God’s Gift of Conscience
We have “in [our] hearts a law inscribed by God” [1] that is called conscience. Thus, conscience is God’s gift to us.
One of the gifts of a well-formed conscience is it helps us know our sins. Knowing our sins could help us be more aware of our need for God’s forgiveness.
The awareness our need for God’s forgiveness should then lead us to greater gratitude to God and appreciation of God’s mercy. (On the contrary, without the awareness of God’s boundless mercy, the awareness of sins alone can easily lead us to despair).
Appreciation of God’s mercy in turn could help us grow in our compassion with ourselves and with others.
The first servant in today’s Gospel does not know the immensity of what he owes the king. He even brags, “I will pay you back in full” although he has “no way of paying it back.” He is clueless of either the size of the debt or his situation. That is similar to the unawareness of one’s sins.
Consequently, the servant has no appreciation for the king who was so “moved with compassion” for him that the king just “let him go and forgave him the loan.”
We know the rest of the story.
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church #1776, quoted Gaudium et Spes 16, quoted Romans 2:15.
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