Unmerciful Debtor Bishop Vasily 2025

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Today, our Lord and Savior

speaks to us through a parable. The story that

he tells us serves as the answer in the form

of a parable to the question of Apostle Peter,

not included in the reading today. If my brother

sins against me, asks the apostle, how often

should I forgive? Seven times. The Lord responds,

not seven, but seventy times seven, meaning not

exactly that number, but meaning an incalculable

number. The parable that the Lord tells after

this conversation is rather, on the one hand,

is rather uncomplicated. It seems to be, an expression

of the ancient saying, of the ancient golden

rule of the moral law, do unto others what is

done unto you, what you wish to be done unto

you. A king wanted his servant to repay his humongous

debt, but in response to his begging for mercy,

forgave him his debt. A man who was forgiven

then pursued his fellow servant and required

his much lesser debt from that last person. He

was found out and punished for the lack of mercy.

In the parable, the Lord seeks to relate to us

the meaning of the kingdom. That's how the parable

begins. The kingdom of heaven is like this king.

Thus, the meaning of salvation, and he speaks

about debt and forgiveness. The reality of debt,

of being in debt, is, of course, very much familiar

to us in our daily struggles. In our daily lives,

we often live in debt. We owe money to institutions

for anything, for our school or for other things.

And for us, being an independent person is to

be debt -free, not owing anyone anything, something

that we accomplish through our own efforts. We

have reached that goal. We have achieved it.

We are proud of it, that we don't owe anyone

anything. But if we look deeper into reality

of our life, we see that it's not quite true.

We owe a debt of gratitude. in thanksgiving to

so many people among many people our parents

our teachers our colleagues our friends without

whom we wouldn't be who we are we would not have

come into existence as human beings or as the

persons we are many of us have come into orthodoxy

through through discovering this great truth

about the meaning of concerning God, concerning

ourselves. And we stand here in gratitude and

thanksgiving for being Orthodox, that we are

now in the Orthodox Church. But we owe a debt

of gratitude to those of our ancestors who were

not Orthodox, thanks to whom we have reached

this point, we have come to this place. In a

more profound sense, we are the creatures of

God, all of us whom God called from non -existence

into being. And it is to God, the author of life,

the maker of heaven and earth, that we owe our

existence, the debt that we can never repay.

We read in the Psalms, the heavens are thine,

the earth also is thine. All that exists, visible

and invisible, is already in the dominion of

God. All that is already belongs to God in our

very life. And thus in the divine liturgy, when

the deacon elevates the gifts above the holy

table, the priest prays on behalf of us all that

thy known of thy known we offer unto God. That

is, we offer God what he already has in his possession,

created gifts out of his own creation. But why

then we offer it if he already has it? God speaks

in the Psalms to the prophet, offer to God a

sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to

the Most High. We cannot repay God for everything

that he has done for us. We humble creatures

cannot repay God, our Creator, with an appropriate

sacrifice, for we owe Him everything. What He

requires of us is our heart, our spirit, our

broken spirit, the sacrifice of thanksgiving,

praise, glorification, and repentance. God speaks

through Isaiah, Wash yourselves, make yourselves

clean, remove the evil of your doings from before

mine eyes. For there is another debt that we

owe, the weight that lies heavily on us as human

race, our debts, our transgressions and sins

that we commit before God and before one another,

the corruption of the human nature by death and

sin that alienates us from God, that enslaved

our existence to the vicious cycle of seeking

futile pleasures. living the life alien to God

and to each other, ending in death. Throughout

its history, human beings were extremely inventive

in manifold ways to oppress one another, to enslave

one another, to hate one another, and to turn

the reason given to us by our Creator into the

instrument of hatred. countries and nations went

to war against each other and still do and pass

on to the alienation and prejudice to the subsequent

generations. And it is only the mercy of God

that human race has not obliterated itself from

the face of the earth. In our own individual

lives, we hold grudges, we remember offenses,

and it is so hard for us to let go of the memory

of someone slighting us, hurting us. In our own

weakness and sinfulness, we perpetuate in our

souls the fruit of another person's offense.

It is easy to say that we have to forgive, but

it is sometimes so hard to forgive. of the lord

is clear in the prayer that he gives his disciples

so to us too in the lord's prayer we say the

petition every day forgive us our debts as we

forgive our debtors we are called to forgive

for how can we ask forgiveness of god if we do

not try to forgive how can we say lord have mercy

if our hearts are not merciful In the parable

that we read today, we see our Lord further expanding

to us his commandment. We are called to forgive

one another, for we were forgiven first. That's

how the parable is structured. King forgives

an enormous debt to this person. He forgives

that debt. And then the person who leaves the

presence of the king does not forgive his much

lesser debt. And so this, of course, shows that

we are called to forgive, for God forgave us

first. The debt of sin and transgression, the

slavery to the devil and corruption, was lifted

and repaid, and we were set free. For Christ,

the Word, the Light, the Power of God, the Immortal

Son of God, came to dwell among us as the one

mediator between God and mankind and gave himself

as a ransom for all people. Through our Lord

Jesus and in him, God reconciled to himself all

things, making peace through the blood of his

cross, where Christ has offered himself as the

perfect sacrifice for our salvation. Of this

sacrifice, the fruit of thanksgiving and praise,

of this sacrifice we partake when we gather as

a church for the Eucharist, the thanksgiving,

and the liturgy that we offer to him who has

already all things and who gave us everything

needed for our salvation. He showed his love

for us by dying for us sinners to grant us reconciliation,

freedom, salvation, and forgiveness. If we are

truly the disciples of Christ, we are called

to forgive one another, for we were forgiven

once and for all. If it is hard for us to forgive,

we call upon God through his power, for his mercy,

for his grace, to give us an ability to forgive,

to enable us to forgive. For we cannot do this

with our own strength. But we are called to forgive,

not once, not seven times. but to live our life

in repentance and forgiveness and humility, remembering

the great debt that our race has owed to our

Creator and the immeasurable mercy and forgiveness

that flowed from the tomb of Christ who rose

from the dead. It may be beyond our capacity

to stop all hatred and violence in the world.

It is likely that it will never stop until the

world will end. But we begin with ourselves.

As Saint Seraphim of Sarov has famously said,

acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around

you will be saved. Let us take care of our own

spiritual house, our hearts, our souls. Let us

forgive one another, pray for one another, offer

our praise and thanks unto God, for we were the

lost sheep. And Christ, our shepherd, came, forgave

us, and opened to us his kingdom. Amen.