Played

It isn't easy to forgive.

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. - Matthew 18:32-34

Sometimes I wonder if we forgive too quickly.

In today's Gospel, Jesus tells of a servant whose master forgave him his debts, only to have that servant fail to forgive the debts owed him by others.  Maybe if he had suffered a little, he would have been more likely to forgive.

That which we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly.

If showing mercy to someone doesn't lead to them showing mercy to others, one might just become cynical and hard. 

That's the problem, here, I think.  We determine how we will treat each other based on how we think the other person will react.  We judge them first and then decide if they are worthy of forgiveness.

Luckily God isn't like that.

As hard as it might be, God withholds judgment and acts out of love.

Why do we have trouble doing that?

In the parable, the lord who forgave the debt was angry at the servant when he heard what the servant had done.  Rightly so.  We would be as well.

We think of being played the fool when we do something merciful like that, and that makes us hesitate.

So, I guess, the lesson is to love without conditions.  Don't worry about being played.

In the end, it goes with the territory.

More to come...