Article January 10, 1931 Issue

Forgiveness

HELEN L. MC DEARMON

Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." There have, doubtless, been times in the experience of many of us when it seemed difficult to forgive; when we were worried over some injustice or offense someone had committed, thinking it our duty to see this error as real, and admitting that the misdeeds caused loss or suffering. The vain indulgence of such thoughts ought of itself to have been enough to awaken us to the futility of such reasoning; but mortal mind is ever ready with its false arguments, claiming that should we forgive and forget the unhappy circumstance we might be overlooking a personal responsibility and releasing another from a burden he justly deserves to carry. The error, however, which we are seeing as real is perhaps weighing more heavily upon us than upon the one to whom we are attaching it.

Jesus said, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." All condemnation is based on an erring sense which must be overcome through spiritual understanding, humility, and unselfed love. We may think in our egotism that we have nothing to do, that somebody else must change, when first of all our own thought of him needs lifting up and out of materiality. Condemnation never cleared away the mist of false belief for anyone; whereas loving, charitable, uplifting thoughts have often been the means of reforming the wayward. If we are humbly engaged in affirming man's oneness with God, we shall not allow a merely human sense of justice to judge another, but shall gladly own that our heavenly Father, perfect Mind, alone is capable of judging righteous judgment. Thus, as we learn to be receptive only to good, we shall be so joyously occupied in acknowledging the allness of God and the nothingness of evil that what to material sense appeared as an injustice, or an offense, will be corrected and will vanish.

The impoverished belief in a selfhood apart from God is seen to be so fictitious, so illusory, that one sooner or later awakens to the folly of placing reliance on it. Let us strive daily to separate all error from our thoughts of ourselves and others, and never give credence to discordant material sense testimony. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 8) Mrs. Eddy writes: "Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in the process."

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