A much-used marketing slogan is “the gift that keeps on giving.” The idea expressed is that the item being marketed is not just for one-use or one-person consumption, but rather that it can be shared with others and enjoyed repeatedly.

Today’s Gospel is about forgiveness. Jesus knows how we arethat I will decide when, and if, I will forgive somebody. Perhaps after they apologize. Jesus teaches that God doesn’t decide whether to forgive us; he just cannot help himself. God’s forgiveness is overflowingflowing continuously in all directions for everyone and anyone.

We too do not run out of our personal supply of forgiveness. I know this is true from personal experience: forgiveness given multiplies and grows in the giver even more. Aren’t God’s gifts of grace like this? Love. Compassion. Generosity. Kindness. Indeed, these are the gifts that keep on giving.

—Fr. Glen Chun, S.J. is a campus ministry chaplain at Loyola University Chicago, IL, as well as the peripatetic minister of the Loyola University Jesuit community.