Peter, in view of his position among Our Lord's disciples, seeks precision on the matter of mutual forgiveness, and asks Our Lord: "How many times should I forgive my brother who does me wrong? Seven times?" And Jesus quickly replied: "Not seven times, but seventy times seven!" (in Semitic jargon seven is a round number and denotes abundance).

Jesus multiplies Peter's already generous number to give the impression of a 'limitless' number of times. Our neighbour's offences against us can never compete with ours against God, and still God forgives us. At any rate, our forgiveness of neighbour is the condition for God's pardon of us.

Then a parable follows, which is divided into three scenes: mercy, cruelty, justice, with an epilogue. At the very outset we have a servant who is brought before the king's presence when the time had come up for the reckoning process. This servant owed his master ten thousand talents, a really huge sum which would take the servant quite a few years to settle, perhaps his whole lifetime.

The king, using his prerogative, orders the man and his family to be sold into slavery. However, after several quite exorbitant promises, out of mercy the king relents and forgives the debt.

In the second part we have the forgiven debtor meeting an equal of his, not his slave, who owed him a paltry sum. As this man could not pay it back, his creditor forces him into prison until he is able to raise the money and settle the debt.

In the third part we find that this matter was eventually brought to the attention of the king, who obviously was infuriated.

But the shocking contrast between the king's behaviour and that of the forgiven servant compels the king to change his mind and withdraw the pardon he had mercifully extended to his servant.

The passage is concluded with this solemn statement by Jesus: "It is thus that my heavenly Father will deal with you, if you do not forgive your brother with all your heart!"

Placing ourselves in the place of the ungrateful servant, we learn that Our Father in heaven lays down two conditions on our forgiveness and only two: that we ask forgiveness, and that we practise it ourselves. Such is the grace we ask for when we pray the "Our Father": "Forgive us, as we forgive others!" And Jesus here, as we read in today's Gospel, tells us: "It is thus that the heavenly Father will deal with you, if brother does not forgive brother with all his heart!"

I am sure that, perhaps in more limited proportions, each of us will see himself reflected in the ungrateful king's servant. As followers of Christ our forgiveness must be sincere, profound and absolute. The statement that one sometimes hears - "I forgive but I cannot forget" - is surely not a Christian sentiment.

Here I cannot but bring to mind Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. I wonder if the poet was not inspired by the story of today's Gospel when writing this play. In it we recall Portia's words in her final address as judge: "The quality of mercy is not strained!"

As Christina Rossetti wrote: "It is better by far that you should forgive and smile, than that you should remember and be sad". Grudges which we may at times be tempted to hold against this or that individual are like persistent wounds which will continue to hurt until we get rid of them by sincere forgiveness. Forgiveness from the heart will render us thankfully aware that God has forgiven us.