Sermons & Homilies

My brothers and sisters, we have just heard one of the most important Gospel parables which the Lord ever spoke. At the heart of the Christian religion is forgiveness — and how our hearts yearn for such forgiveness! For who among us does not know — at least somewhere in the depths of our heart — that we too owe just such an immeasurable debt as did the servant in today’s Gospel? Who among us does not feel — at least from time to time — the same sense of complete desperation, the sense that it is utterly beyond our power to set aright all the countless mistakes we have made in our lives, to mend all that we have broken, to heal all the harm that we have done? Who among us does not realize — at least in moments of honest sobriety — that there is nothing left for us to do than to fall down before God and beg for mercy?

Many of us are familiar with the story of the monk who would not forgive his brother and was told by his spiritual father as he prayed the Lord’s Prayer, to omit: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” meaning that his sins would not be forgiven if he did not forgive others. This was an application of our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel of Matthew by the spiritual father relating to the brothers’ prayers and spiritual life. In today’s parable, we read not simply of forgiveness but of the immensity of God’s forgiveness in contrast with the forgiveness which is asked of us...