Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Google Image

We all know families in which some members refuse to talk to others in the family. They have some complaint, or a series of them, for which forgiveness is out of the question.

The phenomenon is widespread. Family gatherings at Thanksgiving are so well known for their disputes and strife they’ve become a regular target of comedians and commentators.

I often think of this when praying the Our Father, also called the Lord’s Prayer because it was Jesus’ response to a request from his disciples to teach them to pray.

And I recall a religious retreat I attended years ago in which the retreat master, a Catholic priest, asked participants to name the most important part of the Our Father. There were various responses, but the one that he was looking for was, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

A Summary

This, he said, was not only an important part of the prayer but a summary of what is expected of a Christian. It’s hard to imagine how we who are searching for God can expect forgiveness from God when we refuse to forgive others.

Jesus often spoke about the importance of forgiveness. One of his most interesting stories used to illustrate its necessity is that of the king who decided to “settle his accounts with his servants,” found in Mathew’s gospel. One servant owed the king 10,000 talents, what Scripture scholars say was an enormous amount.

It was “the largest unit of currency at the time,” according to the website Learn Religions. “For example, the ten thousand talents owed by the unforgiving servant would come to at least 204 metric tons of silver, reflecting an astronomical sum of 60 million denarii.”

To pay the debt, the king ordered the servant to be sold as a slave, “with his wife and children and all that he had.” The servant fell on his knees and implored the king for patience, saying he would repay all of it.

Google Image

“And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But as that servant left the king’s presence he ran into a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii,” a pittance compared to what the forgiven one owed the king. He demanded immediate payment and when his fellow servant knelt and asked forgiveness, he refused, “and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.”

One of the most moving passages from the Christian Bible is the story of “the woman caught in adultery.” As you may recall from the Gospel of John, as Jesus was teaching in the Jerusalem temple, the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. A crowd had gathered to see what Jesus would do: uphold the contemporary interpretation of the law of Moses that she should be stoned or not. If he said “yes,” he would lose status among the people; if he said “no” the authorities would have evidence against him.

“Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’”

Beginning with the Eldest

The Scribes and Pharisees, beginning with the eldest – who had the most sins and the most reason to seek forgiveness – went away and Jesus was left alone with the woman.

“’Has no one condemned you?” asked Jesus. “’No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.’”

In commenting on this story in a 2013 homily, Pope Francis said “it captures Jesus' attitude: we do not hear words of contempt, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, that invite us to conversion. …Well, brothers and sisters, God's face is that of a merciful father who is always patient. Have you thought about God's patience, the patience that He has with each of us? That is His mercy.

“…The problem is that we get tired, we don't want to, we get tired of asking forgiveness. Let us never get tired. Let us never get tired. He is the loving Father who always forgives, who has that heart of mercy for all of us. And let us also learn to be merciful with everyone.”