We all have the power to forgive. Therefore we all have the power to heal.We all have the capacity to be forgiven. Therefore we all have the capacity to be healed.
For ‘society’ to forgive in the wake of the COVID-19 debacle, we first need a reckoning, followed by punishment and yes, some genuine apologies.
Apart from a few public figures who have changed their tune, the apologies are largely non-existent.
Most perpetrators are never going to admit wrongdoing, let alone apologize. Such is human nature. The mind can conjure up ways to cope rationalizing retaining of a deeply-held narrative, for bad actors as well as their victims.
This is classic cognitive dissonance. And it applies to so much more than pandemics or health care.
Nothing prevents people from offering forgiveness. Indeed, we are called to offer forgiveness, and in truth when we do so we release ourselves from the burden of all the anger and pain. Ultimately, that is what forgiveness is--the decision to let go of anger. It is a gift to ourselves as much as it is to the one being forgiven.
Yet forgiveness has to be accepted as well as offered, and to accept forgiveness one must first acknowledge the need to be forgiven. When it comes to the COVID Pandemic Panic and all the lies that have been told, and all the wrongs that have been done, so far the acknowledgements of the need for forgivness have not been there. Forgiveness is being roundly rejected.
Yet we should still offer forgiveness. If people wish to reject forgiveness when it is offered, they get to make that choice. And they get to embrace the consequences of that choice. Let those consequences be on them, not on us.
One aspect of forgiveness that most people find very hard is that you forgive the PERSON, not necessarily the ACT. If someone has violently harmed you, robbed you, raped you, killed someone you love, how can you possibly forgive such a thing? You forgive the PERSON - his weakness, ignorance, mistakenness - not the terrible ACT. If you can wrap your mind around that, forgiveness comes easier.
“Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” - Colossians 3:13
For ‘society’ to forgive in the wake of the COVID-19 debacle, we first need a reckoning, followed by punishment and yes, some genuine apologies.
Apart from a few public figures who have changed their tune, the apologies are largely non-existent.
Most perpetrators are never going to admit wrongdoing, let alone apologize. Such is human nature. The mind can conjure up ways to cope rationalizing retaining of a deeply-held narrative, for bad actors as well as their victims.
This is classic cognitive dissonance. And it applies to so much more than pandemics or health care.
Nothing prevents people from offering forgiveness. Indeed, we are called to offer forgiveness, and in truth when we do so we release ourselves from the burden of all the anger and pain. Ultimately, that is what forgiveness is--the decision to let go of anger. It is a gift to ourselves as much as it is to the one being forgiven.
Yet forgiveness has to be accepted as well as offered, and to accept forgiveness one must first acknowledge the need to be forgiven. When it comes to the COVID Pandemic Panic and all the lies that have been told, and all the wrongs that have been done, so far the acknowledgements of the need for forgivness have not been there. Forgiveness is being roundly rejected.
Yet we should still offer forgiveness. If people wish to reject forgiveness when it is offered, they get to make that choice. And they get to embrace the consequences of that choice. Let those consequences be on them, not on us.
One aspect of forgiveness that most people find very hard is that you forgive the PERSON, not necessarily the ACT. If someone has violently harmed you, robbed you, raped you, killed someone you love, how can you possibly forgive such a thing? You forgive the PERSON - his weakness, ignorance, mistakenness - not the terrible ACT. If you can wrap your mind around that, forgiveness comes easier.
“Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” - Colossians 3:13
Yes, I agree.