"So will my heavenly Father do to you"

"Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart." These are the closing words for this Sunday's Gospel reading, and they should cause us to pause for a moment.

The parable from which this comes is called The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. The basic story is that, when the master demands repayment of a large debt, the servant begs for mercy and the master gives it, forgiving him the debt. But when that same servant demands repayment for a much smaller loan he gave to a fellow servant, instead of having mercy he has the fellow servant throw into prison. The basic message: be forgiving! But even deeper... that forgiveness will come to us only as much as we are willing to be forgiving.

This is not a new or unfamiliar message. In the beatitudes Jesus tells us, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Elsewhere Jesus says, "The measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you." And in the great prayer Jesus taught us, the Our Father, we hear those words: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

As we move forward in our lives as Christians today, perhaps we can all take pause and ask ourselves: how seriously do we take this message of mercy? Are we willing to work on forgiving those who have wronged us in our lives? While no one says it is easy, Jesus tells us it is necessary. So, let us pray this week that our hearts may be moved to be merciful, just as our Heavenly Father is merciful. That is one concrete way in which we can reflect the goodness of God to the world. And, according to Jesus' own words, that is how we can be assured that God will be merciful to us when Judgement Day comes.

Want to prepare your heart and mind for Mass this weekend? Click here to find the readings for this Sunday's Mass.