9. Take care that you do not begin to be in
a worse case as creditor than as debtor, like the man in the
Gospel, S. Matt. xviii. 23 ff. to whom his
lord forgave all his debt, and who afterwards began to exact from his
fellow-servant that which he himself had not paid, for which reason his
master being angry, exacted from him, with the bitterest reproaches,
that which he had before forgiven him. Let us, therefore, take
heed lest this happen to us, that by not forgiving that which is due to
ourselves, we should incur the payment of what has been forgiven us,
for thus is it written in the words of the Lord Jesus: “So
shall My Father, Which is in heaven, do also unto you, if ye from your
hearts forgive not every one his brother.” S. Matt. xviii. 35. Let us, then, forgive few things
to whom many have been forgiven, and understand that the more we
forgive the more acceptable shall we be to God, for we are the more
well pleasing to God, the more we have been forgiven.