"To err is human; to forgive is divine." I do not remember who has pronounced these words, but I do remember the prayer of Jesus from the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!"
The entire mystery of redemption is essentially nothing else but an act of forgiveness on God's part for all the sins of mankind, and therefore for mine as well. The Son of God has become man to save us, and this he did not only by forgiving our sins, but by offering us the possibility of attaining eternal life and sharing his everlasting happiness.
Forgiveness is a necessary element in the entire process of salvation. When Peter, as we read in today's Gospel, asked Jesus how often we should forgive those who do us wrong, whether seven times should be enough, our Lord's prompt answer was: "Not seven times, but 70 times seven."
A tall order indeed. It takes much goodness and courage to forgive once, or possibly twice; but indefinitely, whenever we get hurt by the same individual! Well, that is what Christ did and keeps doing all the time.
That remains our commitment to God which we renew over and over again whenever we pray the Our Father: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us!"
Forgiveness is in fact a typically Christian virtue. It is an aspect of sincere love, almost a synonym of love. God's love for us is boundless. That is why He is ready to forgive us each time we need to be forgiven: not seven times, but 70 times seven, and even more.
On our part too forgiveness will be the best test of our love. In fact, when all is said and done, the one who hurts, remains hurt even more than the one he has hurt. Then sincere forgiveness comes along, and with it peace of mind and joy in both the offended and the offender. The man who is truly forgiven and knows it, is a man who forgives.
True, forgiving is not the same as forgetting, although it does at times demand it. If it does not of itself forget, sincere Christian forgiveness urges one to behave with the offending neighbour as if nothing has happened. And that is not asking too much.
For such is the lesson we learn from the way God himself forgives us: his divine mercy does not only cover up our sins, as some may think, but it "removes" them altogether from God's record and gives us the possibility of starting all over again on a blank sheet.
Looking more closely around us today, the ongoing contrasts between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which have lately caused so much pain and bloodshed in the Middle East, are in fact characterised by the hardness of heart and the inability to forgive on the part of both sides.
No wonder Pope John Paul II has been repeating these words, which are applicable to every similar situation: "No peace is possible without forgiveness, and no forgiveness is possible without love." Has not our Lord asked us to forgive our enemies? Do we not pledge in the Our Father that we do forgive our enemies as a condition for God's Forgiveness?
An old English proverb says: "The noblest vengeance is to forgive." And Francis Bacon elaborates thus on it: "In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior - for it is a prince's part to pardon." Most of us, I am sure, have known how true this is.