THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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A good Sunday to all. 

When we are offended, our immediate, spontaneous reaction is not forgiveness but resentment and hatred, especially when the harm inflicted has left deep wounds that do not fade over time and sometimes last a lifetime. In these cases, the natural reaction is to repay the pain inflicted. This primitive instinct has throughout history caused duels and endless struggles, shaping relationships between people. 

Forgiveness does not come spontaneously; it is not natural. We even have difficulty forgiving ourselves because we torment ourselves with remorse and refuse to accept the humiliation of our weakness. We have a high opinion of ourselves, and guilt and self-punishment only hurt us when that sense of self is wounded. On the other hand, he who has a serene relationship with himself recognizes his own mistake and can recover positively from the bitter experience of sin. 

If it’s hard to forgive ourselves, it is even more difficult to forgive others because the disappointment, the pain of betrayal, and the fear that the offense will be repeated are very significant. The impulse to sever relationships and take revenge is practically unstoppable. 

Many thinkers have approved of revenge; among them is Nietzsche, who said that if he forgives, he is weak and cannot assert his rights. Goodness is an inability to rebel; patience is cowardice; forgiveness is the inability to take revenge. Freud, too, opposed forgiveness. For him, it was an absurd demand and harmful to the individual’s psychic balance. 

I think that today, science no longer agrees with these thinkers. We know very well that hatred, animosity, and resentment do not support a person’s inner balance, nor do they ensure peaceful sleep, let alone a serene and happy life. In addition, they encourage the use of psychotropic drugs. 

But the most important question is another. Is revenge an expression of humanity, or a regression to pre-human behavior? We come from the pre-human naturally … What is the last link? The ‘Homo sapiens sapiens’? But if people build bombs … they have not yet become fully human … they are at the level of beasts. The previous link in evolution is the ‘homo amans’—only when one loves the person is one fully human. Therefore, revenge should be excluded from human behavior if things are like this. 

In Jesus’ time, there was strong emphasis on maintaining peaceful relationships; revenge, anger, and hatred were condemned, and reconciliation was demanded. The rabbis said that those who made mistakes should acknowledge them and seek forgiveness from the offended person, and that the offended person was obliged to grant it. If the offended person rejected it, the offender had to bring two witnesses and, again, in their presence, apologize to the person he had offended. This way, he could show that he had done everything possible to live peacefully. If the offended person died before reconciliation, the offender had to go to the grave and ask for forgiveness. But the obligation to forgive was restricted to the children of the people of Israel, not to the pagans. 

Especially, the number of times one was forced to forgive was 3. On the fourth time, he had every right to go the legal route. Indeed, Peter understood that, in this area as well, Jesus was not limited to what the best and most generous of rabbis had established: forgiving three times. He must have understood … in fact, let’s listen to what he asks the Master:

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

Peter’s question to Jesus: Will I have to forgive my brother up to seven times? He revealed that he had begun to understand that the Master wanted to go beyond all limits the rabbis had established for forgiveness. Perhaps he had already heard a phrase Jesus had said, as the evangelist Luke narrates in chapter 17: “If your brother sins seven times a day against you—not seven times in total, seven times in a day against you—and seven times he comes to ask for forgiveness, you must forgive him.” 

Peter is puzzled because he knows that the number 7 is not “quantitative” but “qualitative” and that you must forgive without condition. And now he wants Jesus to confirm it … “Did I understand what you mean?” The Master’s response goes far beyond what Peter expected. “Jesus answered him: I do not tell you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” 

The reference to Jesus is to the furious cry of Lamech, the son of Cain, who summoned his two women (the first polygamist the Bible mentions) and said: “Cain took revenge seven times; Lamech seventy times seven.” Lamech’s retaliation reached infinity. With this reference, Jesus says to Peter: ‘Forgiveness must reach infinity, just as Lamech’s retaliation reached infinity.’ 

And now Jesus clarifies his position with a parable. Let’s listen: 

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 who owed him a huge sum was brought before him. Because he could not repay it, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, children, and all his property, to pay the debt. At that, the servant fell to the ground, 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. 

