NOTES for Luk 17:3-4
How many times should one forgive a person who has done you evil? How far should mercy and forgiveness extend? In other words, what measure of forgiveness will be enough? For people raised in the law this question looks natural, and so the disciples ask it of Christ. The evangelist Matthew, in chapter 18, reports a similar question from Peter. The evangelist Luke, in today's reading, also passes on Christ's words about forgiving seven times, without mentioning the question. To understand what the Lord says, it is important to remember that "seven" is a number symbolizing every fullness, and this was well known to Christ's disciples.
In essence, the Lord rejects the Jewish idea of a "measure" of forgiveness. Forgiveness, mercy, and compassion toward people, including those who do us evil, can never be enough. We have no possibility of ceasing to forgive on the grounds that we have already done it some number of times. This is what today's words of Christ mean: "if he sins seven times in a day... and seven times turns back... forgive him." This is what Matthew's words mean: "not... up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." This is what the commandment to love enemies means. Relationships between people are not built on weighing debts and forgiveness. The Gospel as a whole considers forgiving people our duty, but not before people; before God. That is the whole point.
The Lord speaks about this many times. The most vivid illustration is His parable of the merciless creditor, which He told in response to Peter's question about how many times one should forgive. In practice this is very important, because fulfilling Christ's words about repeated and constant forgiveness is difficult. More than that, as the Lord Himself says, "with men this is impossible." But if we forgive not by our human strength, not because we must grit our teeth and obey a commandment, but for the sake of faithfulness to God, regardless of those whom we forgive, this becomes for us a meeting with God Himself.
Luke passes on an important word of Christ about this, though it is very hard to translate. Before the commandment to forgive always and repeatedly, the Lord says to the disciples, "Take heed to yourselves." The Slavonic text offers the version "Attend to yourselves," and the Vulgate renders the expression with the words "adtendite vobis." The Greek prosehete heautois includes two main shades of meaning. Primarily it means "watch yourselves, pay attention to yourselves." It is a call to reflection, to analysis of one's actions, decisions, and experiences. The Lord calls the disciples to look into themselves so that forgiveness for them will not be a weighed payment for people's actions, but a meeting with God acting in their life.
But the Greek expression cited by the evangelist has still another shade, one that did not escape blessed Jerome and is noticeable in translations following the Vulgate. One can try to convey it with the words "Hold on, apply effort, gather yourselves." "Brace yourselves" is what matters greatly here. The forgiveness of which the Lord speaks is not a "state of soul" in which forgiveness happens "by itself." It is labor requiring collectedness and effort. When Christians speak of the Church as Christ's army, forgiveness is the front line of the battle in which this army is called to take part. And it is important for us to watch ourselves and remember that forgiveness is not a payment we bring to people and not a sacrifice to God; it is a miracle that God works in us.