I always read this passage in terms of personal relationship. Your accuser has a grudge against you. If you force the matter, you lose and end up owning the plaintiff, whoever he/she might be. On the other hand if you seek to resolve the problem before it gets to court, you both come away with a win-win situation. Indeed, Jesus even said that if when you bring your gift to the altar, you remember that your brother has a grievance against you, go and be reconciled before you return with your gift. We can also look at the Our Father that calls for us to forgive the sins of others in order for our own sins to be forgiven. If we want our debts (trespasses) forgiven, we must forgive the debts of our neighbor. Our relationships with one another reflect our relationship with God
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DebChris: The second Person of the Holy Trinity did not become incarnate (in Jesus Christ) in order to merely give us a beneficial social structure and instructions on how to get along with our neighbors – as helpful and moral as the surface of His words is. As you said, our relationships with one another reflect (or should reflect) our relationship with God.
But, even more than that concept, and a corollary of it, all that Jesus said, taught and lived was to reveal the Father, and to reveal eternal truths and knowledge to which we would not otherwise have access. He taught, by parable and by analogy, the truths of the Kingdom and of eternal life. The reconciliation, forgiveness and restitution of what we owe is information, for us, about how things operate with God and our attaining heaven.
Besides whatever else that passage is about, it is certainly about Purgatory and our purification from all stain of sin. The Church tells us this as well, so we can know with certainty it is the case.
Christmas Peace -