The first scene takes place in the royal palace. The great sovereign reviews the accounts and discovers that one of his servants owes him ten thousand talents—a considerable debt. A talent is not a currency but a unit of weight, equivalent to 58.9 kilograms of gold. If we multiply that by ten thousand, it amounts to 589 tons of gold. Remember the annual tax revenue of the kingdom of Herod the Great, who built large cities: Caesarea, the temple in Jerusalem, palaces, and fortresses… his fiscal income was 900 talents. An immense sum. Here, the figure is intentionally exaggerated because Jesus wants to introduce us to the immensity of God’s infinite forgiveness. 

We are sometimes left a little puzzled when presented with this parable because he tells us: ‘You cannot forgive any small rudeness that a brother did to you when you have an immense debt to God.’ And we say: ‘Well, things are not that way… I don’t owe as much….’ And sometimes the opposite happens: ‘I am aware that I have made a small mistake, but the others did me great harm.’ This is not what the parable wants to tell us, as we will see later. 

This number means only one thing: the unimaginable greatness of the heart of God. We understand the nuance of two verbs well. The first is the Greek verb the servant uses: Μακροθύμησον – macrothymeson (be patient) = having a big heart in the face of my problem. And the behavior of this great sovereign, God, who is moved with compassion, is expressed with another verb: Σπλαγχνισθεὶς – splagchnizein = moving compassionately, that is, an immense visceral love. God does no reasoning or… calculations … NO. Passionate love appears, which resembles the maternal viscera of God. 

A parenthetical note: In Byzantine icons, when the crucifix is depicted, it is always slender and shown with a prominent belly. This indicates that God’s visceral, immense love has been revealed on the cross. We now close the parentheses. 

This first scene aims to imprint a single truth firmly in our minds: God’s love for humanity is infinite. Although we separate ourselves from Him, He continues to love us. The Bible says that God does not consider our mistakes; He forgets them, leaves them behind, and throws them to the bottom of the sea. It’s not that He approves of evil … no one hates evil more than He does, because corruption and sin dehumanize His sons and daughters. God will never make anyone pay; there will be no retaliation against people; there will be no call to account because God is love and only love. 

Therefore, these 10,000 numbers are meant to show us what God is like, as we will see later; the problem is tuning our hearts to His. Someone might object to this image of God, citing Old Testament texts in which God appears severe, showing resentment toward his enemies and taking revenge; he does not leave the evil-doer unpunished. These texts exist, but we must remember that the Bible presents a progressive revelation of God’s face. God is always the same, but people gradually discover his face, which grows ever brighter and more brilliant. The Bible tells the story of the path people have taken toward God, culminating in the full light of Jesus of Nazareth. 

On Calvary, God will show his immense and infinite love when, after all the evil we have done to him, he says, “I continue to love you.” We have committed this crime, yet in the face of it, God has revealed how much he loves us. It is impossible to go any further than this revelation of love. 

This is the final image of God; those of the Old Testament are a preparation for this complete revelation. And it is this last image of God that we must keep in mind, represented by the number 10,000 in the parable. I would even say that some Christians still have not come to contemplate the last revelation of the face of God and have remained halfway; they have not yet experienced the joy that Jesus came to bring us: the heart of God is infinite in his love. 

At this point, we have come to understand the heart of God. To grasp the parable’s message, we must do one thing. We must erase and cancel what happened in the first scene and what happened in the royal palace. Suppose the parable now begins with the second scene. 

Let’s listen to it together: 

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller sum. He seized him and began to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ Kneeling, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid the debt. 

We have said that we want to set aside, for a moment, what happened in the room of the great sovereign in the first part of the parable. Suppose the parable begins now. We find two servants. One is loaned, and the other owes 100 denarii. And a hundred denarii are not small; they amount to three months of work, and the debtor does not pay … it is as if one did not pay the rent for a whole year. 

So, what does the lender do? He confronts him, takes him by the hands, grabs him by the neck, and tries to collect what the other owes him; ultimately, he puts him in jail. This was how justice was carried out in Jesus’ time. And Jesus uses this comparison. Therefore, the lender has not done anything wrong; he has sought justice. Perhaps the lender could have shown more understanding … he could have said: ‘Let’s see if we can resolve this payment in some other way ….’ Surely, he was hard-hearted, but he is a just person; he acts according to the established laws. 

