Forgive us our trespasses

‘. . . Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.’ This petition from the Lord’s Prayer is illustrated by the parable from the gospel for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Matt. 18. 23-35). A king calls his servants to account: one of the servants owes him ten thousand talents and, as he cannot pay the debt, he will be sold, together with his family and all his possessions. The servant begs the king to allow him time to repay, and the king mercifully forgives him the whole debt. However, the servant, on meeting another servant who owes him a very small sum, takes him by the throat and has him thrown into prison. Other servants report this to the king who, in his wrath, hands the servant over to the tormentors until the debt is fully paid off: ‘Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee?’. Jesus ends: ‘So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses’.

We shall underline two very striking points in this parable. God does not forgive our debts because we forgive those of our debtors. Certainly, there is a continuity, a sequence, a parallel (as we forgive…’) between the forgiveness which we receive from God and that which we accord to men, but the second is not the cause of the first. God, in His generosity, takes and keeps the initiative of forgiveness. When we ourselves forgive others, it is not ‘our’ own forgiveness we grant them. We allow the divine forgiveness which we ourselves have received to ‘pass through’ and beyond us, we make ourselves its instruments: for all forgiveness comes from God. And also, we do not only forgive others because they are men, just as we are, but because we are all servants of the same King. Let us today examine every fold of our heart, every corner of our mind, lest some trespass, some injustice that we have not forgiven lies there. We have no right to try to bring to a halt in ourselves the forgiveness that flows from the Cross with the blood of the Saviour. We must allow it to flow freely, we can make it flow on to others, and especially onto those who may have harmed us. If I do not, how shall I dare to say the Lord’s Prayer through to its end? The forgiveness that God grants me, I can send on beyond myself. May it reach those to whom I would extend it, and then come back and remain with me.

Father Lev Gillet, The Year of Grace of the Lord. A Scriptural and Liturgical Commentary on the Calendar of the Orthodox Church, 230.