SAINT NICHOLAS

Byzantine Catholic Church
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23300 King Drive, Clinton Township, MI 48035   *   +1-586-791-1052   *   stnicksbyzantine@yahoo.com

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

    “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a man was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. Since he had no possible way to repay what he owed, his master ordered him to be sold, together with his wife, his children, and all his property, to satisfy the debt. At this, the servant fell to his knees, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you in full.’ Moved with compassion, the master of that servant let him go and canceled the debt.

    “However, when that servant left, he encountered one of his fellow servants who owed him one hundred denarii, and, choking him, he demanded, ‘Pay me back what you owe.’ His fellow servant fell to his knees and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Be patient with me and I will repay you.’  But he turned a deaf ear and had him thrown into prison until he had repaid the debt.

    “When his fellow servants observed what had happened, they were greatly upset, and, going to their master, they reported everything that had taken place. Then his master sent for the man and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you for your complete debt because you begged me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?’ And in his anger his master handed him over to be tortured until he repaid the entire debt. In the same way, my heavenly Father will also deal with you unless each of you forgives his brother from the heart.”

• The law of pardon must ceaselessly renew the fraternal relationships in the Church. It is founded on the goodness of God who gratuitously forgives the immense sin of human beings!!!

• Ten thousand talents: A talent was a large amount of money. Estimates vary on just how much a talent would be worth in modern terms. But one way of measuring it by considering the fact that a single talent was worth twenty years of a common laborer's wages. An approximation might be to say, a modest wage labor earns $40,000.00 in salary plus benefits (statistic of 2022 year). If so, this comes to $800,000.00. When Jesus said the servant owed ten thousand talents, His point was not the precise amount (in our case $8 billion), any more than the limits of forgiveness was to be four hundred and ninety times. His point was that the debt the servant owed his king was absurdly unpayable for him.

• One hundred denarii: The amount of the fellow slave's debt was a hundred denarii. A denarius was worth a day's wages. So, this amount was considerable (a third of a year's income—$13,333.33 in our example) but minuscule by comparison to what the king's servant was forgiven.