The forgiveness I am speaking of is not His forgiveness of us. Most Christians know very well how forgiven they are and for how horribly much they are forgiven, and what a blessing that is. What I am writing about, today, has to do with how freeing and blessed it is to have Him instill you with a heart of forgiveness for others, even those who do the most damage, in your life. After decades of struggling to forgive, from my own heart, I began to aquire God's heart for others and understand how much responsibility I have for the care and love of others, especially my enemies.
What would be my destiny, if I failed to forgive others enough to want them to share Heaven with me, is damnation. I know this as surely as I know He has forgiven me, so much more than I deserve to be forgiven for, in a lifetime of stumbling through life, injuring others, along the way through insensitivities, oversights, omissions and commissions, slights, ignorances, inattentions, snappings and grumblings, whinings and complainings, unappreciation, self absorbings, disturbings and many other things that we all do to others, as we stumble through life.
Others can cause us great griefs and harms. However, most of the time, we are clueless as to how and when we injur others, ourselves. We especially are careless with strangers, we may never see again. Our impatience and hurriedness is often a source of grief for those in service jobs and positions. Those tears we see are ours to dry. The wounds we see are ours to bandage. The sorrow we see is ours to console away. God doesn't send anyone or anything into our path that can not help us to be Him, more and more, as we journey through life and seek out oneness with Him and likeness to Him. Even the most difficult people and circumstances can be food for the health of a soul.
Catholicism is all about the pursuit of holiness and holiness requires the capacity to receive injury and not cease to love those that He sends into our path. It is not optional to forgive, it is essential that we develop the capacity to forgive injury from others and receive those who do us harm as forgiven, and it is a great gift, a great grace, and an incomparable blessing to be able to do so, and to be doing so, in all circumstances. There is no more freeing act of love than forgiveness.
Without the capacity to let go of hurt, we wollow in it and are bogged down and dragged down towards earth and it's earthly chains of sadness, hurt, disappointment, resentment, anger and all those other things that being hurt can bring about in your heart. It hurts our own hearts to hold in and hold on to hurt and any bitterness we may have over that hurt. It is not healthy to hold on to and hold in all of that. We die younger for having done so and each new wound just lessens our lifespan all the more.
Freedom in Christ comes in putting Him on like a garment, to change ourselves into His true likeness body, mind and soul. Judgement belongs to God for a reason. None of us knows the heart of another like He does, so none of us can accurately judge another. We can not see deep into the heart of even our best friends and family to know what may be motivating them or influencing what they are doing. Letting go and letting God is essential, when it comes to judgement.
It is not that I recommend trusting so completely that you become a victim of another repeatedly, for lack of the wisdom and savvy to know better than to leave an open invitation to walk on you. However, I do recommend that you never give a cold shoulder, never give back what you receive, and always receive others, regardless of their track record with you, in love and acceptance where they are, on their journey Home. We can't be truly free until we are free to openly love others, without hesitation. Trust is a whole other subject, from love. We can love, even those we don't trust.
My heart I find, can only soar to Heaven to be in God's company, when I leave behind all that dead weight of whatever I may have to forgive, at that moment. The experience of prayer is greatest, when we meet God on His terms. Forgiveness is one of the terms He insists on for a complete and whole relationship with Him.
Know that if you have done something to injur me, that forgiveness is already yours. If in the future you do more harm, there will still be forgiveness for you. Trust betrayed, may take time to restore, and caution is necessary there, but the love of Christ in me, can not fail to love you or I am not His, at all, after all. You have as long as it takes for Him to come take me Home, to change course with me. After that, you still have my forgiveness, but resolving your issues will become a whole lot more difficult without my words of forgiveness to hear.
Forgiveness in our hearts truly sets us free. Lack of forgiveness could forever weigh us down, so that we can not ascend to Heaven, in this life or the next.
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