{"id":11362,"date":"2026-08-16T17:50:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/?p=11362"},"modified":"2026-08-16T17:50:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:50:28","slug":"predica-duminica-a-xi-a-dupa-cincizecime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/predica-duminica-a-xi-a-dupa-cincizecime\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily \u2013 11th Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear brothers and sisters,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Gospel presents us with one of the most powerful and profound parables of our Lord:\u00a0the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant\u00a0<\/strong>(Matthew 18:23\u201335).<\/p>\n

A king decides to settle accounts with his servants. One servant is brought before him who owes an enormous debt\u2014a debt that he is completely unable to repay. The servant falls down before his master and begs for patience. The king, moved with compassion,\u00a0forgives him the entire debt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But as soon as this servant leaves, he meets another servant who owes him a much smaller amount. Instead of showing him the same mercy that he himself has received, he seizes him and demands immediate repayment.<\/p>\n

When the king hears what has happened, he calls the servant back and says:<\/p>\n

\u201cShould you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the heart of today\u2019s Gospel.<\/p>\n

That servant is also each one of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before God, every one of us has a debt that we cannot repay by our own strength. Our sins, our failures, our words, our thoughts, and our lack of love show us how much we depend upon the mercy of God.<\/p>\n

And what does God do?<\/p>\n

He does not ask us to pay what we are incapable of paying.\u00a0In Christ, He offers us forgiveness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is why, in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, we say:<\/p>\n

\u201cForgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are not simply words that we repeat in prayer. They are a rule for Christian life:<\/p>\n

If we have received mercy, we must become merciful.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we have been forgiven, we must learn to forgive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Apostle reading today, from the First Letter to the Corinthians, gives us another example of this same spirit. Saint Paul speaks about his ministry and about the right of those who preach the Gospel to receive support from those to whom they minister. Yet the Apostle is willing to give up even certain rights so that nothing may become an obstacle to the Gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n

Thus, both readings lead us toward the same truth:<\/p>\n

The Gospel calls us to forgive, and the Apostle calls us to serve without selfishness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a person lives only for his rights, he says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey owe me something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should be the one to ask for forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should I make the first step?\u201d<\/p>\n

But the person who has understood the mercy of God begins to think differently:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I do for my brother?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I forgive him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I preserve peace?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters,<\/p>\n

It is often very easy for us to see the debt that others owe us, and much harder to see our own debt before God.<\/p>\n

We can remember for years a hurtful word, an injustice, a betrayal, or an insult. And we say:<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot forgive him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But today the Gospel asks us:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2014how much has God forgiven you?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many times have we fallen, and God has raised us up?<\/p>\n

How many times have we sinned, and He has given us another opportunity to return to Him?<\/p>\n

How many times have we come before Him with the same weaknesses, and yet He has not rejected us?<\/p>\n

If God were not merciful toward us, where would we be?<\/p>\n

Christian forgiveness does not mean pretending that evil never happened. It does not mean that injustice suddenly becomes justice.<\/p>\n

To forgive means to refuse to allow evil to transform us into evil people ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A person who refuses to forgive often remains imprisoned by the person who hurt him. He carries that person and that wound in his heart and allows the wound to govern his life.<\/p>\n

But when a person forgives, he begins to become free.<\/p>\n

Therefore, let us ask ourselves today:<\/p>\n

Whom have I not yet forgiven?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With whom am I still in conflict?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Am I demanding from someone else what I myself am unwilling to give?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And have I forgotten how much God has forgiven me?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us therefore ask the Lord not only to forgive us, but also\u00a0to give us a heart capable of forgiving.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For one of the clearest signs that we have truly received God\u2019s forgiveness is that this forgiveness begins to flow through us toward others.<\/p>\n

Let us not be like the unforgiving servant, who received immense mercy but refused to show mercy to another.<\/p>\n

Let us instead follow the example of Saint Paul, who, out of love for Christ, placed the service of the Gospel above his own interests and rights.<\/p>\n

Let us receive the mercy of God and become merciful.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us receive His forgiveness and become people who forgive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us receive the love of Christ and share it with those around us. Amin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hiermomonk Joseph (Pavlinciuc)\u00a0<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorry, this entry is only available in Rom\u00e2n\u0103<\/a>, Fran\u00e7ais<\/a> and \u0420\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noutati","category-predici","category-stiri"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NLBd-2Xg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B9.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11362"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11367,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11362\/revisions\/11367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}