Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the value of forgiveness, and how if we are to become the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will have to be generous with our forgiveness while still being aware and vigilant to the corrupting forces of sin. For God had forgiven us all our sins even though our sins were so great they should have merited our death and destruction.

Remember whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster, that we pray this phrase, ‘Forgive us all our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us?’ This is exactly what is the essence of today’s readings and particularly that of the Gospel. What Jesus had mentioned is also that there should be no limit to mercy, and no limit to the graces which we should show to those who have cause us hurt.

Much of the evils and suffering in this world can actually be attributed to our inability to forgive one another. We continue to linger in hatred and jealousy over others. We feel hurt by what others had done badly for us, be in on body, in spirit, in mind or heart. We are afflicted, yes, but if we stop the cycle there and begin to learn to forgive, then the pain will also cease to grow further.

Instead, we take revenge, we retaliate, we fight back and cause even more injury to others, contending that because we have been hurt, then others should be hurt in the same manner if not worse than what they had afflicted upon us. Many of the worst wars and conflicts in the world today are caused by this inability to forgive and to let go of the pains which have been caused to us.

The parable of the ungrateful and unforgiving servant tells us about the lord who had forgiven the immense debt of a servant, and yet that servant refused to forgive another servant who owed him a debt that was far smaller in size. This is a clear representation of the interactions between the Lord and all of us, and how we interact with one another, our fellow brethren.

The master of the house represents the Lord, who had forgiven the servant who was deep in debt to his master. That servant represents all of us, who have great debts to God, and we have been forgiven this debt, that is all of us who believe in Him. This debt is sin, and sin has weighed us down greatly. We have so much sin if we are to count for all the sins which we have committed throughout this life.

And yet, God has forgiven us all these sins, and did not count against us all of the mistakes which we have committed. Despite all the weight of sin on our shoulders, we have been relieved by our Lord who have generously let us go from the threat of destruction because of our sins. We would have deserved death, but we were absolved from our faults.

Thus, we too should forgive one another our faults to each other. Compared to the sins from which we had been forgiven, the faults we committed against one another is relatively insignificant indeed. We should not be like the unforgiving and ungrateful servant who struck at the fellow servant for a trivial debt, ungrateful at having been forgiven his huge debt by his master.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all commit ourselves to forgive one another during this holy season of Lent. This is the moment for us to change our attitudes and seek to follow our Lord and His ways ever more in our lives. Let us all be thoroughly reformed in our actions, that we no longer keep hatred and negativities in our hearts. Forgive and let go all the anger in our hearts and learn to accept each others’ differences and live together with each other in harmony and love.

May Almighty God have mercy on us all, forgive us and bring us all to everlasting life. God bless us all. Amen.