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Post by evilmoose on Sept 15, 2013 20:06:33 GMT -6
Catholic and not, how do Christians deal with forgiveness
in the context of justice?
What does forgiveness mean?
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Post by Maggie on Sept 15, 2013 20:39:54 GMT -6
Forgiveness has to be practiced in matters large and small. It isn't something you can easily call upon in a time of crisis, if you have never practiced it much. In a sense, forgiveness is linked inextricably with gratitude. That is, if I understand that God has forgiven me and does so over and over and over in love, it becomes easier to see how it is possible to forgive serious injuries done to me by others.
It isn't the case that we will forget the injuries done to us or that they won't still cause us pain but forgiveness transforms the injury into something else. If we remember how much we have been forgiven, we can have compassion on the one who injured us.
This does not mean that restitution is not required. It is, if restitution is possible. If a crime has been committed, it will still require whatever temporal punishment justice demands. But forgiveness frees us from needing to see the one who injured us also suffer-- the opposite of compassion, indeed.
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Post by questionmark on Sept 19, 2013 20:52:36 GMT -6
Forgiveness is to overlook sin in light of a good reason.
When someone insults you and you say... I'll give you that one, I'll let that one pass for free, thats 'for given'. Granted.
The English word grant is traced all the way back to the word for faith or trust or even conviction 'credo'.
So to forgive someone is to grant their pardon, to trust that it will work out for good even if it is truly despicable sin.
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