The readings for third Tuesday in Lent make a strong case for the power of forgiveness. The Old Testament passage is Daniel 3: 25-27, 34-43. Sadly it is not in the protestant version of the Bible; nevertheless it is the text of the remarkable "Song of the Three Young Men," in which they invoke God's covenant commitment to his people and ask God to forgive and redeem them.
In the New Testament pericope, Matthew 18: 21-35, Saint Peter asks Jesus how many times he is required to forgive someone and posits seven times. Jesus says no, make that seventy-seven times. In other words, he is counselling unlimited forgiveness. What is no so apparent is that Jesus uses play on a Torah passage in Genesis 4 which speaks of avenging Cain seven times and avenging Lamech seventy-seven times. So Jesus is upending that passage and saying we do not need to be vengeful, we need to be forgiving.
Then Jesus tells the story of a debtor who can't repay his master, pleads for forgiveness, and then receives it. He in turn throttles another person who is indebted to him and refuses to forgive the debt. The owner then punishes that first servant. Translated in 2016 Americanese, the first debt owed was about $1 billion, and the second debt was approximately $10,000. If we have been the recipients of forgiveness, divine forgiveness, we must pay it forward.
The saint-du-jour is Saint David, the Patron of Wales.of the fifth century. He founded a monastery, then became its abbot. His manner of ruling the convent so impressed the Prelate of Wales that he chose David as successor bishop. The reason was David's loving demeanour in his treatment and correction of wrongdoers in that community. He followed Jesus' prompt.
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