Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as with the after-feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration!

Today in the Gospel reading we heard the familiar to all of us parable of the unmerciful servant. Of course, we also all know well the message of this parable, that since our Lord Jesus Christ is ready to forgive our sins, we are also obliged to forgive our debtors. Today, let’s focus our attention on the King from the parable, that is, on the Lord Himself, on His particular love for man, and on His mercy.

Although it is difficult to establish exactly how much silver was contained in 10,000 talents, it is clear that this is an enormous sum. It is equal not to a thousand or even a million dollars, but to hundreds of millions. A regular person would probably have a hard time thinking of ways to spend all this money. It turns out that this man was not a simple servant, but some kind of government official, who was at the head of a department or ministry of a country. Despite the trust placed in him by the King, he lost all, or at least a large part, of his budget.

The punishment that was meted out by the King did not in any way correspond to the enormity of the crime, for the price of a slave or even several slaves (the unmerciful servant himself, his wife, and children) could not have covered the amount of debt. The words of the unmerciful servant to his King, “Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all,” were insincere, since it would have been impossible for one man to find such a quantity of silver to return to the government coffers. Disregarding all of these facts, the merciful King forgave the entire debt. Let’s underline that He did not allow the servant to go free so as to find a way to repay the money, but actually forgave the debt in its entirety.

In like manner, God is loving towards each one of us. The Lord created us and placed us as stewards of His creation. To each of us he granted an overabundance of abilities to conduct our own lives, so as to live well here on earth, as well as to inherit a place in the eternal Heavenly Kingdom. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget this, wastefully use or abuse the divine gifts that have been given to us, sin, and become debtors to our Creator. Despite this and the fact that often we repeat the same sins, the Lord, according to His extraordinary mercy, forgives all every time we ask. Let us try to reflect in ourselves this divine mercy and to forgive those that sin against us.

priest Alexis