“Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Colossians 3:13
Hannah Arendt, in her treatise The Human Condition, suggests nature is essentially cyclical and is an inexorable process of life and death that ultimately ends in doom. Post “Eden”, she is largely correct. The fall destroyed God’s perfect eternal creation and the consequence is death. We see it in the impending death of our planet. We see it in the actual death of our human community. The obituary would read “American goodness and benevolence died of a malignancy complicated by alienation from others and an unwillingness to forgive those the have done harm.
Arendt, however, suggests the miraculous nature of humanity provides a reprieve. The remarkable human condition allows for new possibilities every time one of us is born. Unlike animals, humans have the ability to do the unexpected because we don’t have to “react”...we can “act” independent of circumstances. She highlights two miraculous elements that can potentially reverse the cycle of doom. We humans are capable of “forgiving” and “keeping promises”.
We observe vengeance is our automatic reaction to any perceived slight. Our streets are burning, we are beating and killing one another and we are actively disenfranchising those with whom we disagree because, you see, they are always wrong if they believe differently from us. So we “cancel” them...we de-platform them from Twitter and Facebook. We dox them and threaten their families. We consider denying them the opportunity to work in “polite society”...which is not at all polite. It’s not difficult to see over the horizon and get a glimpse of doom.
But...we can forgive. We can refuse to harbor the hatred and vengeance that imprison our ability to act miraculously and free others from their guilt. In doing so we liberate ourselves as well. We can also make promises to do better...and keep those promises. And, these promises are fertile seeds of hope for something new and better.
The tough truth in Christ’s teaching is, the well of forgiveness must never run dry. While humanly impossible, we are Divine creations capable of supernatural unction. The thing making inexhaustible forgiveness possible is our knowledge that the forgiveness we have received is eternal and immutable. My experience confirms the more forgiveness I receive...the more promises I make...and keep.
Live boldly out there today...
