Forgiven to Forgive: The Mercy of Seventy-Seven Times

This Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, St. Matthew presents Jesus’ teaching on the reciprocal nature of mercy: the measure by which we measure is how we will be measured at judgment (Matthew 7:2).

Jesus tells Peter to forgive seventy-seven times—but why the precise number of seventy-seven? Does God’s mercy end at the seventy-eighth offense? May we take revenge on our offenders on the seventy-eighth offense?

The answer is no, of course.

In its Hebrew historical context, the number seven denotes spiritual perfection and the presence of God. Thus, seventy-seven is a radical invocation of God. By invoking it, Jesus demonstrates both his divine lordship and the continuity of forgiveness as essential to both the Old and New Testaments. Always a masterful guide for scriptural interpretation, St. Augustine discusses the deeper meaning in his 33rd sermon on the New Testament.

Seventy-Seven Generations

Augustine focuses on the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3. Luke’s genealogy of Jesus begins at his baptism and ascends all the way to Adam, encompassing seventy-seven generations.

Augustine writes:

“[Luke] began to reckon from Christ up to Adam himself, who was the first sinner, and who begot us with the bond of sin. He reckoned up to Adam, and so there are reckoned seventy-seven generations; that is, from Christ up to Adam and from Adam up to Christ are the aforesaid seventy-seven generations. So then if no generation was omitted, there is no exemption of any trespass which ought not to be forgiven” (Sermons on the New Testament, no. 33, para. 5).

Augustine contextualizes the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant within the event of Jesus’ baptism as part of the sacrament’s mystery: Christ forgives all generations of all sin through the operative salvific effect of baptism.

Thus, the call to forgive “seventy-seven times” springs forth from our baptismal graces. In other words, God has forgiven us through baptism; those baptized in Christ are charged with the duty—and given the ability—to forgive as God forgives.

Forgiveness and the Moral Law

Augustine progresses to the moral sense of the passage. The servant’s debt of ten thousand symbolizes the transgression of the Mosaic Law:

“For the Law is set forth in ten precepts. Therefore it was that the servant in the parable owed ten thousand talents. This is that memorable Decalogue written by the finger of God, and delivered to the people by Moses, the servant of God. He owed then ten thousand talents; which signifies all sins, with reference to the number of the Law” (para. 6).

Furthermore, Augustine says eleven is to sin as ten is to obedience. Christ’s multiplication of seven by eleven is, consequently, his way of presenting forgiveness as a necessary and integral part of the moral law:

“For Jesus spoke of all sins, when He said seventy times seven; for multiply that eleven seven times, and it makes seventy-seven. Therefore would He have all sins forgiven, for He marked them out by the number seventy-seven. Let no one then retain against himself by refusing to forgive, lest it be retained against him, when he prays. For God says, ‘Forgive, and you shall be forgiven’” (para. 7).

We see that forgiveness is a necessary part of the Christian moral life. It is the New Law of Grace that enables and beckons us to practice agape love and mercy.

The New Law illuminates our intellects to know truth and goodness, but it also gives us the power of grace to choose them. This gives us freedom, which is intimately tied to mercy in the New Law:

“So speak and so act as people who will be judged by the law of freedom. For the judgment is merciless to one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12–13).

Jesus’ command to forgive seventy-seven times is a command to love with charity—a love that goes beyond the demands of the law.

Forgiving as Christ Forgives

To forgive as God forgives is, of course, easier said than done—but it is not impossible.

Jesus petitioned the Father from the cross to forgive those who persecuted him. We, his Body, the Church, are called to show that same measure of mercy. Saints Thomas More, Maria Goretti, and Pope John Paul II, among countless others, are saints because they exemplified this standard of forgiveness.

Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we too can cultivate the forgiveness that flows from divine charity dwelling within our hearts. It may be difficult, and we may have to forgive the same offense repeatedly, but we can do it with God’s help.

In Christ,

Evan Connors