protagonist in Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” is convicted of stealing bread to feed his starving sister’s family. After years in hard-labor prison, he is released on parole. Marked as a former convict, he finds it impossible to get work. One night while looking for a place to stay a bishop invites him to stay at his home. In an act of hopeless desperation, he steals the silverware and silver candlesticks and flees.
Soon after he is arrested by the police and brought before the bishop. To his shock, the bishop immediately forgives him and tells the police that the silver is a gift. The interchange happens very early in the long story of Valjean’s life. From that moment on he refuses to be ruled by anger or resentment.
Mercy changes his life. This is seen dramatically as he has the opportunity to kill the antagonist of the story, an officer named Javert, who has been pursuing him his whole life. Rather than kill the chained Javert who is in his power, he releases him and lets him go free — to pursue him again if he so chooses.
The mercy experienced by Valjean through the kindness and compassion of the bishop changed his life forever. He in turn became an instrument for the good and a man of mercy.
One might say mercy is the mission of Jesus. His mission is to save or redeem mankind from sin and death. This is accomplished on the cross as He freely offers Himself in love. In doing so mercy and forgiveness are poured out on the cross. During the public ministry Jesus often shows mercy and speaks if its importance. He does so in the passage for this Sunday’s liturgy.
The account opens with a question by Peter. He asks how many times should he forgive someone who repeatedly sins against him. “Seven times?” he asks. Jesus responds, “not seven, but seventy-seven.” (we might be more familiar with an older translation “seventy times seven.”) Jesus’ point is to express an incredibly high number which has the effect of symbolizing infinitude. In other words, always forgive.
One might question Peter’s motive in asking the question. Is he asking this to somehow put a limit on mercy? Is he trying to test Jesus as the scholar of the law does when he asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment (cf. Luke 10:25ff)? or is he asking a question that anyone who has to deal with someone who continually or repeatedly sins against them would ask (whatever that sin might be). I tend to think it is this last possibility. Jesus offers a parable to help illustrate the need to forgive.
Unlike the forgiven Valjean mentioned at the beginning, the forgiven servant in this story quickly forgets the mercy shown to him. Naturally his fellow servants are scandalized by his treatment of a fellow servant who is in need of the same mercy. The parable has a universal character to it, meaning that it should find resonance in everyone’s life. God is represented by the king. All people are his servants.
Though not mentioned in the parable, God’s graciousness and mercy are seen in the very act of creation; we exist because He loves and has mercy. In Christ, especially his passion and death, the love and mercy of God are dramatically visible. Every human being is the recipient of that costly mercy. Since we have all been given a share of this mercy which has no bounds, all are expected, or rather required, to show mercy to others.
Not only does this mercy help heal another, in a very mysterious way it actually helps heal the wounds inflicted by the merciless. Mercy is the medicine of life and God Himself gives it to us. Further emphasis is added when, after giving the parable, Jesus says: “So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
The liturgy’s first reading from Sirach likewise stresses the need to forgive because we have been or need to be forgiven ourselves. He writes: “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins?”
Who of us could proudly say “I do not need to be forgiven?” Such a one would be a fool, or ignorant to the extreme of their own humanity. Rather in humility we recognize our own need for mercy and the needs of those around us.
Peter’s question reminds us of another aspect of mercy: it is sometimes very hard to forgive, especially in situations where the offense is repeated. Where do we find the power to forgive? Is it only in awareness that we have been forgiven? No, we need help to forgive, especially in difficult situations.
Jesus addresses this when he teaches us how to pray. The “Our Father” is probably the most used prayer among all Christians. And in that prayer we regularly say, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
God who is mercy itself will help provide the strength and courage to forgive from the heart not seven times but seventy-seven times.
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Msgr. Joseph Prior is pastor of St. Dorothy Parish in Drexel Hill and a former professor of Sacred Scripture and rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Read more reflections by Msgr. Prior here.
The post Mercy, the Medicine of Life, Is God’s Gift to Us appeared first on CatholicPhilly.
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