Eleventh Sunday of Matthew: Matthew 18:23–35

The parable of the ungrateful servant, read on the Eleventh Sunday of Matthew, reveals the core of the Gospel ethos: the person who receives God’s mercy is called to become a bearer of mercy to his brother as well. The Kingdom of Heaven is not presented as an abstract idea, but as a way of being, in which forgiveness is not a marginal virtue, but a condition for communion with God.

The king in the parable is an image of God, while the servant who owed “ten thousand talents” represents the human person suffering under the infinite weight of sin. The amount is excessive, almost unimaginable. Through this, Christ shows that the human debt before God cannot be paid off through moral achievements or individual accomplishments. Salvation is not the wage of righteousness, but a gift of divine compassion. The servant merely asks for an extension: “Have patience with me.” Yet the master gives him something far greater: he does not postpone the payment, but forgives the entire debt. Here divine grace is revealed, surpassing the human request.

The tragedy of the parable begins when the servant who had received forgiveness meets his fellow servant. The debt of one hundred denarii is…