Forgiveness

D. Michael Hentrich
February 2009

There are so many ways to look at “forgiveness”. Of course, it’s a basic Christian belief that Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross in order to make available “forgiveness” of sin. That was an incredible offering that Jesus made on the cross, and we need to find deepest appreciation for that. But what I want to talk about today is Jesus’ and Father’s rich LIVING EXAMPLE and TEACHINGS about “forgiveness”.

A MAJOR FOCUS of Jesus’ life and teachings was about “forgiveness”. He focused on it a lot, because it was not understood deeply enough in the Jewish tradition upon which he stood. The examples were there in scripture and history, especially in the stories of Jacob and Esau, and also of Joseph and all his jealous brothers. But, somehow, it was not understood deeply enough.

The profound reason is simple. Only a TRUE ADAM can know the depth of Heavenly Father’s deep heart of love and “forgiveness” and convey it to fallen mankind. Father has explained that all religions before and after Jesus, the second Adam, were started and managed by the angelic world. If you study about Abraham, Mohammad and Joseph Smith, for example, you will see in their own writings that angels were the source of their revelations and faith traditions. Therefore, they often stressed a “master -- servant” type of relationship with God, worshiping the Almighty “Master” and begging Him for mercy, rather than a parent-child relationship of intimate love with our Heavenly Father.

This is an angelic perspective. Therefore, Jesus, the TRUE ADAM, had to reveal God’s compassionate heart like no one had ever been able to before him, to fallen humanity. Jesus taught the heart of forgiving, to forgive not once, not twice, but “seventy- times-seven” times. In other words, there’s NO LIMIT to the heart of a parent’s forgiveness of his child. He even said we must “forgive our enemies” and even LOVE them. He taught parables about this, like how to react if someone were to steal your coat from your back. Jesus said to give him your shirt, also. He said: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” He even said if we don’t forgive others, God will not be able to forgive US for OUR shortcomings. Wow! His teaching of forgiveness was expressed beautifully in a Biblical story of a prostitute who was about to be stoned to death. Jesus intervened in this story and blocked the Pharisees from killing her, saying to them: “He who has no sin should cast the first stone.” In other words, they were all sinners and those who thought they should stone the woman were not in a position to accuse her but were just as liable to judgment themselves.

True Father also has taught and practiced the same forgiveness. He has even forgiven the archangel Lucifer, for all the immeasurable misery he caused throughout human history. He has forgiven those who tried to kill him and those who tried to smear his name, and ALL of his “enemies”. In fact, Father explains that, to him and God, there really IS NO concept of “enemy”. How profound is THAT?

There are some who preach “forgiveness” and mercy as a way of life because they don’t believe in the reality of evil. They think evil is just the absence of goodness. But, Father KNOWS the reality and power and consequences of evil. Still, he and Jesus forgive those who create and propagated it. This is clearly one HUGE aspect that sets ADAM apart from all others.

Even though “forgiveness” has been greatly ABUSED by selfish, fallen people over the past 2000 years and before, using God’s grace to JUSTIFY themselves and EXCUSE themselves from taking responsibility before God, still, “forgiveness” is a HUGE, critically important element of our life. Without it, one’s spiritual digestive system becomes blocked. How many of you know what it’s like to have your digestive system blocked? Try to imagine it.

When we can’t forgive someone in our heart, we can never forget the mistakes they made and the pain it gave us. We cannot let go of the pain and the hurt. And these unforgiven pains then pile up in our spirit like a mountain, until the pressure and heat turn it into a VOLCANO of pain and scars. And, NO ONE wants to feel pain.

Everyone wants to avoid it. So, because we can’t really forgive someone, the next step is: We can’t trust ANYONE… because they might add to our mountain of hurt, and we won’t be able to really forgive them and get rid of the pain.

After that, because we can’t forgive so we can’t trust, then we can’t accept imperfection, because it means unforgivable mistakes, which lead to more pain and hurt. But, people are fallen and imperfect, so we’re trapped, trapped in an imperfect world which we cannot digest because we cannot forgive the imperfection which leads to pain and hurt. And, since everyone is more or less imperfect, their imperfection BLOCK US from respecting other people. And if we cannot respect people, then ultimately, we cannot love them, either. There is more.

