As I Have Forgiven You – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; September 13, 2026

As I have loved you, so must you love one another. (Jn 13:34) The example of Jesus gives us the standard for our love; his grace gives us the power to love as he did – that is true power. We can consider this same example and what it means for us in terms of the love that forgives, the evident theme of today’s Gospel: forgive as I have forgiven you.

First, though, let us consider a bit the full meaning of the huge amount the one servant owes his master in today’s Gospel and the much smaller amount owed by his fellow servant. The Gospel actually uses more concrete language when it comes to numbers, but our contemporary translators are at a loss in the face of the vast inflation of our contemporary world.

Consider that our national debt is more than 40 trillion dollars, while the largest numerical figure in the whole of Scripture is 200 million, but is expressed as twice ten thousand times ten thousand  (cf. Rev 9:16) – ten thousand, or a myriad, being the largest numerical expression known to the ancient languages of Scripture.

Well, in today’s Gospel, the numbers are much smaller. The one servant owes his master a mere ten thousand talents, while his fellow servant owes him a hundred denarii. We are not, however, at a loss when it comes to evaluating the significance of these numbers. Let’s start with the ten thousand talents.

Let us consider those ten thousand talents in relation to the vast wealth of Solomon, who in his time exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches. (cf. 1 Kgs 10:23) The annual revenue of Solomon’s kingdom was six-hundred sixty-six talents of gold – an interesting number. (cf. 1 Kgs 10:14) That makes the servant’s debt a debt of royal magnitude, one that would likely have brought even the kings of the earth to ruin. We could make another comparison: the 1^st century Jewish historian, Josephus, estimated the worth of the temple treasury, during the reign of Herod, the murderer of the innocents of Bethlehem, as about ten thousand talents. That makes a debt of ten thousand talents a truly divine debt!

Next, consider the one hundred denarii owed by the fellow servant. One denarius was the standard wage for a day’s labor. So, one hundred denarii was a significant debt but theoretically payable. We can think of all the people today who carry anywhere from ten to thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt.

But how could a mere servant accumulate a debt of ten thousand talents? How could a master forgive such a debt? That would require him to have such excessive wealth that he could forgo the ten thousand talents he was owed! The debt of ten thousand talents is like the debt man owed to God on account of Adam’s sin. God, the true master of the universe, did not simply write off the debt; rather, he paid it on our behalf, for that is what the Son of God did when he shed his blood upon the Cross. By way of comparison, the one hundred denarii represents the gravity of an offense one man can commit against another.

Jesus made up for our debt of ten thousand talents through his death on the Cross, but his forgiveness reaches us concretely according to a certain order.

First, though, we need to consider that besides the inheritance of Adam’s sin, we bear the weight of our personal sins.

On account of the infinite majesty of the God whom we offend, a mortal sin, like Adam’s sin, is like the accumulation of a debt of ten thousand talents. What is a mortal sin?

A knowing, deliberate violation of one of God’s commandments in a grave matter. For example, one man tells a lie that costs another man his job or his reputation; that is a mortal sin, a grave violation of the commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Besides the harm done to the neighbor, it is a grave offense against God who created both men in his image.

Mortal sin is called “mortal” because it destroys the life of grace and charity in the soul. If either knowledge, gravity, or choice is lacking, the sin is “venial”; it does not incur a debt of ten thousand talents; it does not destroy the life of grace and charity in the soul; the faithful soul, through an act of charity, in union with Christ, can make up for the offense of a venial sin.  

In order to receive God’s forgiveness, purchased in advance for us by Jesus Christ on the Cross, we must believe in Jesus Christ, be truly sorry for our sins – that is called contrition – and we must have a firm resolution to amend our life and turn away from sin in the future, especially those sins we have previously committed. Faith and repentance are prerequisites for the complete forgiveness received in baptism, at least for those who have reached the age of reason, the age at which they are capable of faith, capable of sin, and capable of repentance. For mortal sins committed after baptism, confession to a priest is also required.

We also need to consider two consequences of sin, often referred to as “guilt” and “punishment,” maybe better referred to as just consequences. We can consider all of this through the example of a friendship. Friends offend each other in small ways that do not break the friendship; that is like a venial sin. There are, however, matters, like betraying a secret, that destroy a friendship; that is like a mortal sin in relation to God. So, if one friend forgives another for betraying a secret, that restores the broken friendship, but the friendship has been damaged and the forgiven friend needs to work to repair the damage he did by his betrayal.

Through baptism, God forgives all guilt of sin and all punishment due to sin through the merits of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Through the absolution given by the priest in the confessional, in the case of mortal sins, God forgives the guilt of sin together with the debt of eternal punishment, ten thousand talents, but does not forgive all the “temporal punishment” due to sin; that is, he restores us to his grace and friendship, but does not eliminate altogether our obligation to work, through faith and charity, to repair the damage we did to our relationship with God.

That is how God forgives us in Christ. That is how he forgives not just once, but even seventy times seven times a debt of ten thousand talents.

