My brothers, we often pray, and think of other things, as if we forget before whom we stand, or before whom we lie prostrate. If all these things are gathered against us, do they not weigh us down because they are small? What difference does it make whether lead weighs you down or sand? Lead is a single mass, sand is tiny grains, but they weigh you down by their abundance. Sins are small: do you not see rivers being filled with small drops, and their banks being eroded? They are small, but they are many.
Agreement to forgive debts.
Therefore, let us say every day, and let us say with a true heart, and let us do what we say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. We make a pledge with God, an agreement and covenant. This is what your Lord God says to you: Forgive, and I forgive. Did you not forgive? You hold it against yourself, not I. Indeed, my beloved children, because I know what is necessary for you in the Lord's prayer, and especially in that entire sentence: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, listen to me. You are about to be baptized, forgive everything: whoever has something against someone in his heart, let him forgive from his heart. Thus enter, and be assured, that everything whatsoever is forgiven to you, whatever you have contracted, and from being born from parents according to Adam with original sin, for the sake of which you run to the grace of the Savior with the little one, and whatever you have added by living, in words, deeds, thoughts, all are forgiven: and you will come out from there as if from the presence of your Lord with the assurance of all debts.
Encourages the love of enemies.
Now, on account of those daily sins of which I have spoken, because it is necessary for you to say, as in daily cleansing, this: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; what will you do? You have enemies: for who lives on this earth without having an enemy? Pay attention to yourselves: love them. In no way can a raging enemy harm you as much as you harm yourself if you do not love the enemy. For he can harm either your house, or your cattle, or your home, or your servant, or your maidservant, or your son, or your wife, or at most, if he is given the power, your flesh: but can he, like you, harm your soul? Strive for this perfection, dearest ones, I exhort you. But did I give it to you? He who you say to: Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth, gave it to you. Yet let it not appear impossible to you: I know, I have known, I have proven that there are Christian men who love their enemies. If it seems impossible to you, do not do it. First believe it can be done: and pray that the will of God be done in you. For what benefit is there to you from the evil of your enemy? If he had no evil, he would not be your enemy. Wish good for him, end his evils, and he shall no longer be an enemy. For it is not the human nature in him that is your enemy, but sin. Is he your enemy because he has a soul and body? This is what you are: you have a soul, he has a soul; you have a body, he has a body. He is of the same substance as you: you were made together from the earth by the Lord, you were given life. He is what you are: look at your brother. First, our two parents were Adam and Eve; that father, that mother: therefore, we are brothers. Let us omit the first origin; God is the father, the Church is the mother: therefore, we are brothers. But my enemy is a pagan, a Jew, a heretic; and so, as I said, Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. O Church! Your enemy is a pagan, a Jew, a heretic: he is earth. If you are heaven, call upon the Father who is in heaven, and pray for your enemies: for Saul was also an enemy of the Church; thus, prayer was made for him, he became a friend. He not only ceased to be a persecutor, but labored to be a helper. And if you seek the truth, prayer was made against him: but against his malice, not his nature. Pray also against the malice of your enemy: let it die, and let him live. For if your enemy dies, you lose an enemy, but do not find a friend; but if his malice dies, you find a friend.
Enemies are to be loved by all, although few perform this.
Still say: Who can? Who does that? God does it in your hearts. And I know: few do it, they are great who do it, the spiritual do it. Are all the faithful in the Church approaching the altar and taking the body and blood of Christ such? Are all such? And yet all say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. If God answers them: Why do you ask me to do what I promised, when you do not do what I commanded? What did I promise? To forgive your debts. What did I command? That you also forgive your debtors. How can you do these things if you do not love your enemies? What then shall we do, brothers? Is the flock of Christ reduced to such fewness? If only they ought to say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, who love their enemies, I do not know what to do, I do not know what to say. For I will say to you: If you do not love your enemies, do not pray? I dare not: rather, pray so that you may love. But what shall I say to you? If you do not love your enemies, do not say in the Lord’s prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors? Suppose I say: Do not say it. If you do not say it, they are not forgiven: if you say it and do not do it, they are not forgiven. Therefore it must be said and done, so that they may be forgiven.
