The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is read today at the Divine Liturgy.
Where is our obedience located in the Lord? Are we humble before Him? Do we belong to Him and adhere to His word? The key to our weekly worship of God –Father, Son and Holy Spirit– and in our daily prayer, is our re-generation (restoration) in Christ Jesus. This re-generation is being renewed in the image and likeness of God the Father.
Jesus is teaching the apostles and disciples some lessons that will be needed for new life: Forgiveness as a gift, it is love in action. The restored life that Jesus offers us known only in humbling ourselves before Grace. Are you willing to imitate the love of the Father?
St. John Chrysostom reflects:
Do you see the mercy of the Lord? Do you see contrasted the lack of mercy of the servant? Listen, all you who do such things for money: one should not act like this because it is a sin. But it is much worse to act like this for money. How then does he plead? “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” But he did not even respect the very words through which he had himself been saved. With these words he himself had been freed from a debt of ten thousand talents! He did not even recognize the harbor by means of which he had escaped shipwreck. Even the gesture of supplication did not remind him of his master’s kindness.
The gospel reflection for today, the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, is here.