Thursday, 19th Wk: "I forgave you your entire debt"

... because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’

-- Mt 18:15-20

Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.

-- CCC 2843

(Read a reflection by Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio on Christian forgiveness here.)