Acts of Forgiveness

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

When I reflect upon the quote above, I come to realise how easy it is for us to make mistakes as human. In fact, it’s almost a sure thing that each one of us will stray away from our own principles and moral boundaries and make a mistake, big or small. But to forgive is something quite unnatural to us. We may think that we are able to forgive and forget. Yet, when we go back to a past where someone have hurt us badly, did we really forgive what they have done with us? Getting past the hurt is one thing, but to be able to go as far as to release all the grudge and truly forgive our offenders, that’s something that not everyone can easily do.

In our journey of life, we sometimes will face circumstances which won’t be in our favour. And in that circumstances, we will feel hurt and offended. And most of the time, we will harbour anger and negative feelings toward our offenders. But if continually growth is what we want, then we will need to learn the act of forgiveness.

Why is it that we need to learn to forgive? How is it that by learning to forgive, we will be able to continue to grow ourselves? What is the connection here?

Over the past few days, I opened myself to see that by forgiving a mistake of another, we don’t lose anything but instead gain a whole lot more. The act of forgiveness itself is an act of compassion. By learning to forgive and forget, we clear ourselves from the cloud of darkness that comes from negative thoughts. And with a clear mind, we will be able to truly understand the circumstances of the un-favouring situation. By doing that, most of the time, we will find that it’s not always as we thought it was. Instead, most of the time, we will realise that it is not the offenders intention and fault in the first place.

And when we are able to bring ourselves above the situation and see with a clearer vision and mind, we will begin to understand the importance of forgiveness and compassion.

This brings me to share a profound story that I’ve read recently. It writes about a lady who was molested as a child. And ever since the incident, she could remember the man that molested her. Due to the incident, she pledge her life to help other victims of such crimes and also help with the reformation of molesters for a change of life. One day, she received a case to reform a molester, and she recognised the man as the one who had victimised her many years ago. At first, she was angry and didn’t intend to accept the case or even wish to help the man. However, after she calmed down a little and gain more clarity in her thoughts, she realised that this man would have been through a lot to be so troubled and still continue to commit such crimes. Thus, she started to forgive and show compassion to the man and helped him to rehabilitate from his errs. And by doing so, she is able to bring herself to a level that she’s never achieved before.

I agree that learning to forgive in such advanced manner isn’t easy at all. However, the least we can do is to begin to realise how important it is to learn to forgive, not just for the sake of others, but also to the growth of our own being.