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Nothing is more godly than the gift of forgiveness.

Our Hebrew (spiritual) ancestors recognized the uniquely divine authority to forgive sins. They saw this as rooted not only in God's sovereignty and, therefore, lordship over all creation, but also in terms of how all sin offends God's holiness. No mere mortal could assert such power to restore to God the defilement of that supreme dignity which is owed to God alone.

That is one reason Jesus was accused of blasphemy: for presuming to forgive sins as only God can. Then again, that would have presented no issue if Jesus really were God - which, of course, He is, though hardly recognized as such by His accusers.

As Catholic Christians, we know in faith that Jesus was and always will be both God and man, the Incarnate Word, from the very moment of His conception. Thus, He is entitled to confer His divine power to forgive on anyone whom He chooses - and He does. The gift to the Church of remitting sins through the sacrament of penance is the God-created means of knowing the absolute reach of God's infinite mercy.

The sinner who is truly repentant can know that what the words of the priest-confessor say is exactly what they mean: "I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

While no human being can absolve sins - that is, completely free the sinner from sin and its consequences - it is within the power of every human being to forgive the offenses of others against them personally. In fact, Jesus tells us that this is something we must do if we are to follow Him as His disciples and attain eternal life.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. The former is an act of the will; the latter is purely intellectual matter and is usually not possible, unless one suffers from some organic or emotional disorder which somehow blocks access to memory. Thoughts tend to remain in our minds, even though we may try not to entertain them by dwelling on them.

It is important to recognize how powerful is our human capacity to offer another person forgiveness - to let go of the judgment, the hatred and the revenge that usually follow when one is wronged.

Though it is hard for the offended one to understand this, the person who gave offense is heavily burdened by that evil action and in direct proportion to its seriousness. That burden can never completely be released - except by the one who has been wronged.

This (unfairly, one might note) actually burdens the one offended twice: once for the first offense, and then again for "biting down" on the debt that is owed. Yet it also frees the one offended from eternally carrying that burden, from being a victim forever, even as it releases the burden of the wrongdoer.

Thus, it is even more powerful than the original offense - a true example of the triumph of good over evil! It releases the spell of evil and, Spirit-like, renews the face of the earth, healing it by making it whole again.

For every Christian, whom Jesus specifically commands to forgive in order to be a good disciple, it ultimately boils down to this question: Do I really want to hold onto Christ or to my hatred and revenge? There is no middle ground.

Understood this way, a persistent unwillingness to forgive can be seen as a refusal to be changed by the Lord - even a rejection of God Himself!

Of course, this is difficult, if not impossible at times, without the help of God's mercy. Yet it is also absolutely essential for our salvation. Jesus Himself sets the path for us by His own incredibly merciful heart. His kindness extends even beyond those who were repentant: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

If this is not enough to persuade us, then consider that this is God Himself who is telling us to do it - to forgive, whether we find it easy or not. Whose commands do we stand a better chance of relying on when the day of judgment comes: God's or our own?[[In-content Ad]]

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