Saturday, January 1, 2011

FORGIVENESS


‘…the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over.’
                                                                                             C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I started the New Year by reading Robin Givens’ meditative memoir Grace Will Lead Me Home. Fittingly, the narrative begins on the morning of New Year’s Day on the theme of redemption and forgiveness. This is hard. To mention the subject at all, as C.S. Lewis puts it, is to be greeted with howls of anger. Nonetheless, let me ask for forgiveness for all the people I have wronged, cheated or bullied. I am not doing this as a ritual or out of necessity. It’s never too soon to begin forgiving as we are commanded to do it not only ‘seven times’ but ‘seven times seven’. In Givens’ words:

‘…nothing is more empowering than the act of forgiving. True forgiveness is simply, purely redemptive.

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