Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 17th August 2023

The nights are drawing quickly in and the early mornings are getting darker and colder. There’s a definite taste of Autumn in the air, even so I still live in hope of a few more Summer days. Perhaps today we’ll enjoy one. I look forward to visiting my mother together with Toby: I wonder if we’ll get to the beach this time. I must confess that I enjoy watching the new dual carriageway being built between Dowlais Top and Hirwaun, sections 5 and 6 of the A465, each journey we make. It amazes me how they keep the traffic flowing while undertaking such an enormous and difficult project, a real miracle of engineering.

 

​Our Gospel passage from Matthew today, (Mt 18: 21-19:1), is all about forgiveness, as a result of a question Peter puts to Jesus. “Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.’” Seven was, of course, the perfect number synonymous with the concept of always. Should I forgive my brother every time he offends me? Jesus’ reply goes beyond that. We should forgive our brother even before he offends us. We should be disposed to forgive always, and from the very bottom of our hearts. To illustrate the point Jesus uses another parable, quite a long and complicated one. Here it is.

 

“And so, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you.” But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “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.”

 

​I won’t comment on the parable other than to say that Jesus wants to illustrate God’s justice and loving mercy, for at the end of the parable he says, “And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.” The Lord wants us to forgive others as they forgive us and even more so if possible. Jesus came on earth, the Word became flesh, to forgive us our sins. Can we not forgive others theirs, we who have had so much forgiven us?