At the beginning of these days that see us gathered together, we welcome the Gospel of this Sunday, Matthew chapter 18, like the loving eyes of God. Jesus knows how hard it will be for his disciples to live in brotherly communion and in the whole chapter he explains how the unity of the Church will be inevitably wounded by scandals. When a sheep gets lost, he asks us to show the courage of brotherly correction. He invites us to gather in prayer in his name � what we are doing now. What a consolation it is for us to be reassured by his presence: �I am there among� you!

Indeed, this logic of communion, the foundation of the life of the Church, may lead us far from where we stand. Peter perceived the difficulties ahead and he dared to raise an objection to Jesus: with the excuse of forgiveness we will end up letting the others tread upon our toes and then happily start all over again �up to seven times�, totally unpunished! It would be better to put a limit to this!

But this is what Jesus refuses to do: there must be no limit to forgiveness for �the measure of love is to love without any measure�. Perhaps you will think this is rash, even a folly, but this is the price to pay, the attitude we should resolutely adopt for brotherly communion to become possible.

Jesus then says a strange parable. A man owed his king an unthinkable sum: ten thousand talents . For his simple request �Be patient with me and I will pay the whole sum�, his master cancelled the debt. Now, this poor man is incapable of giving up a ridiculous sum that others owe him. This is very sad. How can anyone have such a hard heart after having enjoyed such an unexpected generosity? The end of the story, however, is much more frightening: when the wickedness of that servant is retorted against him. And the Lord tells him: �That is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart�.

This reminds me of when Jesus taught the Lord�s prayer. We realize that the fifth request is the one that presents a real problem: �forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us�. It is the only one Jesus immediately comments upon: �Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others��.

Forgiveness, as we know, is the marvel and the stumbling stone of Christianity. To accept that God forgives the monstrosities we commit � the ten thousand talents � and to be incapable of forgiving from our hearts the needle pricks � the hundred denarii � which the others have wounded us with, is really an absurd behavior. But it is what we do. That is why, for us, Jesus� teaching in this entire chapter, and especially in this powerful parable, is a very useful continuation of the comment to the Lord�s prayer.

As we listen to the Lord who introduces us into the challenge of communion, let us not lose sight of the extraordinary context we are in today. Even after the theological debate and brotherly, spiritual meetings the ecumenical movement has accustomed us to in the last decades � and it has been a great joy for us all � the key to meeting one another, the yearning of all the baptized, is still found in forgiveness. I imagine that the Christians of the other denominations are no more comfortable than their Catholic brothers and sisters in front of the far-stretching horizons that Jesus� teaching opens before us. But there is no alternative. The hundred denarii, the wounds we have inferred to one another throughout history, must vanish when compared to the ten thousand talents of Redemption, Jesus loving us to the end, with an even foolish love.