Pope Leo: Forgiveness can heal division, disarm resentment

In his Sept. 13 Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV urged Christians to ask the Blessed Mother to help them practice forgiveness without limits and spread the healing light of love.

Reflecting on Matthew 18:21-35, the day’s Gospel passage, Pope Leo recalled Peter’s question to Jesus about how often he should forgive someone who sins against him. Jesus, the Pope noted, exemplified forgiveness even on the Cross.”

As the Pontiff noted, Jesus tells Peter, and all the faithful, to forgive “seventy times seven” times, signifying “beyond all limits, without measure.” 

Jesus then illustrated the point with a parable about a servant whose master forgave a debt he could never repay, but who refused to extend the same mercy to someone who owed him a small debt. The master therefore rebuked and punished the servant.

“With these words, Jesus reminds us that gift and forgiveness are the foundation of our existence,” Pope Leo explained, according to a translation on the Vatican website. “All things are given to us by God out of pure love, and none of us can claim to be perfect in responding to such goodness.”

Mercy should therefore shape the way people treat one another, according to the Pope. Otherwise, there will be no peace.

“Sooner or later conflicts, accusations, grudges and acts of vengeance emerge in our hearts and among people, and these acts destroy relationships, divide families and unleash wars,” he said. “Only forgiveness sets us free and restores the light, even where human material and moral poverty has darkened the horizon and made the path uncertain. Forgiveness, like a gentle breeze, sweeps away even the thickest clouds until the sun shines once more.”

The Pontiff gave the example of how Saint Peter experienced God’s forgiveness, including after denying and abandoning Jesus. Jesus simply asked whether Peter loved him.

“This was accompanied by an invitation, ‘follow me!’ (v. 19), which was the same invitation given on the occasion of their first encounter. It was as if nothing had happened,” the Pope said. “This love, which forgives and heals, would mark for the first of the Apostles, the confirmation of his mission.”

Concluding his reflection before reciting the Angelus, Pope Leo encouraged people to ask Jesus’ mother to help them forgive, particularly when it is challenging.

“Let us therefore ask the Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, to help us forgive — always, even when it is difficult to take the first step — and to spread, with courage and perseverance, the serene and healing light of love that overcomes hatred and disarms all resentment,” he said.

After the Angelus, the Pope called on the faithful to pray for peace, recalling the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the conflicts and violence afflicting people around the world.

“I renew my prayers for those who lost their lives and for those who continue to bear the wounds of that tragic day,” he remarked in English. “At a time when conflict and violence afflict so many of our brothers and sisters, I invite everyone to pray that the Lord will bestow his gift of peace upon the world.”

He concluded his remarks regarding the anniversary in Italian.

According to the translation on the Vatican website, he said, “The memory of the tragic event that took place twenty-five years ago prompts us to renew our commitment to peace, first and foremost through prayer, which we entrust to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.”