Metropolitan Onuphry urges faithful to forgive from the heart

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC

On the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of St Agapit of the Caves in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the UOC Information and Education Department reports.

After the reading of the Holy Gospel, His Beatitude addressed the faithful with a sermon on the Gospel parable of the Kingdom of Heaven and the unforgiving debtor.

“The Lord depicted our sins against our neighbor as 100 denarii,” the Primate explained, “while our sins against God are 10,000 talents.”

Metropolitan Onuphry noted that people’s debts before the Creator are immeasurably greater than any wrongs committed against us by others. Ten thousand talents of silver, he said, would amount to 260 tons of the precious metal. To earn such a sum, a person would have to work for around 200,000 years.

The archpastor said sincere repentance is the only way to receive forgiveness from the Creator: “Lord, forgive me. I am guilty. I have offended You. Forgive me. I have no justification before You – this is the only way we can ask God for mercy.”

At the same time, the Creator expects people to forgive one another.

“If I cannot make room in my heart to forgive my neighbor such a small debt – if I cannot forgive 100 denarii – then I cannot make room for the great forgiveness that God grants me for 10,000 talents,” the Primate warned.

The archpastor compared this to a person’s physical strength, noting that someone who cannot lift one kilogram will never be able to lift a hundred.

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry also spoke about the difficulty people often experience in forgiving those who have hurt them.

“Sometimes I understand with my mind that God has commanded us to forgive, and I forgive – but the heart resists and does not want to. Yet if a person compels himself, prays, and asks God to soften his heart, then God will help him sincerely forgive his neighbor.”

The Primate urged believers to guard their conscience and read Holy Scripture attentively. His Beatitude explained that constant prayer makes a person more attentive to the voice of conscience. Through prayerful communion with God, a believer begins to distinguish clearly between the voice of God and the voices of the flesh, the world, or the devil.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that His Beatitude led celebrations marking the 510th anniversary of the Lavra skete in Horodok.

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