Today’s parable is occasioned by Peter’s question about the limits we should set on forgiveness: “How often must I forgive my brother?”

Jesus parable makes clear that we often times forget how extravagant God has been with the frequency and the immensity of his forgiveness to us. Perhaps this is because we become preoccupied with the pain other people inflict on us when they wrong us in some way.

Besides remembering our own sinfulness, Jesus insists that we forgive from the heart. We might wonder how we can do that.

C.S. Lewis says that loving our enemies does not mean feeling fond of them or pretending that they are not such bad people after all. Loving and forgiving our enemies does mean however, to wish that they were not so bad, to hope that they may be healed and cured and to will them good.

It was in this spirit that Jesus prayed on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

God Bless,

-Msgr. Powell