Daily Catholic Lectio
Thu, 13 Aug 2026
XIX Week in Ordinary Time
Eze 12:1-12. Mt 18:21-19:1
Not Only Seven Times
In today’s Gospel, Peter comes to Jesus with a question: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter thinks that he is being generous. Seven is already a complete number. To forgive seven times looks like great patience.
But Jesus takes Peter beyond calculation: “I say to you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Jesus is not giving a new number. He is changing the whole way of looking at forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a matter of counting. Forgiveness is a way of life in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus then tells the parable of the unforgiving servant. A servant owes a huge debt to his master. He cannot repay it. The master, moved with compassion, forgives the entire debt. But the same servant goes out and finds another servant who owes him a very small amount. He refuses mercy. He grabs him, chokes him, and puts him in prison.
Here Jesus teaches us three lessons.
First, forgiveness must move from up to down.
In the parable, forgiveness begins from the master. The master is above the servant. He has authority. He has power. He has the right to demand payment. Yet he chooses mercy.
This is the first movement of forgiveness. It comes from above. It comes from God to us. We receive forgiveness before we give forgiveness. Every Christian begins life as a forgiven person. We do not stand before others as innocent judges. We stand before them as forgiven debtors.
Therefore, forgiveness must move from God to us, and from us to others. It cannot stop with us. When it stops with us, it becomes a blocked river. When it flows through us, it becomes life.
Second, forgiveness must depend on the compassion that one receives.
The problem of the unforgiving servant is not that he forgot the law. He forgot compassion. He received mercy, but he did not allow mercy to change his heart.
The master forgave him because he was moved with compassion. That compassion should have become the servant’s inner memory. When he met the other servant, he should have remembered: “I too was forgiven. I too was spared. I too was lifted up.”
Many times, we want justice from others, but mercy from God. We want God to be patient with us, but we are impatient with others. We want God to forget our past, but we keep the past of others alive.
True forgiveness is born when we remember the compassion we have received. The one who remembers mercy becomes merciful. The one who forgets mercy becomes hard.
Third, God’s anger and compassion must be understood together.
The parable ends with the anger of the master. The same master who first showed compassion now becomes angry. This may disturb us. But God’s anger is not the opposite of His compassion. God’s anger protects compassion from being insulted.
God is angry when mercy is received but not shared. God is angry when the forgiven person becomes cruel. God is angry when grace becomes a private possession and does not become a relationship.
In today’s first reading, Ezekiel performs a symbolic action of exile. He carries his baggage and goes out through a hole in the wall. The people have turned away from God. Yet even in judgement, God is speaking, warning, calling, and seeking their return. God’s anger is never without compassion. His judgement is meant to awaken life.
Today Jesus invites us not to count forgiveness. Not seven times. Not only when it is easy. Not only when the other person deserves it. We forgive because we have been forgiven.
Let us carry one question today: Whom must I forgive because God has forgiven me?
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
A Yesni Prays Initiative
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