Forgiving and Forgetting

Ella W. Hoag

Many and many a time have men desired to forgive,—yes, and forget, too! But how rarely have they seen how to accomplish true forgiving and forgetting! Indeed, so difficult has this generally seemed that mankind has appeared almost to relegate to the impossible Jesus' admonition to forgive "until seventy times seven." Many a one calling himself a Christian has convinced himself, under stress of an injury inflicted upon him, that resentment and retaliation were Christly virtues, and were even necessary for the good of the one who had committed the wrong.

When Moses taught "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," it was because he believed in God as a God who could both love and hate. He saw from this standpoint what he called the justice of God. Consequently, he was convinced that men had enemies and that it was quite right that men should hate them. His understanding of the great I am was, however, transcendentally in advance of the heathen peoples around him, who had no sort of belief in the one and only God.

Jesus came lifting the world higher and telling men that they must love their enemies. He not only taught this, but he practiced his own precept. He understood and demonstrated the power to forgive perfectly, for he knew that God is Love. The world at that time was not prepared to have the way in which Jesus had accomplished this unfolded to them. It was not until the Holy Comforter—who, Jesus promised, should lead men "into all truth"—was revealed in Divine Science that the way to forgive and forget was completely explained.

This Science points out the finality, so far as enemies are concerned, and teaches us that in reality "we have no enemies" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 10). The great question then is: How is this to be proved or demonstrated? For so long as one believes he has been injured, he will almost inevitably resent such injury, and he will believe in enemies. If he believes there is some one capable of being injured, he will also consent to the belief of some one with a power to injure. Injury will therefore appear very real to him. All such belief is of course based entirely on a material so-called creation, with all its evil tendencies and their harmful results. It admits a creator other than the one God, who is infinite good, and it predicates another creation than His perfect one. It therefore holds in thought the basis upon which have been built up all the wrongs which the world has known.

The Christian Scientist will immediately acknowledge the correctness of such logic. And, still, he often seems to believe he has been injured; he still appears to resent, sometimes even to the point of retaliation; he still often cries out longingly, How can I learn to forgive—and forget? Like every other lesson in Christian Science, this one must be learned little by little. There must be small victories won before the larger ones will become possible. Always the method is the same: to accept the absolute truth that God is Love and man is His image and likeness, as the basis of all our work, and then to take all further steps whereby the final victory is to be gained.

It is therefore quickly apparent that in order truly to forgive and forget we must always be overcoming the same obstacle which continually confronts us in our journey heavenward,—namely, the belief in a false selfhood, a selfhood in matter and therefore separated from divine Love; that selfhood which Jesus told us we must deny if we would follow him; the selfhood he overcame so gloriously by refusing ever to admit for an instant that he could either injure or be injured, that he could ever be less than the reflection of Love. How patiently he learned the lesson of forgiving and forgetting! And how mightily he triumphed! The same victory is to be ours as we obey his command by pressing steadfastly on in the denial and rejection of all that is unloving, untrue.

As we learn thus to deny an existence apart from God, we shall be able both to forgive and forget. The evil attempted against us will even be seen as a blessing, since—for us to remain true to God and His Christ—we shall thereby have been forced to relinquish yet more of a belief in a selfhood which could be hurt or harmed. This point won, there will be no desire to injure another by resenting or retaliating; and only love will be left for the one who has sinned against us. When we have thus forgiven, we shall be able speedily to forget; for how could we remember that which has been blotted out of consciousness by demonstrating evil's unreality through the realization of universal love? What a marvelous privilege is ours—the privilege of learning so to forgive and forget that we shall finally prove "we have no enemies"!

Ella W. Hoag

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Harmony and Peace

January 26, 1924

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