Sunday, September 07, 2008 Lagura: Forgiving as we are forgiven By Fr. Flor Lagura, SVD in the service of the word
ONCE a pastor had a bitter enemy who unjustly criticized him to no end. One day, however, his foe was accused of treason—a crime punishable with death. Upon hearing of his enemy’s fate the pastor wasted no time walking to the camp of the commanding officer of the rebel forces—George Washington.
When the pastor pleaded his cause before Washington, the latter replied, “I’m very sorry, Reverend, but I don’t pardon a traitor even one’s best friend.” To which the pastor immediately answered, “No, General, he is not my friend; he is my worst enemy.”
And that plea saved the traitor’s life.
All of us, at one time or another, got hurt by a friend’s or, what is worse, by an enemy’s cruelty. Forgiveness darkens our minds and hardens our hearts. With those hurts, imagined or real, we fall into the pit of self-pity. Our emotional and spiritual growth gets stunted with the anger and resentment that poisons our lives.
Even though difficult, forgiveness has to come in to heal our hearts, to expel the poison and to let the wind of love and peace refresh our lives. Only thus will our growth in life and our joy in living go forward. This is what forgiveness brings.
For the person who receives forgiveness the gift of getting back God’s love and the love of the person he had offended will do wonders to his life. From the poverty and misery of being shut off from life-giving relationships with God and others, and from the mire of sin and hatred, the person who receives forgiveness receives humbly and gratefully the breath of life, the promise of hope.
In a TV program which shocked our nation, the anchorman interviewed a young boy whose father, a suspected rebel, became a casualty of war. When asked what he would do when he grows up, the child calmly but grimly said, “When I’ll be big enough, I’ll get a gun and go after those who killed my father!”
The decades of rebellion that have plagued our country will come to an end if we do practice forgiveness that Jesus preached. The Koran also teaches believers to “show forgiveness, enjoin what is good and, turn away from the foolish”(7:199). Moreover the Holy Book of Islam says that God forgives those who forgive others for their shortcomings (24:22).
Mindful of the Lord’s prayer to forgive in order to the forgiven, St. Francis of Assisi, himself a man who renounced violence for the sake of peace and pleaded with the ruler of Morocco to be at peace, beautifully prayed, “For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
“Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22
