The Gospel for The memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, priest and martyr, is taken from Matthew 18:21. Peter approached Jesus and asked him, lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times, Jesus answered, I say to you, not seven times, but 77 times. That’s why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.

Since he had no way of paying it back, the master ordered him to be sold along with his wife, his children, and all his property in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage and said, be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full. Moved with compassion, the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him, started to choke him, demanding, pay back what you owe. Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, be patient with me and I will pay you back.

But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now, when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have pity on your fellow servant as I had pity on 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 his brother from his heart. When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and he went to the district of Judea across the Jordan. What always stands out to me in this passage is the fact that this man who represents humanity, has been given an enormous gift, say a million dollars, and turns around and beats up a buddy who owes him 5. Why such a split between the two? It’s because Jesus is making reference to the awesome gift of forgiving all of our sins in his act on the cross. And we won’t forgive our brothers and sisters when we refuse to forgive our brother over whatever they have done.

It’s clear that we’ve lost sight of what’s been done for us. That’s the key. Understand the redemption that Jesus won for us. Freedom from all sin. Please reflect on the meaning of these readings, and I will close with a prayer. Foreign closing prayer.

Father, you ask that we face our sins, that we own them. But we often don’t do that for fear that we will alienate ourselves from you or from ourselves or others. Lead us to a place we accept our selfishness, face it and change. And we ask this in Jesus name, amen.