Let forgiveness at least be given to an enemy who asks for it.
I see something, from which I can console not a small number of Christians, but a multitude: and I know that you desire to hear this. "Forgive, that you may be forgiven," Christ said. And what do you say in prayer? from where we now discuss: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." Forgive, Lord, as we forgive. You say this: "Forgive us our debts, Father who art in heaven, as we also forgive our debtors." For you should do this: for if you do not do this, you will perish. But what? When you hear: The enemy seeks pardon, immediately you should forgive. Is this much to you? It was much for you to love your enemy, who was raging: is it much for you to love a man who asks for pardon? What do you say? He was raging, and you hated him. I would prefer that you had not even hated then: I would prefer that even then, when you were suffering from his rage, you would recall the Lord saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Therefore I greatly wish that even at that time, when the enemy was raging against you, you would look to the Lord your God saying this. But perhaps you will say: "He did it, but as Lord, because He is Christ, because He is the Son of God, because He is the Only Begotten, because the Word was made flesh: what about me, a wicked and weak man?" If your Lord is too much for you, let your fellow servant be considered by you. Saint Stephen was being stoned: and amid the stones, he knelt in prayer for his enemies, and said: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." They were throwing stones, not seeking pardon: and he was praying for them. I want you to be like him: extend yourself. Why do you always drag your heart to the earth? Listen, extend your heart upward, love your enemies. If you cannot love someone who is raging, at least love someone who is asking. Love the man who says to you: "Brother, I have sinned, forgive me." Then if you do not forgive, I do not say: Erase the prayer from your heart; but: You will be erased from the book of God.
Discipline without hatred.
But if even then you forgive, or then from the heart you release hatred: hatred, I say, release from the heart, not discipline. What if the one who asks for forgiveness must be punished by me? Do what you will: for I think that you love your son, even when you strike him. You do not care about the tears of the one being flogged, because you preserve the inheritance. I say this, that you release hatred from the heart when your enemy asks you for forgiveness. But perhaps you say: "He lies, he pretends." O judge of the heart, tell me the evil thoughts of your father, tell me your thoughts from yesterday. He asks, he seeks forgiveness: release, completely release. If you do not release, you harm not him, but yourself. For he knows what he will do. Do you not want to release your fellow servant to your fellow servant? He will go to your Lord and say to Him: "Lord, I asked my fellow servant to release me, and he did not want to release: you release me." Is it not allowed for the Lord to forgive the debts of His servant? He, having received forgiveness, departs from the Lord absolved: you remain bound. How are you bound? The time for prayer will come, the time will come that you say: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. The Lord will answer you: By no means; when you owed me so much, you asked me, and I forgave you: should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? These words are from the Gospel, not from my heart. But if, having been asked, you forgive the one who asks for forgiveness, now you can say this prayer. And if you are not yet able to love the one raging, nevertheless you can say this prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Let us move on to the rest.
Do not lead us into temptation. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, for past sins we say, which we cannot undo, so that they are not done. You can act, so that you do not do what you did: what do you do, so that what you did is not done? For those things which have already been done, this sentence of healing helps you: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For those things which you may encounter, what will you do? Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil: this is, from the very temptation.
Three requests regard eternal life, three regard the necessities of this life.
And there will be those three requests: Hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, these three petitions are for human life. For the name of God must always be hallowed in us, we must always be in his kingdom, we must always do his will: this will be for eternity. Daily bread is necessary now; from this point on, the rest of what we pray for pertains to the needs of the present life. Daily bread is necessary in this life, it is necessary in this life that our debts be forgiven: for when we have come to that life, we will have ended debts; in this land there is temptation, in this land sailing is perilous, in this land something enters through the cracks of fragility, which must be bailed out. But when we have been made equal to the angels of God, let it not be that we say, let it not be that we ask God to forgive our debts, which will be none. Here then is daily bread, here that debts may be forgiven, here that we may not enter into temptation: because in that life temptation does not enter; here that we may be delivered from evil; because in that life there will be no evil, but eternal good will remain.