Mt 18,21-35 – Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
«Lord, how many times will I have to forgive my brother if he sins against me? Up to seven times? Peter asks Jesus a very concrete question, which belongs to everyone’s experience. Jesus responds with words that surpass all human calculation: “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven”. It’s not a mathematical question. It is not a question of establishing a precise limit, but of indicating a completely different logic than the one we are used to.
The theme of forgiveness It often creates great embarrassment in our lives. And this happens for a very simple reason: God has placed a profound sense of justice in the heart of man. When that justice is violated, something inside us reacts. We get angry, we feel hurt, we want to restore a balance that has been shattered. It is a natural reaction, which belongs to our conscience. For this reason, forgiveness, at first sight, it may seem like a form of injustice. As if forgiving meant minimizing the harm received or pretending that nothing happened.
But the Gospel does not ask us to deny the reality of evil. Jesus does not invite us to ignore injustice, nor to stop desiring goodness and truth. Rather, he asks us something deeper: do not allow the evil received to transform our hearts. When we don’t forgive, evil continues to work within us. The offense does not remain confined to the past, but becomes a presence that hardens us, that makes us suspicious, that slowly resembles more and more the pain we have suffered. In this sense, forgiveness is not first of all a favor done for another, but a liberation for ourselves.
It is the way we prevent evil from having the final say in our lives. But the real question is another: those who do not recognize themselves as forgiven find it very difficult to forgive others. If we think we are always right, if we believe we have nothing to be forgiven for, then forgiveness becomes incomprehensible. But when we become aware of the mercy we have received — of the times in which we have been welcomed, supported, raised up — then a new space is born within us.
Tuesday 10 March 2026 – (Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent)
