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Good morning. On Wednesday millions of people found out that their student debt had been forgiven. President Biden has announced that all Americans earning less than 125,000 dollars a year would have 10,000 dollars of federal student debt cancelled, and he would cancel double that amount for students on a grant for low-income families. 20 million people suddenly find themselves free of all student debt. The sense of relief will be profound.

But a lot of the news coverage focussed on whether Biden’s plan is fair. Is it fair that some people paid off their student debt, while others will have the slate wiped clean? One third of high school graduates don’t go on to further education, so how is it fair on them? And then there’s the bigger picture, beyond students in predatory loan systems. Plenty of other people need debts cancelled too. Many people in this country are familiar with the gnawing dread that accompanies mounting debt. And the increase in energy prices will certainly add to their number.

It’s interesting that we talk about debt ‘forgiveness’. We use the word forgiveness when something that seems rightly owed – a punishment or a debt – is overlooked. Generosity is extended where repayment cannot or will not be made. The King James version of the Lord’s Prayer asks God to ‘forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors’. St Augustine explains that – while this prayer refers to any kind of unfairness or wrongdoing – it also includes a willingness to write off monetary debts where people cannot repay them. In Jesus’ day many of those who heard his teaching were oppressed by predatory debt collectors – or were profiting from other people’s debt. His instruction to both pray for forgiveness and to forgive others poses a radical challenge.

What becomes possible when debts of any kind get forgiven? The supporters of this student debt plan hope that it will give people a fresh start, not just in transforming individual lives, but in transforming whole communities. When we forgive each other our debts – whether financial, social, or otherwise – they no longer pose a barrier to flourishing alongside each other. And this is the essence of forgiveness: a slate wiped clean so that new relationships are possible.

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