Guest Column / Richard Etienne

How are you doing with the practice of forgiving those who have hurt you?

It’s a tough question, isn’t it?

And to make the issue more problematic, there

seems to be an 11th commandment “embedded” in the Our Father. And it is not one that most of us find easy to embrace when confronted in a concrete situation in real time.

I am referring to the sentence, “Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Take a brief moment to ruminate on that one! It is quite easy to recite, but so much harder to manifest in reality.

Because of this small phrase, I think that a person can say that all are commanded to forgive others.

“Thou shalt forgive.” Now, that is a difficult one to practice in the messy world of everyday life.

Our culture often teaches an opposite way of approaching those who hurt us. It seems more natural to seek revenge or retaliation of some kind when a person is wronged. We see graphic examples of this behavior in news headlines daily.

But this is not what Jesus taught. In the Gospel of Luke 16:1-8, we can read the parable of the shrewd steward.

He is about to lose his job and realizes he had better forgive some debts of others if he hopes to be treated similarly. This is not an example of American “business as usual”!

I remember a murder case in Evansville in the 1980’s where parents of a murder victim attended the trial of her assassin. These parents expressed their forgiveness of this man and fought to prevent him from receiving the death penalty.

St. Pope John Paul II took a similar action when he nearly died in 1981 from wounds from gunshots fired at close range in St. Peter’s Square while he was blessing a crowd from the popemobile.

The Holy Father actually later went to the place that his attacker was incarcerated to offer him forgiveness. Now that is the definition for a witness of forgiveness!

So, this brings the topic back to our own lives once again. Are there people who need your forgiveness—a little more mercy from you—a little more grace from you? How will you move forward?
 

(Richard Etienne has a degree in theology from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad and resides in Newburgh, Ind.) †