Forgiveness

‘Forgiveness is an act of the will and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.’ Corrie ten Boom

Have you ever wondered what the difference was between St. Peter and Judas?  Both of them betrayed Jesus, yet only one sought out forgiveness and became a great leader and shepherd of the Church. Only one was humble enough to approach the Lord after the Resurrection and meekly say, “I do believe, Lord.” And Jesus forgave him by asking him three times, ‘do you love me?’

 The power to ask forgiveness is not talked about much in the news these days.  People yell and scream at each other, no body apologizes.  We hurt someone’s feelings, no body apologizes.  People think it’s their right to say what they want, to kill with words or guns and it’s their right to free speech to not worry about how it hurts another person.   It’s almost like apologizing has become like a plague we must avoid. It would mean we were wrong, that we have to lower ourselves, demean ourselves, and God forbid admit we might have been wrong.

 Yet when nobody apologizes, we die inside.  Little by little we become hardened and our souls darken, getting dirtier and it gets easier to do more wrongs and be more hurtful.

Do we think we have to beg to receive mercy?  All Peter did was answer Jesus question, the same question three different times asked by Jesus. ‘Peter do you love me?’

It does take humility to be forgiven or to ask forgiveness.  It takes even more fortitude and heart to forgive someone who hasn’t even said they were sorry, yet Jesus did that too right from the cross. ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’

 Some people do it too, without asking for an apology, without closing their hearts. They just forgive, because that’s what Jesus did.  Members of a church did it in South Carolina. They forgave a man who murdered nine members of their church community.  They forgave a man who had been so filled with hate that he killed nine people who had invited him into their bible study group.  Yet he received forgiveness.  I am positive these people in this church were still hurting, still grieving over the nine lost members, yet somehow they realized that by being like Jesus and giving forgiveness it would help them to heal.

Do we think we are better than Jesus when we don’t ask forgiveness, when we don’t forgive someone who has hurt us deeply?  Forgiveness is an action that has ramifications far beyond how it makes us feel. It’s like ripples in a pond when someone forgives another person.   It’s like the sun shining out following a tornado, or a bright colorful rainbow peeking out from the storm clouds to signal to the entire world that God is there and everything is okay.  Because someone forgave, and someone said they were sorry.