Doppelganger

A few weeks ago on Facebook, we were introduced to Doppelganger week. Doppelganger is a German word that means "double goer." It is used to indicate any double or look-alike of ourselves. "You look so much like...." Our doppelganger is our look-alike.
In today's gospel reading from Matthew, Peter asks Jesus "If my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus then launches into a parable about the Kingdom of heaven. We read the story of the king who wants to settle accounts with his servants. The servants are called in to pay their debt to the king. In this account, the first servant is unable to pay his debt and is reduced to asking for compassion and patience. The King feels compassion for him and forgives his debt.
Immediately after, the servant comes upon a fellow servant who is indebted to him. Yet, he offers no forgiveness and treats him harshly. Does this first servant not see that this fellow servant is his doppelganger, his look-alike?? That was him 2 minutes ago!! Did he not even allow the gift of forgiveness to seep into his own being and transform him? I guess not, or else he would have noticed himself in the fellow servant and offered that gift to him as well.
Do we see our doppelgangers in the people that we meet on a daily basis? Do we see them in the people whom we are unable to forgive? Do we see ourselves in them?
This week our Lenten theme is Vigilance. We are encouraged to discard the possessions that get in the way of our being able to see and experience the very life and presence of God. How about the possession of forgiveness? Are we able to give that away so that, in the process of forgiving another we experience a greater presence of God? Seeing the other as a doppelganger, an image of ourselves may help us offer the very thing to them that may be needed for their liberation and our liberation. God offers us forgiveness to liberate us. Can we do the same to our look-alike to be liberated and to liberate us as well?

Fr. Mark