What does it mean to forgive? To forgive means we are making a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offence, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well. If we receive forgiveness from God, we must give it to others who hurt us.
This is where the unforgiving servant in today’s Gospel did not get the point. He thought that he had been given a lucky break when his master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Instead of following his master’s example of generosity, charity and benevolence towards his fellow servant, he became arrogant and nasty, refusing to forgive the other servant who owed him way much less than what he owed his master, and even had the cheek to throw his fellow servant into prison till he should pay his debt. This caused his master to become furious and as the Gospel tells us: “”You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.”
What about us? Are we still like that wicked and unforgiving servant, expecting God and others to forgive us, but refusing to forgive others? As the Gospel also reminds and cautions us, we will be responsible and liable to repay our debts if we refuse to forgive others: “And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.”