Matthew — Chapter 20

When he had not \ &c. It was the law amongst various nations that if a debtor could not pay, his creditor might sell him with his wife and children, and pay himself with the price for which THE HUNDRED PENCE. 3 T 3 they were sold. That this was the custom among the Jews is seen from 2 Kings iv. i., where the wife of a prophet who had died, said to Elisha, “ Behold the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.” Mystically : S. Jerome, “ As the wife of the just man is called wisdom, so also the wife of the unjust and the sinner is called folly, whose children are evil thoughts.” Falling down , upon his knees, or his face : Besought him. Many Greek MSS. read, irapeicaXti, but the greater number with the Syriac have wpotriKvvei ahrw t worshipped him. The Arabic has, Be patient , and I will give thee what is thine. This servant, that he may escape the sale of himself and his family into slavery promises mountains of gold. “ O my master ! I will pay thee all I owe.” But this was impossible. But he would gain time, that through the delay he might employ the prayers of his friends to bend the mind of the king, whom he knew to be liberal and large-hearted, to forgive him the debt And in this he was not mistaken. Hence it follows : The Lord had compassion , &c. The things are spoken parabolically to show how pleasing to God are a humble confession of sin, and prayer for pardon. Again there is signified how infinite is God's mercy which immediately forgave this vast debt of sin to the servant who asked for it Here is the scope of the parable. It is d priori reasoning. Because God is essentially good and kind, therefore it is His uncreated and infinite goodness and kindness which does good to all, and pardons and spares all, just as it is the property of fire to give heat, and of the sun to give light Thus the Church prays, “ O God, whose nature and property it is to have mercy and to for- give, &c.” But the same servant ... a hundred pence. This would amount to about four pounds of English money. See here the narrowness and covetousness of the human breast as compared with the largeness and liberality of the heart of God.

And his fellow servant, &c. He humbles himself before his fellow servant, and asks him to forgive him the hundred pence, in the self-same words with which that fellow servant had 3i4 $. MATTHEW, XVIII. obtained from his master the remission of one hundred and twenty millions of crowns. But it was all in vain. But he would not , &c. Greedily and rigidly does this servant stand upon his rights. And thus using them, he abused them, being unmindful of the mercy and clemency which the Lord had shewn to himself. Therefore he provoked the rigour of the justice of the same Lord against himself and in fact had to suffer it So when his fellow servants , &c. This has to do with the adorn- ment of the parable. For thus servants act in the houses of their masters, and in courts of princes. But this does not apply to the thing signified by this parable. For the saints and the blessed do not cany to God, or accuse the cruelty, or the sins of men, but rather excuse and cover them, and pray for them.

