Forgiveness

Written on: August 2, 2016

Forgiveness

Children are taught to say, “I’m sorry.” They’re taught to respect someone else’s feelings.

What about us big kids?

Someone hurts us and says, “I’m sorry.” What happens with those two little words? What happens inside?

Do I melt? Each one of us has her/his gut reaction .We might not melt one iota; we might prefer to “stay mad.”

Some of us find it very difficult to express a “sorry,” and some of find it very difficult to accept an apology. Grace moments confront us when we become aware of how we react. Sifting through the reaction to make a positive in our lives can gear us to grasp the peace so beautifully caught in the Sermon on the Mount.

“Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!”

Let us consider a word meaning. What’s the first idea that comes to mind when we hear the word “forgiveness?”

• Do we think of someone we have forgiven
• or someone who has forgiven us?

Christ‘s prayer…”Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” or “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Mother Teresa’s focus, “It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.”

Another idea…Someone has hurt us deeply. (No one goes through life without such an experience, and putting that in the singular has to make us smile.) The concern is what we do with the hurt…

• Do we keep remembering it,
• seek revenge,
• blame/judge the other person?

In a word, do we stay stuck in the past? If we do any one of those things, it’s not healthy physically or spiritually.

Often, in our lives, some hurtful experience pops back into our thinking. It’s at that very moment we have the opportunity to forgive again, thereby continuing, and deepening our own healing. Alan Paton puts it succinctly, “When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.”

Each one of us has to forgive one another. Summarized simply, much of the whole problem of peace in our world rests on forgiveness. You and I are part of the human race.

God calls us in this present moment to forgive, so that we can reach out to others and move forward with compassion in our faith journey. In our environment, in our city, in our region, in our country, in our world, we need to travel closely with forgiveness in our hearts.

“Us,” little kids, and BIG kids have to move forward: FORGIVE.

Sr. Anne Boyer

Thank you Sister Anne Boyer, GNSH for sharing your thoughts on forgiveness at a time when we are deeply in need of this reminder.

Photo above blog post,courtesy of Pixabay.

This entry was posted in From our Sisters and tagged: apology, feelings, Forgiveness, grace, healing, peace, respect, sorrow, sorry