Forgiveness

"Christ emphasizes so insistently the need to forgive others that, when Peter asked him how many times he should forgive his neighbor, he answered with the symbolic number of "seventy times seven," meaning that he must be able to forgive everyone every time." ---Pope John Paul II

I ran across this quote yesterday. I had forgotten that I had written it down almost four years ago. Today I had an experience that got me pretty fired up. I spent quite a while afterwards ranting about the situation. However, as I sit and think about the above quote I have to ask myself, "what did all the ranting really accomplish?". What was the point in letting this situation and the people involved get me so worked up?

I have to say that the situation and my reaction to it provided a valuable learning experience which highlighted several issues that will be valuable in the future. This was good. Getting worked up allowed me to bring to light some very important insights to the situation and life. However, I realize that it is useless to continue to harbor an ill feelings towards anyone involved. I must now follow the instruction of Christ and forgive while wishing the best for all those involved. As I continue to reflect upon this situation I must do so in a spirit of learning and hope that others will learn and benefit also.

I think that being passionate about something is good. But we must be passionate with an ever present sense of Christian charity. We must look for the good in all things and realize that we all have the potential to grow and gain from even the most unpleasent of situations. We must not let anger and a refusal to forgive block our potential to learn. We must forgive each other in order to learn from our disagreements, failings, and humaness.