Take note, however, God is not deceived. A fraud who has not repented of his sins can deceive the Church and be baptized, but God is not deceived. Until he truly repents, the fraud will not receive the grace and forgiveness of baptism. Indeed, he will need to confess his insincere baptism. Likewise, if a fraud confesses his sins to a priest, but without true repentance, the priest may be deceived, but God is not deceived, and the absolution will be without effect. To be forgiven, the man will need to repent and confess his insincere confession. This bit about repentance and truth is important. God’s mercy is not a game.

This is also important as we consider what today’s Gospel requires of us. Peter asks Jesus, Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? Seven times? What is not stated, but presupposed both in Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer, is that the sinning brother, each time he sins, is truly sorry and asks for forgiveness. Jesus is telling us that we must never tire of forgiving; he is not telling us that we must submit to the manipulative tactics of liars. After 2,000 years, Jesus’ teaching is now well-known; since it is so well-known, there is no shortage of people who will offend against those who are trying to follow Christ’s teaching, then accuse them of being hypocrites because they will not forgive.

With that presupposition brought out into the open, let us consider what it means to forgive from the heart. Just as repentance is not a mere matter of words, not just a matter of saying, “I’m sorry”, neither is forgiveness. Forgiveness must begin in the heart.

When someone hurts us, the instinctive emotional reaction is to hurt back, to desire vengeance. When that seems impossible, when we find that we can’t “get even”, then the emotion festers and turns to bitterness and even hatred. The blind emotional impulse to strike back serves a purpose, as in the case of an immediate, grave, physical danger, but the mind must judge the appropriate reaction in the circumstances.

Nevertheless, once the damage is done, we must let go of the emotion and abandon the desire for personal vengeance. Most of all, we must not let the hurt fester; we must not hug it tight, nursing a grudge.

We must rather move towards an interior act of forgiveness; this is a decision of the will choosing not to hold the offense against the person; choosing not to “keep score”.

One path to take would be to set Jesus Christ crucified before the mind’s eye and say to him, “Lord Jesus, I know that you want me to forgive; Lord Jesus, I beg of you the grace to forgive; Lord Jesus, in your name, I forgive this person for what he has done to me.” Once that act is made, a person should avoid dwelling any longer on the injury done; if it comes to mind, he should try to put it back out of his mind, repeating the act of forgiveness if necessary.

Another path, which is very good in the case of an ongoing offense, would be to consider the offending party not as he is now, but in the light of eternity and of God’s love. In this light, we recognize that as God loves me, so he loves that person; that as God desires my eternal salvation, so he desires that person’s eternal salvation. Then we pray in a special way for the person who has hurt us and maybe continues to hurt us, apart from the conflict of the moment, asking God to have mercy on that person and lead him someday to eternal salvation.

Once we have forgiven the person in our heart, if that person then turns to us with a sincere request for forgiveness it will be easy to say to him, “Yes, I forgive you.” Sometimes, it might even be appropriate to reach out to the person in anticipation, forgiving him before he asks, thereby reassuring him in his fear.

Once we have forgiven, we must not count the forgiven offense against the person; should he offend again, we must treat the new offense as new, not as the 3^rd, 4^th, or 5^th time.

Consider again the example of God’s mercy.

If someone lives in the grace of God, performing deeds that are pleasing to God, then falls into mortal sin, and then repents, goes to confession, and is restored to God’s grace, his past good works from before he sinned are not forgotten by God. The theologians speak of his past merit before God as returning to life or being resurrected. It is not that way with sin. When God forgives our sins, they are gone; if we fall back into sin again, our past sins do not revive; they are not held against us by God. As he has forgiven us, so must we forgive others, remembering their past goodness, but forgetting their past faults.

But does forgiving someone require that we restore them to our friendship, as God restores us to his friendship? Of course, that question presupposes the offender was once a close friend. Nor was a person who was manipulative and abusive, under the pretense of friendship, ever a true friend. There is certainly no need to make the stranger a friend after he offends and is forgiven.

Nevertheless, we must take into account the human reality of both ourselves and the offender, as well as the damage done. To receive someone back into full friendship after a serious offense is to take the risk of being wounded again; that requires both trust that the other person is not likely to offend again and sufficient interior healing that, should he offend again, one will be prepared to receive the new hurt; remember, suffering and love are inseparable because love and risk are inseparable. In marriage, where each one has promised to love his spouse until death, restoration of full friendship is most definitely the ideal to be sought and prayed for. Yet, even here the damage might be so great that, at least for a time, full friendship might seem out of the picture.

Remember that after baptism, after someone has become a friend of God, and sins and is forgiven in the confessional as far as the guilt, he still must do penance and so work, in union with Christ, to make up for the damage done by his sin to his relation with God and his relation to others. In the first centuries in the life of the Church, penance for grievous sins was done before the absolution was given. So, in human relationships, sometimes it is necessary to verify first that the person, having been forgiven, will work to restore the relationship; at other times, the person is received back into full friendship, trusting that he will do his part to restore the damage done.

In all of this, it is necessary to listen to Christ’s teaching, meditate upon his words, contemplate his example, then apply it in our own lives in accordance with the virtue of prudence, by which the mind judges the varying circumstances and situations, so as to determine how to put Christ’s teaching into practice here and now.