AUG 21: CONFESSION – 8:30 AM, DIVINE LITURGY – 9:00 AM (LIVE-STREAMED), DIVINE LITURGY – 11:00 AM.
PROPERS: 08-21-22_Sunday_DL
Parishes live-streaming in the Diocese can be found here: https://www.eparchyofpassaic.com/livestream
The gospel today – Mathew 18: 23-35, is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. It talks about Jesus explaining how we are to treat our offending brethren—Jesus explains why we should forgive. Jesus is teaching His disciples, and us, by extension, that forgiveness should be in like proportion to the amount forgiven. Jesus uses the example in which the first servant had been forgiven all by the King, and therefore, the servant should have forgiven all. Instead when a fellow servant owed him, he did not forgive. Thus, Jesus brings home the point of the parable – “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” God has forgiven us, and so we are to forgive others, Jesus says, “from your heart.” That is, forgive, not just outwardly, pretending or smoothing things over, but truly releasing the offenders debt to us. If we don’t do this, God will treat us like the king treated the servant he had previously forgiven. A clear warning to us.
