Is the unforgiving servant sent to hell? Matthew 18

[Joelle_M]

Joelle,
Please state whether or not the unforgiving servant is in hell or another place. Which is it?

I have no way of knowing that… none of us do, only God knows. What I do believe is that if this person were to have died never having let go of their anger- and in death- refused to forgive- then he rejected God and would have chosen hell. But I also believe in the power of prayer. In prayer for ourselves as well as for each other. I believe in good works- and that they can also help us at our time of death. I believe a sinner will be judged not only on his bad actions- but what’s in his heart at his time of death. I believe in the intercession of our Lady, I believe Jesus came to earth to call the sinners- so I truly believe that this soul could also have been saved!

I believe that this parable means purgatory… but I also know that I am flawed and don’t know everything so I choose to err on the side of caution and just read between the lines. The parable is telling us to forgive- so that’s what I’m trying to do.

If it ever becomes more clear to me than that- I’ll be sure to let you know.

 

[rcwitness]

I do have no way of knowing that. I believe that this parable means purgatory… but I also know that I am flawed and don’t know everything so I choose to err on the side of caution and just read between the lines. The parable is telling us to forgive- so that’s what I’m trying to do.

If it ever becomes more clear to me than that- I’ll be sure to let you know.

I agree. It’s the Lord who knows if the servant has completely rejected Him. And by that I mean what meets the requirements of Mortal sin… the unforgivable sin… the difference between mere harm to the Body, and separation from the body.

I think this passage lends itself to both possibilities.

 

[Joelle_M]

I agree. It’s the Lord who knows if the servant has completely rejected Him. And by that I mean what meets the requirements of Mortal sin… the unforgivable sin… the difference between mere harm to the Body, and separation from the body.

I think this passage lends itself to both possibilities.

Agreed. It’s a sticky parable- so in those cases, rather than get caught up on the black and white- choose to take the very clear message and run with it instead. All too often people want definite answers and get frustrated when a clear answer isn’t given. Jesus said- those who have ears to hear will hear… if we don’t “hear it” as clearly as we feel we should- we need to pray on it and with time, if He feels that it’s in our best interest- He’ll let us know.

The beauty of this parable is that in the end- it doesn’t matter! As catholics we should all be striving for sainthood! The way to do that is to do what Jesus told us to do- to forgive! We should be living our lives knowing purgatory will be our first stop after death and doing our best now to ensure we spend the least amount of time there possible.

Aim as high as possible while were here on earth.

 

[hu324b]

Jesus spoke this parable to show how great Gods mercy is - Peter asked prior to this parable if he should forgive his brother (neighbor) 7 times thinking it was a large number and would impress Jesus and Jesus answer no I say 70 times 7 and then went into the parable which showed the great contrast in Gods mercy - He forgave a man a massive debt an unthinkable amount (sin) - which shows Gods great mercy. But then this same man goes out and won’t forgive his neighbor even a simple debt (sin). So the moral of the parable is if you want forgiveness from God you to must also forgive or you will not be forgiven - whether the man goes to hell or not is irrelevant and is of little importance in the parable and you have missed the point but if that’s what you want to focus on then so be it - the story is fictional and the characters don’t exist

 

[Joelle_M]

Jesus spoke this parable to show how great Gods mercy is - Peter asked prior to this parable if he should forgive his brother (neighbor) 7 times thinking it was a large number and would impress Jesus and Jesus answer no I say 70 times 7 and then went into the parable which showed the great contrast in Gods mercy - He forgave a man a massive debt an unthinkable amount (sin) - which shows Gods great mercy. But then this same man goes out and won’t forgive his neighbor even a simple debt (sin). So the moral of the parable is if you want forgiveness from God you to must also forgive or you will not be forgiven - whether the man goes to hell or not is irrelevant and is of little importance in the parable and you have missed the point but if that’s what you want to focus on then so be it - the story is fictional and the characters don’t exist

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Jesus spoke this parable to show how great Gods mercy is - Peter asked prior to this parable if he should forgive his brother (neighbor) 7 times thinking it was a large number and would impress Jesus and Jesus answer no I say 70 times 7 and then went into the parable which showed the great contrast in Gods mercy - He forgave a man a massive debt an unthinkable amount (sin) - which shows Gods great mercy. But then this same man goes out and won’t forgive his neighbor even a simple debt (sin). So the moral of the parable is if you want forgiveness from God you to must also forgive or you will not be forgiven - whether the man goes to hell or not is irrelevant and is of little importance in the parable and you have missed the point but if that’s what you want to focus on then so be it - the story is fictional and the characters don’t exist

I heard a challenging homily on this Gospel, if you have forgiven someone 490 times, does that mean, the next time is payback time?

If you have counted up to 490 you are keeping score, the whole point is, you should not be counting at all.