In the Gospel today, we hear a parable about a desperate servant with overwhelming debt he has no hope of repaying. On the brink of losing all he has, he pleads with his master for mercy. To his (and perhaps our) great surprise, he receives it: his master displays an unthinkable degree of compassion and simply forgives the entire amount. The story takes a dark turn, however, when this same man refuses mercy to another servant over a far smaller amount.
So how did the servant go wrong? Clearly, he should also have shown compassion. But there’s a deeper lesson here as well. This man seems not to have understood the real value of what had been given to him. He did not allow it to transform him.
This is an important point because we find ourselves in the position of the servant each and every day. Every single one of us owes an overwhelming debt for our sins. In our powerlessness, God has heard our cries for mercy. From the depths of his infinite, absolutely unfathomable love for us, the Lord endured his Passion and Death on the Cross to pay a debt He did not owe that we could never have paid on our own.
This knowledge should be transformational. It should re-frame every instant of our lives. We can do nothing for ourselves and have merited nothing…but the Lord has looked on us with eyes of tender compassion and love. Like the servant, he has forgiven our debts and, on top of that, freely offers us infinite riches of joy and eternal life. This knowledge should transform the way that we perceive and approach each and every aspect and encounter in our daily lives.