47. Forgiving

To sum it up in a word, refusal to forgive is very hell. Its opposite is just as simple: acceptance of God's pardon manifested in the Risen Jesus, living it in community and announcing it to others. A vast programme for renewed living! A mighty programme indeed in a world which no longer regards forgiveness as a positive thing.

Human cultures which see in pardonning the wrong doer as nothing else but weakness and submission - or even a dishonour - are rare indeed. Is there any single society where forgiveness is looked upon as a civic duty, where it is recognised and even institutionalised. And yet the question is asked, not just in small print for our own individual lives, but in large headlines in the press, with a view to balancing the world's finances. Forgiving others is acknowledged as a good thing and recognised as such by the institution. Nevertheless, the question is asked, not only in small print for our lives as individuals, but even in large letters in the newspapers, to ensure global balance in the world of finance.

Questions are asked about cancelling the debt of the poorest contries "deuda externa, deuda eterna" (foreign debt, eternal debt) is the remark heard from those abused. Evangelical idealism, or in n other words the prophetic vision of the biblical message, will perhaps one day prove to be the only condition of our survival.

The importance of forgiveness applies to the economic life of nations, just as it was recently applied to the various disputes over the renunciation of major forces of destruction: hell in all its fury, or forgiveness, the sharing of riches or slow asphyxiation through selfish protectionism.

Whatever about the global realisation of this hope, what has always surprised me and filled me with joy, is the existence in the world of communities which - like tiny living miracles - endeavour to live by sharing and forgiving one another, fully conscious of the reason why they have elected to live in this way. Tiny laboratories, they welcome and give credence to the Word of Life.

We have to admit however, that there is nothing so difficult as to forgive. It is easier to start from point zero, easier to begin afresh than to begin anew. The person who manages to forgive reactivates the life movement beyond the point where it was broken. He opens up the future at the very point where it was blocked. More than a "survivor", he begins to live with a "double share of vitality": wounds healed, he forges on ahead. Superman? Inaccessible Stoic or perhaps even disdainful? No! for pardon is not only self -healing but even succeeds in restoring the relationship. It is a new creation. That is why in the Old Testament, it is a prerogative of the living God. God and God alone can forgive sins. To forgive then, is to know - in the sense of living and experiencing - the very mystery of God! Vast programme for a renewed life!

Ambitious programme which presupposes an apprenticeship and self-training going beyond the superficiality of little apologies weighed and numbered "How many times?" "All the time!", and not just now and again, but day after day. "The measure of God's love is to love without measure." Even if a certain parable expresses itself in terms of bankers, debts and delays, the logic employed puts paid to the "give in order to receive" mentality. The commitment which Christ proposes is without limit. It opens up to space and to time, with all the concrete faces envisaged there.

"(for) Christ plays in ten thousand places," wrote the poet Gerald Manley Hopkins,
lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not His,
through the features of men's faces."

It is of course impossible to go on forgiving ad infinitum; impossible that is, if we rely only on ourselves with our very limited resources. But we have been given a credit account into which we can call on generously. Already - isn't it true - a very considerable loan of multiple and varied gifts, complementary and adjusted to our needs, has been accorded to us. In truth, this is not a loan at all! This capital is our very own...let's be quite sure of that (education, common sense, health...) As the parable of the insolvent debtor points out: paying back has become impossible. The initial gift will not be taken back, for it has been given for good, but first of all, it has been received, even if later on like the talents, it has gained more.

Why not ask for more? More will be given, so that we in our turn can give to others, and find the energy always to forgive. The demand to do so has no limits. There is within it a dynamic, a plenitude, (seventy times, the perfect figure), which goes even beyond death itself.

For the secret lies there. It is the key which changes everything and turns everything upside down. It is a question of remembering what we have received. We call it quite simply...gratitude! A word which the world does not understand. "Eucharist" in Greek, Thank you, in English. To say "thank you", to celebrate the Eucharist, to offer up what we have received, even if it is only a remembering. To go beyond forgetfulness, or rather to go below the forgetting the thing we forgot... for we have forgotten that we have forgotten! All has been wiped out, from the beginning, and man finds himself all alone, naked and with an empty heart.

He must find his way again. Now this way begins everywhere. The source is there, nearer to us than our hearts, but we must rid it of all that encumbers it, so that it can once again flow freely. We must rediscover the origin of all good, of all life, of every form of gift, of all forgiveness. The One who has called us from "the world" so that he can return us to it refreshed, who receives our life so that he can give it back to us more abundantly.

It means remembering what we have received, but above all, from Whom we have received it over and over again and for ever. It means once more becoming sons in the Spirit of the Son who has given us everything; who has created and re-created us. Forgiveness reveals the meaning of creation. In the light of the Creator's vulnerability, the fundamental debt is recognised, assumed and transfigured.

To refuse to forgive then, would be to exclude ourselves from life and to condemn ourselves to the mortal hell of a world closed in on itself. What we ask for is the mercy of God and of others, those who have gone before us and from whom we have received so much; those who support us day after day, and who, when we have departed, will receive the good and perhaps not-so-good heritage which we leave after us.