Forgiveness

In reading Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Justice: A Theological Contribution to a More Peaceful Social Environment, I immediately thought Volf does not understand several vital theological concepts. I realize that he understands them at his level of understanding, but I disagree with his argument. To forgive means to come to a total state of inner peace, with no desire for revenge, retribution, retaliation or punishment. In fact to forgive means that we do not have to see justice done because we understand that divine justice is always happening, in divine timing, not when or how we want it to. To surrender to divine will, which is part of the Lords Prayer, your will be done not mine, is poorly understood. It means to let go of our need to control the outcomes, to let go of our need to understand everything that is happening and to trust that the divine source will take care of things in and how the divine source sees fit, when the divine source see fit. It is to follow divine guidance from within, no matter how hopeless the situation appears, to have faith. To continue praying for spiritual healing and transformation of ourselves and our enemies even when nothing seems to be happening. Everything happens in divine timing, human timing is not divine timing, human law is not divine law and human justice is not divine justice. I have watched divine justice play out in divine time. I know divine justice exists and hence when you understand this it is much easier to have faith and surrender to divine will and let go and let God.
When one comes to state of forgive, one usually sees that one’s perpetrator is simply a reflection or mirror image of oneself and hence before we can forgive our perpetrator we have to forgive ourselves and we come to the understanding that the only enemy we have is ourselves. To get to this level of understanding means doing years and years of spiritual healing work. When we forgive at this level our heart Charkra opens and love and gratitude flows through our hearts for our perpetrators and ourselves, we start praying for their spiritual healing and transformation of our perpetrators. This is the most profound and powerful experience of forgiveness and unconditional love you can experience. If Volf had ever experience this level of forgiveness he certainly would have been writing about it, like I am. You can’t say I forgive unconditionally like God does, if you are not experiencing forgiveness at this level. Volf is talking his walk, not walking his talk.
Which brings me to my next point event, we can start praying for spiritual transformation and healing of our enemies even before forgiveness is following. It’s a tough exercise but can be done. For example instead of always praying for the healing of the victims, or loved ones or friends, which is fine, it is time that we started praying for the leaders of terrorist organizations, that their hatred and aggression may be transformed into love and other expressions of divine healing. We should be praying that political parties will set up social policies that promote social programs that will help redress long standing social and economic inequity. Pray that there may be hope for a better future for the alienated youth who find themselves entrenched in terrorist organizations and have no other options in life. We should be praying that the negative spiral of terrorism and violence be transformed into an ascending spiral of healing love and transformation. If we don’t send love, compassion and understanding to terrorist, instead of anger and hatred and political tactics that continue to enlarge the negative spiral of hatred and violence, things will simply remain the same and generations of young people will continue to find themselves born into war torn countries, refugee camps and a hopeless future. Political terrorism (terrorists sent in by governments to fight back) only inspires more generations of refugees and young homeless people filled with anger and hatred. We need to be sending positive affirming prayers, not making statements like the Pope at Christmas who prayed for the punishment of those who persecuted Christians. The popes Christmas speech was not a demonstration of the unconditional love that Jesus taught and it was not a demonstration of what Jesus taught when he said forgive your enemies. Where are our spiritual leaders. Punishment is not love, understanding and compassion. Love heals, and when it flows we know that the divine source is active and present in the life of those involved.
AHO.

Written by Angela Bardon