[AI translation] I would like to pick up where I left off last night... The first part of the parable was about the desperately indebted servant who, despite all his expectations, was given grace. His Lord forgave him all his debts. He forgives him so that now, freed from his old burdens, he can start a whole new life. "We came out of last night's great reckoning as pardoned: someone else paid the great debt of our lives, the ransom, for us. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sin. The forgiveness we received closed the past year and opened the door to a new beginning. As if from the royal palace of God's grace we come, unencumbered, to begin a new year... So now let's talk about how to continue? This second part of the parable gives us a serious warning and teaching on this.The protagonist of our parable has barely stepped out of the palace gates, barely taken his first steps on the road of daily life, when the happy, liberated feeling that had just filled his soul is already as nothing as snow in the sun. Suddenly, he finds himself face to face with one of his miserable servants, to whom he had once lent a small sum of money. Compared to what he owed his master, at least, this debt is a trifle. So this man is now in the same situation with his colleague there as the king was with his colleague before - with the difference that here it is only a hundred denarii, barely a hundred forints, whereas there it is tens of thousands of talents, millions. And here he is doing to his colleague the opposite of what his master did to him before: pay the debtor! What is rightfully mine, I demand! The man who has just had the experience of sin and mercy is now enforcing the law of sin and punishment against his fellow man. He is legally right. From a business point of view, no one can take it ill of man to enforce his claim... That is true, but the situation is different here. The fact that something happened between the king and the servant, something that should have had an effect on the man's whole life, on his relations with people. This man acted impeccably according to the law: he who owes must pay, that's the way it is between men, it's the law!
But this man forgot something. That he had just been accepted into the grace of God, despite all his expectations, and that his behaviour should reflect the same mercy to others. Because our life, our behaviour, always echoes something, it is just a question of what? And on that question depends whether we are truly followers of Jesus? So, on what our behaviour is an echo of: is it an echo of the way God treats us, or of the way people treat us? Because the normal human attitude is "as God gives, so God receives"! In other words, if someone is good to us, we will treat him the same way, but if someone is unfriendly, cruel, evil, what else can we expect from him but the same?! Did he hurt me with his behaviour, insult me, look right through me? - Me too! It's only natural, isn't it? Does someone owe you the minimum courtesy, humanity, attention, and not even give it? - Well, then I don't give it to him! Yes, it's natural, even legally impeccable - just not Christian behaviour.
And unfortunately, there are very many Christians like that! People who, week after week, appear before the King for questioning - like we did last night - and beg for mercy, receive forgiveness, but no sooner do they step out of the church door than they do the opposite to their fellow man of what God did to them in church. At the Lord's table! In the silence of prayer! - Do you feel that this kind of self-contradictory pseudo-Christianity is the deepest reason why so many people do not want to be Christians?! Yes: if we offend God, God forgives us, but if someone dares to offend us, we cannot forgive him! - If we get into trouble, we rebel against God, and we are indignant and ask: how can God allow this?! But if someone tries to rebel against us and demand something from us, we react bitterly! We hardly have time for God, we hardly have a tiny little place in our hearts, we hardly have money, but if another person does not have time for us or does not want to help us: we are outraged! The fact that God, in spite of everything, graciously accepts us into His love and has released us from our debts is fine, we expect it! But we treat those who sin against us in the same way as before. God forgive me, but I will collect from people what I think they owe me!
Well, my brethren, this is what God will not tolerate! The mercy, the forgiveness of sins that I do not pass on, he takes back from me. When God forgives someone, he is actually giving them an opportunity. It's like when someone is convicted but the sentence is suspended for a probationary period. Yes, God has sealed and signed it with the blood of Jesus that he wants to be merciful to us, that we can be his child, that we can remain his child - but if now one does not live on it, does not pass on what God has given him: he himself loses everything. Not only do I lose everything, but the very grace I have received from God becomes an accusation against me. Whoever does not pass on the forgiveness of sins, the goodness, the love he has received from God to others, to his colleagues, his friends, his enemies, will have his old debt of ten thousand talents reappear, for whom Jesus died in vain, and will crucify his Saviour again! And so it is written in this parable, "And his lord was angry, and delivered him into the hand of the executioners, until he had paid all that he owed."
Peter, when he asked Jesus, "Lord, how many times can my father's son sin against me and be forgiven, even seven times?", was actually suggesting where the boundaries of Christian love for our neighbour lie? Is there a limit where I can say: but after this, neither God nor man can expect more from me; now the limit is reached, I can take no more! What is too much is too much! After all, I am only a man! My patience will run out one day...
Well, this question is wrong because it is based on the assumption that to do good to another person, to forgive him, to be patient and understanding with him, is the result of some kind of moral effort, and requires extraordinary self-control on the part of man. And apparently this is true, because, for example, if someone steps on my corn, it is much easier for me to step on his. And it is much more difficult to restrain myself, to control this natural reaction and to suppress the anger that is building up. And self-control requires a strong will, and the will gets tired after a while, and then you reach the point where you - you freak out. To tolerate the same man's insolence seven times in a row? - Is that not too much, Lord?
But Jesus takes the whole issue to a different level. He says: If you are really serious about how often you offend God, and that you are allowed to ask again every morning and every evening, "Forgive us our trespasses." - and that God does indeed forgive you everything; if you really take this seriously, then being good, patient, loving to another person is no longer a matter of strong will and self-control, but something quite different! Then do not call upon your will-power, but beg like this: Lord, you always forgive me again, you always see in me your child. Thou hast suffered a terrible death so that I might remain a child of God in spite of all my debts; do not let me be merciless to my fellow-servant, who, after all, owes me such a trifling sum!
Do you feel it? It is not a question of my summoning up all my will, of my good intentions, and trying to be kind and helpful to this wretch, who does not deserve it. No! It's quite another matter. It is that I always think first of what I have received from God: full forgiveness of sins - I can give it to anyone, anytime, any number of times, I have plenty of it! So: first just a look at the cross, where Someone paid for me, and then the will works effortlessly, by itself. Then it is one of those things for which Jesus says: "All these things shall be given to you!" And then I won't be exhausted and weary even if I have to forgive someone again seventy times seven times - because God doesn't even bother with me!
Well, brothers and sisters, a new year is beginning. We come before the throne of grace, so let us begin a new life in accordance with it. Let us not forget that the divine mercy which we ask for again and again, which we receive again and again, which we received last night at the reckoning: it can only remain ours if we pass it on immediately and to everyone. If we pour it over ourselves. Let this be our motto: what can I pass on and to whom can I pass on the love, the goodness, the patience that God has given me for the merit of Jesus? Let us transmit the warmth, the strength, the serenity of God's goodness to us to the people around us. In the new year, let us start something new: let us start to really love people! In this way, we ourselves will become more and more saturated with God's love. Whoever places one hand in the hand of God should not threaten, hurt or hit his fellow human being with the other hand, but should hold his fellow human being's hand in such a way that the circuit of divine love is closed and this wonderful circuit continues to circulate among us with creative power.
That is why we would be Christians. Let us be - Christians! For we are not called to be an echo of the evil in the world, but of the immense, inexhaustible love that flows unceasingly from the cross of Jesus! To pass on, again to pass on - even seventy times seven times to pass on what we have received from God in Jesus Christ and always receive again.
Let us sing it with all our hearts:
"United in love,
We are members of one body,
We can fight for each other,
Shed blood if we must.
He loved his earthly flock
And died for us our good Lord;
He would be grieved to see us,
That we cannot love."
(Song 395, verse 2)
Date: 1 January 1967 New Year