Matthew 18:21-35
Lead in #1: When Jesus tells us to forgive seventy times seventy, the point is not simply to add up the number of times we forgive. Rather, as we keep forgiving those who use their power in harmful ways that hurt us, that at the same time we take back our power to not let them hurt us. That’s when we cease being the target of someone’s hostility. As spiritual writer Cathy Hendricks points out, that’s when the cycle is broken and we find ourselves truly free to let go of old resentments and start anew.
Prompt #1: Is there anyone who has used their power against you, that you need to forgive?
Lead in #2: I’ve heard it put this way, “Forgiveness is starting over from zero. Whatever happened in the past has been put to rest and a new relationship is taking its place.” That’s what Jesus calls his followers to do, to live in that same spirit of forgiveness.
Prompt #2: What regrets do you carry from the past that you’d like to put to rest?
Prompt #3: Can you think of someone with whom you’ve formed a new relationship after you were reconciled through mutual forgiveness of each other?
Lead in #3: In the parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 18, we’re appalled by the servant whose merciful master forgives him of the huge debt, but then that same servant promptly goes out and throttles a fellow worker who owes him a mere fraction of the debt he owed. How blind can someone be? Yet, it may be we’ve done that very thing. After being treated with mercy, we go out and treat another with anything but mercy.
Prompt #4: Reflect on a time when you refused to give another the mercy that you were once shown.
Lead in #4: Fr. Ronald Rolheiser suggests that at the end of our lives we ultimately need to do but one thing, forgive. We forgive those who have hurt us. We forgive ourselves for our shortcomings. And we forgive God for all those times that life seemed unfair. We do this so we don’t die angry and bitter.
Prompt #5: Who is it that you need to forgive so you don’t die angry and bitter?
Prompt #6: What in yourself do you need to forgive so you don’t die angry with yourself?
Prompt #7: What do you need to forgive God for so you don’t die angry at God?
Lead in #5: Sirach was a rabbi who ran a school for young people in Jerusalem about 200 years before Christ. In Sirach 27, we hear the prophet’s advice about forgiveness.
Prompt #8: What advice would you give a young person about the importance of forgiveness?