Many of you know my son attends Christian Brother High School, an all-boys Catholic School in Memphis. As a protestant, it’s been an interesting experience for him and a blessing for our family too.

Each day during Lent the school sends out a daily reflection with commentary from teachers, staff, alumni and friends. All have been excellent but yesterday’s caught my attention given the topic was forgiveness. Ah, forgiveness. It’s what we encourage others to do and ask for from others when we’ve messed up or offended someone. It’s also that incredibly difficult process we struggle with when someone has done something to us of such major proportion that we justify our decision not to forgive as righteous.

It sounds and feels good but as I read scripture, that’s not what Jesus commands of us. In discussing this very issue over lunch with a friend yesterday they asked if we were expected to forgive even when the offending party has never asked for it or for that matter, believes they’ve done nothing wrong.

I encourage you to read the message below but in my interpretation of scripture, my response was “yes.” We are commanded to forgive even when forgiveness is not sought. It’s something we should all pray about and seek God’s guidance on. Thanks to Buddy Adams for this wonderful commentary.

Let Us Remember We Are In the Holy Presence of God

Tuesday, March 10

Matthew 18: 21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, 
”Lord, if my brother sins against me, 
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
 who decided to settle accounts with his servants.

When he began the accounting, 
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. 
Since he had no way of paying it back,
 his master ordered him to be sold, 
along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.

At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
 ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
 Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan. 
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
 who owed him a much smaller amount. 
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 
’Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
 ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back. ‘
But he refused.

Instead, he had him put in prison
 until he paid back the debt. 
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, 
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair. 
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! 
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. 
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’

Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt. 
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”

Reflection

Whenever I listened to this gospel passage I always wondered about the Lord’s instruction to Peter to not forgive seven times but to forgive seventy-seven times. That seemed to be excessive but I believe it was the Lord’s way of getting his point across that we forgive and forget.   Forgiveness…you frequently read accounts in the newspaper or hear a story on radio or TV of someone forgiving another for an unspeakable act or crime. Do you wonder how they are truly able to forgive? Do you believe they have drawn upon the lesson in this gospel passage of the master forgiving the servant his debt?

Preparing to write this reflection on these verses from Matthew’s Gospel caused me to read and re-read them several times and to think about times in my life when I needed to forgive someone. Was I reluctant to do so?   Was their action that serious that forgiveness was difficult? When I look back now the instructions to Peter to forgive not seven times but seventy-seven times should be all the guidance we need.

Buddy Adams, CBHS Class of 1957

Alumni Board Member

St. John Baptist De Lasalle, pray for us. Live Jesus in our hearts forever.