Monday, April 09, 2007 Alipio: Pass it on By Fr. Jose Alipio The Yoke
Mt 18:21-35
WHEN some of us were young, we played a game called "Pass It On!" This game took many different forms. Sometimes, children would sit in a circle. The game began with a phase or message whispered in the next person's ear, and so around the circle as each child passed it on.
Sometimes, children would pass on a hand squeeze and when the leader yelled stop, the last person whose hand was squeezed had to drop out of the circle.
Boys liked to play a rougher version of "Pass It On!" It was an unwritten law that you could hit somebody on the arm and say "Pass It On!" The guy who had been hit was obligated to pass on the blow to some unsuspecting person standing nearby.
These were all pretty tame and pretty silly games. But they derived their power from the idea that we are obligated to pass on what we have received.
We see a more serious application of that principle in today's parable from the gospel of Matthew. Jesus told a story to illustrate his insistence that we owe forgiveness to others because we have been forgiven by God.
There once was a landowner who called in his servant's debts. The servant was way over his head and pled for time. Touched by his plight, the master forgave his entire debt. This same servant turned right around and demanded payment from one of his debtors who could not pay. So the servant who had been forgiven everything cast the man in prison. When the master learned of this exchange, he handed his servant over to the torturers until he repaid every last cent he owed.
The wicked servant had not learned one of life's basic lessons: when you have been blessed, pass it on!
