Self-Knowledge and Mercy - Fr. Gregory - August 16, 2026

In today’s sermon, Fr. Gregory reviews the parable from today’s Gospel reading in which a servant who owes 10,000 talents — equivalent to billions of today’s dollars — is shown compassion by the king and forgiven his debt. However, after he is forgiven, he goes out and finds a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii, a real debt, but one that is almost nothing in comparison to the 10,000 talents. He seizes him, puts his hands around his neck, and tells him to repay the debt. The fellow servant asks for forgiveness, just as the first servant had, but the servant refuses. This, Fr. Gregory explains, shows that the first servant did not understand how great his debt was, how much he had been forgiven. He had received mercy but not acquired self-knowledge. If he had really understood his condition, how could he refuse to extend mercy? We, Fr. Gregory asserts, are the servant standing before the king. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but our hope is that his mercy is infinite. If we begin to see ourselves truthfully, we cannot let our hands remain clenched around our neighbor’s neck, because the one who truly knows how much he has been forgiven finds it harder and harder to withhold forgiveness from another. Fr. Gregory explains that this forgiveness does not mean denial of wrong, and it is not identical with reconciliation. Forgiveness means that I stop demanding the other person suffer before I allow myself to heal, and I return judgment to the One to whom it belongs. Fr. Gregory encourages us to practice self-knowledge, which produces humility, which produces mercy. This way, we may become forgiving.