‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ (Matt. 18: 32-33)
1 September, 2019, the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, the church-goers present at the Divine Liturgy in the Nativity of the Lord Cathedral in Chisinau prayed together with the first hierarch of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, Metropolitan Vladimir, and the Cathedral clergy.
This Sunday’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 18: 23-35) teaches us teaches us to forgive others just like our Heavenly Father forgives us. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches that the entire Law and Prophets are based on two commandments – to love our God and to love our neighbour (Matt. 22: 37-40). Mercy is one of the good acts that result from love, according to St. Paul, who says: “Love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13: 4). “He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2: 9-11).
Today’s Gospel Reading is one of forgiveness, but also one that teaches us responsibility and gratefulness to God. We all live due to God’s mercy, and we have nothing of our own – everything on Earth is granted to us. This should determine us to thank the Creator for everything we have.
Thanks-giving prayers were uttered at the end of the Divine Liturgy. Metropolitan Vladimir also prayed that God blesses school-goers and students at the beginning of the school year.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Mass-Media Relations