The season of Lent is a time for pruning away the dead parts of ourselves so that we can make room for new growth. It is a season for rooting out those deeply entrenched habits and tendencies that strangle our hearts and prevent us from living into the fullness of peace, joy, and love that God desires for us.
In the Gospel today, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should be expected to forgive a person who has wronged him. He’s looking for a number. He’s looking for a limit. But Jesus tells him that there is no limit. There is no limit to God’s infinite love and mercy. There is no limit to God’s infinite desire for relationship with us, no matter what we have done to ourselves and one another. But we cannot receive the infinite love of God while we are closed to loving the people around us. When we close our hearts to others, we automatically close our hearts to God at the same time.
Forgiveness is hard. It often requires looking at the parts of ourselves we really don’t want to look at, and revisiting the most painful moments of our lives. At the same time, forgiveness is the only way to healing and freedom from our hurts. Sometimes we have been deeply and unjustly injured by others. Forgiveness does not mean saying that it never happened. Forgiveness does not necessarily mean acknowledging that another party was right or justified. But it does mean letting go of our attachments to anger, offense, and resentment while allowing them to be consumed and transformed in the fires of God’s infinite, divine love for us.