Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus responds to Peter’s question about forgiveness. Jesus answers, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” On hearing this reading, I imagine in Peter a kind of childlike approach to Jesus, as if he had asked among this question, hundreds of others to get down to the most granular detail of Jesus’ teachings. In this question, Peter encloses within the big picture (forgiveness) the most particular (how many times?).
In the readings from just a couple of days ago, Jesus brought a child into the midst of the disciples, saying that unless they become like little children, they would not enter the Kingdom of heaven. God, help me understand that and take it to heart in the midst of the day when the full burden of adult responsibility weighs on me. Thank you for Peter’s example, who surely had his own heavy responsibilities to bear, yet turned to Jesus and asked him about both the great and the small.
How good you are, Lord, for being present in various ways—in the Blessed Sacrament, in the Eucharist, in my conscience, and in your forgiveness of my sins. Let the radiance of your presence shine its rays on me today, not for any consolation of your nearness, but to show me how to love and forgive others in the same way you do—in your unfathomable mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.