1miseryindex
Platinum Member
I have always struggled with the forgiveness thing, because or partly bc I love the justice of God that you hear about / read about in Scripture and at the Holy Mass. I've read the entire DR Bible (most accurate translation from the original languages spoken by Christ) and I have heard (non DR) scripture readings at Mass for years and years (If you go to Mass daily for 3 years, you hear the entire Bible, minus some mundanities [though NOT the DR Bible, sadly....
)
So anyhow, I've been Christian all my life, although when I was younger... Need I say more? What do young people know or care about vis a vis GOD? I did my own thing when I was younger and didn't think about God much, even though I was baptized Catholic AND had a religious experience as a teen... It's very easy to fall away from Christ because the whole world (and I was basically in love w/ the world back then) is just very anti-Christ.
But then I got serious about following Jesus, which happened after praying (what protestants seem to think is an UN-Christian thing called) the rosary.
You can blame my love for Christ on the rosary... and in time I began going back to Mass.
In any case, I kind of stumbled at times over this forgiveness stuff... There was this one person in my family I couldn't forgive because it seemed it was an unforgiveable thing the person did. But in time, I began to realize that... well, many things. Suffice it to say that I forgave "as best I could" and went on with my life, trying to forget the immense damage done by this person.
So the other day, I was reading my DR Bible, just opened to a random page... Or was it the Catholic missal I was reading? I read both... Well, in any case... Wait, it was the DR Bible because the readings at Mass are not from the DR... In any case, I was stunned reading this passage on Forgiveness.
Jesus said "Unless you forgive men their transgressions, your [own] transgressions will not be forgiven."
So I zoned in on that "forgive men" thing. It's like He is saying we must forgive all of mankind.
Well, it is rather easy to forgive all of mankind.. in light of thefact that we ourselves are sinners. We do the same things we criticize and condemn others of doing, but we rarely condemn ourselves... so easy to see sin outside ourselves, not within! So easy... so human.
Obviously, Jesus said other things as well about forgiveness, but the point I most want to make is that we have to forgive EVERYONE.
Does that mean everyone we forgive will be off the hook for all eternity for ALL their evil doing? No. And that is what made me stumble. I always felt that if I forgave, God would somehow or other let that person off the hook virtually entirely for all his or her evil. But that is not true. When a person murders someone in cold blood, sometimes the family of the victim forgives, and even lets the perp know he is forgiven by them. But that does not mean he will be released from prison.....
)So anyhow, I've been Christian all my life, although when I was younger... Need I say more? What do young people know or care about vis a vis GOD? I did my own thing when I was younger and didn't think about God much, even though I was baptized Catholic AND had a religious experience as a teen... It's very easy to fall away from Christ because the whole world (and I was basically in love w/ the world back then) is just very anti-Christ.
But then I got serious about following Jesus, which happened after praying (what protestants seem to think is an UN-Christian thing called) the rosary.
You can blame my love for Christ on the rosary... and in time I began going back to Mass.
In any case, I kind of stumbled at times over this forgiveness stuff... There was this one person in my family I couldn't forgive because it seemed it was an unforgiveable thing the person did. But in time, I began to realize that... well, many things. Suffice it to say that I forgave "as best I could" and went on with my life, trying to forget the immense damage done by this person.
So the other day, I was reading my DR Bible, just opened to a random page... Or was it the Catholic missal I was reading? I read both... Well, in any case... Wait, it was the DR Bible because the readings at Mass are not from the DR... In any case, I was stunned reading this passage on Forgiveness.
Jesus said "Unless you forgive men their transgressions, your [own] transgressions will not be forgiven."
So I zoned in on that "forgive men" thing. It's like He is saying we must forgive all of mankind.
Well, it is rather easy to forgive all of mankind.. in light of thefact that we ourselves are sinners. We do the same things we criticize and condemn others of doing, but we rarely condemn ourselves... so easy to see sin outside ourselves, not within! So easy... so human.
Obviously, Jesus said other things as well about forgiveness, but the point I most want to make is that we have to forgive EVERYONE.
Does that mean everyone we forgive will be off the hook for all eternity for ALL their evil doing? No. And that is what made me stumble. I always felt that if I forgave, God would somehow or other let that person off the hook virtually entirely for all his or her evil. But that is not true. When a person murders someone in cold blood, sometimes the family of the victim forgives, and even lets the perp know he is forgiven by them. But that does not mean he will be released from prison.....
Last edited:
) to judge anyone. And while we are hating on them, we are supposed to be ... I kind of feel like gagging... LOL
