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The Time After Pentecost
then God forgives us our entire debt and the punishment which we have so keenly deserved.
He restores us to the state of grace and receives us again among His beloved children.
Prayer
Watch over Thy household, we beseech thee, O Lord, with continual mercy, that through Thy
protection it may be freed from all adversities and be devoted to good works. Through Christ
our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
The liturgy last Sunday directed our attention to the last days. We now await the return of the
Lord, the day of judgment, and our final sentence. “The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king
who would take an account of his servants” (Gospel). The king is both merciful and just. To the
servant who asks to be forgiven his debts, he grants mercy. But the servant who is unmerciful
toward his fellow servant, he delivers to the torturers “until he paid all the debt.”
The Lord is merciful. The indebtedness of His servant is immense, and He has the right to demand
full payment. But He shows mercy to him and cancels the whole debt: “I forgave thee all the debt
because thou besoughtest me” (Gospel). When God forgives, He forgives completely. When
He finds a sinner penitent, contrite, and disposed to amend his life, He forgives the whole debt.
If the sinner is capable of an act of perfect contrition, a perfect act of love, it is apparent that he is
prepared to do whatever God requires, and God forgives his entire debt, his sins and the temporal
punishment due to them. God is a merciful God. With justice He could leave us in our sins. But He
bears patiently with us until the very hour of our death, continually inviting us to repentance and
amendment. Because of His mercy He gives us time to confess our sins, to repent, and to amend
our lives. If we comply, He forgives us our debts and adds His grace. With this grace He gives us His
abiding presence and the right to eternal happiness. “God (who is rich in mercy) for His exceeding
charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ
(by whose grace you are saved), and hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in the
heavenly places, through Christ Jesus. That He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches
of His grace in His bounty towards us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4–7).
The Lord is just. The servant whose immense debt had been entirely forgiven goes out and
meets a fellow servant. The amount this servant owes him is trifling in comparison with that
which he owed his master. His fellow servant falls on his knees and beseeches him, “Have patience
with me, and I will pay thee all.” But the wicked servant will show no mercy to his fellow
servant. Cruelly and without hesitation he has him cast into prison until he pays the entire debt.
Now the master hears of this wicked act and is grieved, so that he delivers the wicked servant
to the torturers “until he paid all the debt.”
God is thorough in His administration of justice as well as in His mercy. We, too, must make
complete satisfaction for the temporal punishment due to sin, either in this world or in purgatory.
“Thou shalt not go out from thence [from the pains of purgatory] till thou repay the last
farthing” (Mt 5:26). And should a soul have the misfortune to appear before God in the state
of mortal sin, God is still thorough in His justice and condemns that soul to hell for all eternity.
Such a sinner will never be able to pay all his debt. He must remain eternally separated from
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