If the parable had started this way, it would be very logical. The problem is what happened earlier, in the first scene, when he used the same verb his debtor uses: Μακροθύμησον – macrothymeson (have a little patience with me). At this point, the parable’s message becomes clear. Here, we have two kinds of justice: that of God and that of society… (which is ‘justice’ – not ‘injustice,’ but it is the justice of people). 

And Jesus asks: Which of the two justices do you want to tune into? Do you want to be a fair, just person, or do you want to be a son or a daughter of God? You can even destroy your brother or sister if you choose to act according to people’s standards. He who is not a Christian can do it, and no one will condemn him because he acts according to justice. For the non-believer, there is no first scene; there is no reference to the heavenly Father; that person does not know the heart of God and acts with justice. But for you, baptized Christian, there is the first scene: you know the heart of God; you have received his Spirit, his life; you are marked with his DNA. Therefore, you must answer according to the great heart of your God, not according to people’s justice. 

Note that this image of suffocation offers a clear sense of the psychological submission of those who made a mistake. The offender has the other person in his grasp and can suffocate that person; at any moment, he can take away the other person’s joy of living; he can always squeeze them. Let’s think about the mistakes that can be made in a relationship, even a severe one. He who has made a mistake has the other’s hand on his neck; a detail is enough; an allusion to the error made can destroy a person; it can take your breath away and take away the joy of living. It is the conduct of the person who follows the justice of this world. 

So, we ask ourselves: What behavior should the one referring to the first scene assume, since you know the heart of God? The exploiters, the thieves, should not be favored, and perhaps, for the brother’s sake, it may be convenient to seek justice. But when there is no possibility of obtaining a restoration, for example, when it is impossible to delete slander or the humiliation done to me by the one who has the power and cannot be attacked … then the only thing left is revenge. Find a suitable occasion to make him pay, to have the joy of seeing him suffer. The logic of this world tells me: ‘Do it,’ enjoy this satisfaction. Let us remember Nietzsche, Voltaire, and Freud; we have already mentioned them. They advise you: ‘Give yourself that pleasure.’ 

The parable tells you that a son or daughter of God would never do it. You are called to reflect the face of the heavenly Father, who is love and only love. This logic applies only to those who want to be sons or daughters of God, not merely sons or daughters. 

Let’s now listen to what happens in the third scene: 

When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed and went to their master to report the whole affair. His master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have pitied your fellow servant as I pitied you?’ Then, in anger, his master handed him over to the torturers until he could repay the whole debt. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat you if you do not forgive your brothers from the heart. 

Let’s be honest: we don’t like this concluding scene. It is very strong. The image and the language are not ours; they come from the Semitic world of Jesus’s time. Rabbinic literature is abundant with this dramatic image, with its cruel punishments, chains, and sticks given to the wicked. Jesus also uses them. He cannot do otherwise if he wants to be understood; he must use the language of his time. It certainly does not mean that God does these things. 

What does he want to teach us through this language? He wants to tell us only one thing: that the one who does not know how to forgive unconditionally can be considered fair by the standards of this world. Still, God does not recognize him as a son or daughter; He does not see His likeness in that person. The sons and daughters of God must be merciful, that is, have hearts as big as the heart of the heavenly Father. You must love unconditionally. 

Paul, in the letter to the Corinthians, says: ‘He who loves has no account of the evil received, always finds reason to understand and to excuse the one who is wrong; does not make negative things public; he trusts his neighbor, he never loses hope that recovery is possible.’ 

God has done us good. We are not created to be alone, but to be together in a family, in society, and in the Christian community. When we are together, we will do well, but inevitably we will also make mistakes; we will get into debt with one another, and therefore we all have ‘bills to pay,’ all of us… some more, some less. And it is good that we are made this way. Through our discussions and disagreements, and through the offenses done and received, we are all offered the opportunity to resemble the heavenly Father, to be his sons and daughters. 

How beautiful to say to ourselves: I do not want to put my hands on the neck of the brother or the sister; I renounce the justice of men because I am a son or daughter of God. And the one who sees that I forgive a hundred denarii cannot help but wonder: ‘This must have a super-rich father, and if his Father is in heaven and he can forgive a hundred denarii, the heavenly Father must forgive 100,000 talents.’ 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.