If we can’t forgive, then we can’t be free to give the other person room to grow. They cannot be allowed to make mistakes. Therefore, we kill not only our own spirit, but we kill others when we can’t forgive their imperfection. What do you DO in the face of imperfection? Do you make up for the imperfection of others by always taking over their responsibilities? Do it for them all the time? If we do that, they will never learn and never grow up. At the same time, some responsibilities are IMPORTANT in the near-term. They can’t WAIT for us. Therefore, we have to find a GOOD BALANCE between helping the person to accomplish their responsibilities and helping them do what they should do, and letting them stumble and make their mistakes, so they can grow into their role in life. To do that, we MUST be able to let go of our pain and forgive.

The next problem is myself. I, myself, am imperfect. But if I can’t really forgive, then I can’t really forgive MYSELF, either. The devastating result of this is, I can’t live with myself when I make a mistake. What can I do with my own imperfection and mistakes? I have no choice but to blame them on someone else, anyone else. Why? Because if I accept responsibility for my errors and imperfection, I cannot forgive myself and therefore, I cannot escape the pain and hurt. It is self-destructive. I will be killing myself.

There is more. If I can’t forgive myself, and therefore I can’t take responsibility for my imperfections, then I can’t repent, either. And, if I can’t repent because I can’t face my own imperfection, then I can’t restore myself and I can’t grow my heart. I can only dig my hole deeper and deeper and deeper in despair. And ultimately, I cannot love myself. If I were Satan, I could not imagine a more ingenious way to destroy God’s children than this. You see, Satan can’t forgive HIMSELF for what he did to God’s children, so he has made us the same as himself. He has waited for TRUE ADAM to come, so he could be liberated HIMSELF from his sin, and be forgiven. Only Adam could forgive Lucifer and liberate him. Many of us also need to be liberated, too. Father is now here to do it. Are WE ready to be forgiven and to start to forgive?

If you think this an imaginary story, you are mistaken. There are millions of people just like this. This is a very serious issue. We who espouse to become True Love people need to confront this giant elephant in our living room that we don’t want to talk about. We want to ignore it or wish it wasn’t there. Father said we need to remove all “barriers” to love. This is a BIG ONE for many, many people. It comes in many shapes and sizes, many flavors and aromas. It’s a cancer. It’s a poison for the spirit. It’s consuming many people. The first step to remove it is to see it. Once we see it, the battle is half over.

We are deeply moved by Jesus and by Father for one underlying reason. I think I can safely say that the reason people wail and cry over the love of Jesus and cry and WILL cry over the love of Father, is that they, as ADAM, love even those who don’t deserve it, by worldly standards. Only with a deep heart of forgiveness can they do that. God is our Father. His love is as deep as the ocean. He’s been forgiving mankind over and over and over again for millions of years. Of course, indemnity is necessary. But it’s NOT an “eye-for-an- eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth”. Fallen humanity would NEVER EVER escape from hell if that were God’s heart. He has the heart of a loving Father. He is ready to forgive us every moment of every day. Therefore, as Jesus said, we must become the same with each other. Otherwise, we cannot accept, we cannot respect, we cannot repent, we cannot restore, and we cannot love people in this fallen world. Jesus gave us a powerful weapon with which to break Satan’s iron grip on people. It’s the deep, sincere heart of forgiveness.

It’s root is within God, Himself. We cannot become sons and daughters of God and True Parents without embodying it ourselves. I hope you will forgive ME for my many shortcomings today. Please become people who do the same for all the people you love, but also for the people you don’t love yet.

Make a commitment today. Write down the name of ONE PERSON that you need to forgive, and pray to have the heart to forgive them and to let go of the pain of the past. It might be someone in the Church, or someone at work or school. It might be someone in your family, or someone who abused you. It might be someone who misunderstands you, or someone who hates you. Make this your commitment, to forgive them. You have nothing to lose but your mountain of pain, and the chains that are imprisoning your heart.