33. Then his Lord , &c., had pity on thee. Arab. according to my mercy towards thee. My mercy towards thee ought to have been the stimulus and the measure of the mercy which thou shouldst have shewn to thy fellow-servant Measure I say, not equal, but proportional For as I remitted ten thousand talents, it was thy duty to remit a hundred pence. Was wroth : Syriac, burnt with anger: the tormentors. It appears from history, and from the civil law of the Romans, to whom at that time the Jews were subject, that debtors were accustomed to be delivered by their creditors to tormentors, who cast them into prison, and scourged them. The Emperor Constantine L out of Christian benignity abolished the punishment of scourging debtors with scourges loaded with lead. Moreover, tormentors are demons, says Remigius, who torment souls of sinners in hell in a thousand ways. Until he should pay , u e. f he must be tormented for ever. For he could never pay that debt of ten thousand talents. So Chrysostom, Euthymius, Theophylact It may here be asked — Is then every fault and its penalty which has been remitted by God to a penitent sinner reimposed by Him on account of such ingratitude and mercilessness ? For that seems to be asserted in this parable. HOW THE DEBT OF StN RETURNS. 3*5 I say, i. This parable is true in foro huntano , juridically, and in a parabolic manner, especially because civil right granted to a donee may be rescinded by the donor on account of ingratitude. For so great would be the feeling among men with respect to the pride and cruelty of the wicked servant of the parable, that every one would think he deserved to pay and atone for his former debts and sins, not as though what had been forgiven revived, but because they were all virtually included in his subsequent cruelty. And thus we see princes inflict punishment upon those who had offended them, and whom they had afterwards spared, if they subsequently carry them- selves in an arrogant and ungrateful manner towards them. They exact the penalty of all their previous offences. Whence they are considered to have only conditionally pardoned them, the pre-supposed condition being that they shall amend, and be grateful, and carry themselves modestly. I say, 2. That all this does not find a counterpart in foro divino , and in the thing signified by the parable. For God does not reim- pose upon the sinner whom He has forgiven and who will not foigive his fellow men their trespasses against him, the sins which He has before foigiven. The reason is because God in His infinite clemency, forgives sins not conditionally, but absolutely and irrevocably to the penitent, according to the words, " The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Rom. xi. 29. Wherefore although the sinner who has been the object of pardoning grace, again fall into the same, or other sins, and will not forgive his neighbour, and thus proves himself ungrateful to God, yet does not the circumstance of this ingratitude so aggravate his sin, that on account of it all sins which have been already foigiven by God, are again imputed to him. For since God is the chief Goodness and Holiness, He cannot recall and set up afresh, sin which has once been done away. I may add that this ingratitude is not a peculiar sin, but only a general circumstance of all sin. General, I say, because in all and every sin there is a certain amount of ingratitude towards God. Wherefore in the court of the most good and merciful God this ingratitude does not aggravate the sin to which it is attached* in the same way that it 3*6 S. MATTHEW, XVHt aggravates it at an earthly tribunal, among men. Wherefore the similitude and comparison of the parable are not to be sought for in this, but in the way in which Christ applies the parable in verse 35, viz., that God will not forgive the offences of those who do not for- give their neighbours, those offences I say, which they have in other ways contracted, or which they contract by their refusal to forgive others, or by their cruelty towards their neighbour. Wherefore sins which have been once forgiven by God are forgiven for ever, nor are they in any case recalled by God. So Theologians teach with S. Thomas, (3./. q . 88. art. 1 and$). I say 3, These things are true, but not sufficient They do not exhaust the whole scope and force of the parable. For in it it is expressly declared, And the lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all the debt — that is to say, the ten thousand talents which had been already remitted. And it is subjoined, So also will My Heavenly Father do likewise unto you, tj ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses ; namely, He will recall all your past sins which have been already forgiven, even as the lord recalled the past debt of his servant which had been already remitted. This remitted debt, therefore, and sin is said to be recalled and to return, through that subsequent mercilessness and ingratitude. 1. Because this want of mercy is a deadly sin ; for to be unwilling to forgive our neighbour a fault, is to cherish hatred, anger, and revenge against him, which is clearly mortal sin. And thus by this means the former state of sin and liability to hell returns. For he who will not forgive is a debtor to the wrath of God in the same way that he was previously, on account of other sins. For this sin is irremissible, because so long as a man will not forgive his neigh- bour for a trespass against himself, so long will not God forgive him his own faults. In this very way, therefore, that a similar new sin of mercilessness is committed, by means of it, in a kind of way, past offences against God seem to live again, because the state of sin and the liability to hell live again. 2. Because this ingratitude is a great aggravation of sin, and that INGRATITUDE AGGRAVATES SIN. 317 in a deadly manner, if we believe Soto (in 4 dist. 32, art. 3), who asserts that it must be mentioned by a penitent in confession. Others take a milder view — that the circumstance of ingratitude aggravates the sin to which it is attached, only venially. For this ingratitude attaches itself to all sin. Theologians teach that it is especially to be discerned and taken account of in four kinds of sins; namely, hatred, apostasy, obstinacy and impeni- tence. For these four are directly repugnant to the very essence of the remission of sins; that is to say, either to faith, or charity, or repentance. 3. Although this ingratitude be not in itself mortal sin, yet it is often a cause of mortal sin. For God, on account of this ingratitude, withdraws the more plentiful supply of His grace from the sinner, and permits him to be more severely tempted by the flesh and the devil. Hence it comes to pass that he falls into more dreadful mortal sins, by which that former multitude of faults returns, which is signified by the ten thousand talents . God will require of him as much as the former debt amounted to, because of his want of mercy ; although the debt may be of other sins than those which had been remitted, that the words may be fulfilled, “ He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath shewed no mercy.” (James ii. 13.)

: So also shall \ &c. From your hearts: from the very bottom of your heart For there are many who foigive with their lips, but not with their hearts. Christ, therefore, bids that the gall of rancour be cast out of the heart, and the honey of love substi- tuted in its place. This parable, therefore, teaches how dreadful it is to keep anger and revenge against our neighbours in our minds ; and, on the other hand, how pleasing it is to God to lay them aside, and convert them into love, even as God receives the penitent sinner to His grace and the bowels of His love, and buries in oblivion all his past offences, even as though they had never been committed. Moreover, not once, but seventy times seven — that is, always— must we foigive our neighbour who repents of the offence which he has committed against us. In order to show this, Christ spake the parable of the Ten Thousand Talents — that is, of a very vast debt 31 * S. MATTHEW, XVIII. Let us, therefore, who are but weak men, imitate God, who forgives us our daily offences against Him, and those very many and very grievous, as often as we repent And therefore He bids us pray daily, Foigive us our debts, even as we forgive them that are indebted to us.