Forgiveness

CONSTANCE SYLVIA OBBARD

SOMETIMES, one of the hardest things we are called upon to do is to forgive. Perhaps an unprovoked attack has been made upon us by either an open enemy or a false friend, and as a result we may have suffered seemingly irreparable loss. We are tempted to give way to resentment, even hate, and to feel that the old Mosaic law of "an eye for an eye" is much nearer to our sense of justice than Christ Jesus' gentle admonition to turn the other cheek. We may also realize that our own lack of wisdom has contributed in large measure to the misfortune which has overtaken us, and a sense of self-condemnation is added to our already overburdened thought.

Now, neither resentment towards another nor self-condemnation ever yet healed any situation. Neither does the sentimental emotionalism of the old adage, "Forgive and forget," really get down to the bedrock of the trouble.

Jesus taught his students to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;" and on page 11 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our Leader makes this statement: "Jesus' prayer, 'Forgive us our debts,' specified also the terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he said, 'Go, and sin no more.'" Again, on the same page she adds, "Divine Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they are corrected."

If we, then, are to emulate this divine method of pardon, how can we, even if we so desire, forgive our fellow man so long as he is unrepentant, and perhaps only awaiting a further opportunity to renew his attack upon us?

Christian Science teaches us how to turn to God, divine Principle, for the truth about any situation, the truth which alone can and does unfailingly solve every human problem whenever it is faithfully applied.

In Christian Science we learn how to identify our true selfhood with the perfect man, the unfallen image and likeness of God. We learn, too, that evil, under whatever guise it may present itself, is never part of man. It is simply an impersonal lie of mortal mind. It may masquerade as a mortal personality, manifesting a complete reversal of those divine qualities which are always inseparable from the Christ-idea, but it is always a lie, and not the truth of being.

It becomes clear then that our so-called enemy is simply a false concept of man which we have unwittingly accepted into our thinking, and that there is in reality no one for us to hate or to condemn. The lie, thus uncovered, ceases to have any further power to deceive or to injure us, and goes back into the nothingness whence it sprang.

But, one may ask, how can the correction of our own thought affect or alter another's viewpoint? Our erstwhile enemy may still seemingly be unwilling or unable to give up the error by which he has been deceived. Insofar as we lovingly and joyfully rise up and apply the understanding which Christian Science has brought us of the Christ, we are breaking down for others, as well as for ourselves, the false concept of man. We are doing our part to cancel the debt and to fulfill "the terms of forgiveness."

And what of the loss we may have already humanly suffered? In Joel 2:25 we find this promise: "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten." If we are tempted to think sadly that this is impossible, we need to take our stand against the mesmerism of discouragement. As we lift our concept of life and of all that we love above materiality to the divine consciousness of Spirit, we shall, like the disciples on the shore of Galilee, recognize afresh in the dawn of our spiritualized thinking what we thought we had lost. We shall realize that man, in all his completeness as God's idea, is and always has been inseparable from his divine Principle. From this spiritual altitude we can go forward with renewed courage, with a larger understanding and compassion, to help our brother man and bring healing to the world.

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