Forgiveness is all about grace. Leith Fisher comments: “I believe it is very
difficult to overestimate the importance of forgiveness and its twin,
acceptance. It is forgiveness which
overcomes estrangements, brings reconciliation, breaks the iron bands of
revenge and recrimination, delivers from bitterness and resentment, frees from
guilt and fear. It is something that we
do practise in the daily round of our lives; it’s a balm for the bumps and
bruises we keep inflicting on one another; it’s an oil which keeps the engine
of community running within family life, community life, church life. It is something we should always be praying
for the grace to practise better.”
Fisher
goes on to refer to the philosopher Jacques Derrida who speaks about ‘the
insanity of grace’ and then again about ‘the madness of the impossible’. The point is that the challenge to
forgiveness defies human logic. It is
far more natural that we should seek revenge.
But, of course, that is where we go right to the centre of our faith –
because there we find forgiveness, there at the cross.
Fisher comments: “It is there we are enrolled
in the school of grace, freely to give as we have freely received. How do we witness to the Easter faith? In things big and small, keep remembering,
“Seventy times seven.”
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