08/13/2025
REPEAT OFFENDER
– Daily
August 14, 2025
Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Matthew 18,21-35.19,1 (The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant)
Read: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew
Sharer: Jim Janairo
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Anchor verse:
“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” — Matthew 18:22
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Reflection:
REPEAT OFFENDER
Have you ever caught yourself mentally keeping score of someone’s mistakes or transgressions, especially against you? “Hayan na naman siya”. “Nakakarami ka na ha”. “Bumibingo na ito”. We don’t even have to write it down—those little tally marks sit naggingly in our minds. They pile up quickly, more so when it’s the same person repeating the same offense.
In the world, being a repeat offender carries a heavy penalty. Courts keep records, employers keep files, and society has little patience for people who mess up more than once. In labor practices, an employee may be dismissed after committing the same offense three times. The message is clear: Do it again, and you’ll pay for it.
Yet, here is Peter, asking Jesus if he can generously forgive his brother seven times. Because The Chosen portrays the gospel characters so realistically, I can easily imagine Peter becoming exasperated with his brother Andrew—thanks to the creative license the filmmakers use to depict their sibling dynamic. But in spite of Andrew’s (unseen) offenses, Peter was willing to forgive him seven times. Yet Jesus’ answer changes everything: “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Jesus did not praise Peter for his generosity. Jesus was telling Peter—don’t count.
One could take it literally—keeping count until the forgiveness tally reaches seventy-seven. But once forgiveness does reach the level Jesus is talking about, counting becomes pointless. You can’t keep a running total and still have a forgiving heart. At some point, the list in your head has to go.
And this is what’s important. We are all repeat offenders before God. We commit the same sins over and over—sometimes without even realizing it—and yet God does not keep tally marks against our name. His forgiveness is without limit. He doesn’t keep score. We are all in need of mercy, mercy gracefully granted to sustain us. And because we are forgiven, we ought to forgive.
That’s why Jesus tells the parable of the servant forgiven an unpayable debt. When he refused to forgive a fellow servant a smaller debt, he was at grave fault. He didn’t just lack mercy—he was forgetting he himself was granted mercy, his own debt wiped clean. Let us never forget that we too, carry debts—sins, failures, blind spots—that only God’s mercy can cover. We cannot focus on the ways we’ve been wronged or the hurts others have caused us, while ignoring our own need for forgiveness. How often are we blind to the ways we’ve wounded others? How often do we minimize our faults, justify our pride, or avoid facing the truth about ourselves?
If we live acknowledging our own transgressions and remembering the mercy we receive, forgiveness stops being a matter of keeping track. It becomes a way of life—an ongoing choice to release the offense and let love prevail.
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Ponder:
1. Is there someone in my life whose offenses I’m still “counting”?
2. How often do I forget that I am a repeat offender before God?
3. What would it look like to forgive the way God forgives me—without a tally sheet?
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Prayer:
Lord, I thank You for not keeping score against me, even when I stumble in the same ways again and again. Help me throw away my mental score cards. Remind me daily of Your mercy that I live on, and let that mercy overflow toward others—without limit. Amen.
