"Father, Forgive Them"

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Forgiveness is hard.  Forgiveness is really, really hard.

It’s difficult to forgive others who have genuinely harmed or offended us.  

It’s easy to say, “I forgive you,” but it’s extremely difficult to feel it–to make peace in our hearts with the injustices that others have perpetrated against us.

It just doesn’t feel right.  Sin should be punished!  Wrongs should be righted!  Right?!

It’s difficult to forgive others when they ask for it.  It’s even more difficult to forgive them when they haven’t asked for it–when they don’t even recognize what they’ve done to hurt us.

As our Savior hung upon His Cross, He asked the Father to forgive those nearby–those who were unwittingly contributing to the greatest injustice in the history of the world.

These thieves, soldiers, and standers-by had no idea what was happening.  They had no idea that the jealousy of the Jews had placed Christ on that Cross.  They had no idea that they were mocking and mistreating a perfectly righteous man!  How could they know that they were crucifying God?

As Christ gave His life so that mankind might be forgiven, He asked the Father to forgive.  Even more, He felt forgiveness for them in His heart.  He had compassion for them.  He had pity upon them.

As we contemplate this, and other sayings, of Christ from the Cross, let us never forget how often we need forgiveness.  We daily offend God.  We daily sin against our brothers and our sisters.  Either by omission or by commission we fail to achieve the perfection required by God’s law–we fail to love God and neighbor.  

Our Savior calls us to forgive as we have been forgiven.  Let us often reflect on how often we have been forgiven.   

Let us remember, also, that no one ever deserves to be forgiven.  Too often we tell ourselves that others don’t deserve our forgiveness.  Their sins against us are just too awful–their penance, too shallow.

But, of course, such an attitude reveals an utter ignorance of the meaning of forgiveness.  Forgiveness, like grace, cannot be deserved.  If forgiveness was deserved, it would cease to be forgiveness.

  

Forgiveness is a gift.  Forgiveness is a choice.  For the Christian, forgiving others is a response to the forgiveness that we have received.  

Father, teach us to forgive, not only with our words, but in and from our hearts.  

Father, forgive us for our failure to forgive as we have been forgiven.