Forgiveness

Today we're going to learn about forgiveness, or المغفرة, through a beautiful story Jesus told us. Once there was a king who wanted to settle his accounts with his servants. One servant owed him a huge amount of money - more than he could ever pay back! The king ordered that the servant, his family, and everything he owned be sold to pay the debt. But the servant fell on his knees and begged, 'Please be patient with me! I will pay you everything!' The king felt sorry for him and did something amazing - he forgave the entire debt and let him go free! Can anyone tell me how you think the servant felt when the king forgave him? That's right - he must have felt so happy and grateful! But then something sad happened. This same servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him just a small amount of money. Instead of showing mercy like the king did, he grabbed him and demanded payment immediately! When the other servants saw this, they were very upset and told the king. The king called the unforgiving servant back and said, 'I forgave you all that debt because you asked me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?' What do you think the lesson is here? In our Maronite tradition, we pray the Lord's Prayer where we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. Just as God forgives us with His endless love and mercy, we should forgive others too. When someone hurts us or makes us angry, we can choose to forgive them, just like Jesus taught us. Forgiveness makes our hearts light and happy, and it shows God's love to everyone around us.