Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”. (Ephesians 4:32).
Forgiving is the first step to close a painful event even if we bear the scars of the offenses, because God gives us through His son Jesus a new strength and perspective to look through. The offenses that we experienced or encountered in our life’s journey shouldn’t consume us and put us down, rather should feel that it is God given opportunity to be a better person and show our forgiveness to them by loving our offenders as Jesus our Master and Savior did. This act of forgiving will further leads us to be more virtuous and holy. It’s not always easy, but it’s the ideal step to take to move on. Even in the most difficult circumstances of our lives, we can often recognize the grace of God at work. God’s work is to bring life out of nothingness, happiness out of sorrow, healing out of pain, and hope out of defeat, companionship out of loneliness, and finally forgiveness out of offenses. On the way to forgiveness we need to learn lot of things. To be able to forgive others is a gift to ourselves! When we forgive we free ourselves. When we forgive others and ourselves we shift into a newly created space that shines with compassion and mercy, and when we forgive we grow in love and wisdom.
If I imagine forgiving my offender as an obligation, I will find it difficult to forgive others freely and generously. But if I know the forgiveness comes from God as an unmerited gift and feels that it is God’s generosity and love, I may experience within myself the same generous capacity to forgive the one who has hurt me and love him all the more. Lewis B Smedes said “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you”. So let us free ourselves by practicing this great virtue of forgiveness in our life because Forgiveness is essential to our spiritual well-being; it is the necessary outcome of loving one another as God has loved us.