Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saint Pontian, Pope and Martyr, and Saint Hippolytus, Priest and Martyr
Today’s gospel reading recounts the parable of the unforgiving servant, a man who was forgiven much and then failed to exercise that same forgiveness for others. If the tradition is true, the author of the gospel from which this parable comes was Matthew the tax collector. Money was close to his heart until his conversion towards a different set of riches. For Matthew, this story would have had some resonance, since he at one time was as grasping as the servant in the parable. No doubt the story of the unforgiving servant was a story that he felt would help others in recognizing the disparity of our own inability to forgive against the great act of forgiveness done by God through his son.