Daily Reflection Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus talks in the parable in today’s gospel passage of not getting out of prison until we pay the last penny. We avoid this fate, according to the parable, by settling “out of court” as it were. What can Jesus be meaning here?

Although it might appear that there is punishment going on here, it is rather that the protagonist, as it were, has put himself in prison by refusing to settle. Settle what? we ask. Perhaps refusing to see that the kingdom of God is at hand and what that means. That is the “sign of the times” that Jesus speaks of. We are responsible for seeking to see this great “sign,” the reality of God with us in the kingdom among us. If we miss it, it is due to some weakness within us that we must surrender to God’s love. God will always strengthen us and heal us if we seek that.

But all our actions have consequences, some good and some not so good. For those that are not so good, we pay a price to amend those behaviors, a price that must be paid. It may be difficult or painful, but the price must always be paid, in one way or another. Then God frees us from the damage that we did to ourselves by God’s complete forgiveness and we are empowered (in acknowledging our sinfulness and dependence on God) to forgive also.

To find the grace within us now to acknowledge our failures and decide to turn our lives over to God’s great love and care, is to find the price paid for us and God doing all the heavy lifting. It is to realize that we don’t have to pay the last penny at all. It was all paid for us already by Jesus from the cross.