The French have a saying to the effect that to understand all is to forgive all—a thoughtful observation on relationships.

We can find in Christian Science the soundest basis for forgiveness: the spiritually scientific understanding of the real man, which, when we admit it, aids us in being more forgiving. From the point of view of this Science, man is the manifestation of God, not a mortal who can cause injury or be the object of dislike or misunderstanding. Apprehending and applying Christian Science, we go further than blotting out of thought those who we believe have been unjust to us, or simply tolerating those we feel are antipathetic to us. Science shows us the way to love that is demonstration of the Love which is God. This love is different from, and far in advance of, a mere willingness to put up with someone who has used us badly.

To try to love someone while still seeing him—or oneself—as a mortal, personal entity can never fully succeed. Such an approach is mistaken. Mary Baker Eddy tells us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little else than the expression of error." ^{Science and Health, p. 289;} Should we be finding it virtually impossible to love another, this indicates we should be turning from the mask of material personality to true spiritual identity. True identity, the expression of Love, is irresistibly lovable. And as we adopt such a position, we are encouraged in it and sustained in it by divine Love. A scientific approach lifts us above merely trying to love a mortal we see as wicked to the spiritual vision of man as Godlike reflection.

What could be a more appropriate time than the Easter season to find a sound basis for forgiveness? This basis involves recognizing the spiritual individuality of both the wronged and the wrongdoer. Before Christ Jesus was crucified by his enemies, he prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." ^{Luke 23:34;} Not only did his enemies not comprehend the wickedness of their action in trying to get rid of Jesus, but they did not know who they themselves really were; nor did they perceive the Christly selfhood of Jesus. They thought of him merely as a religious and political stirrer.

One of the hardest demands we may face in life is to be consistently loving. Human pride and egotism seem too often to get in the way and to trip us up. To be a steadily loving individual, in a high spiritual sense, is a remarkable and too rare thing. But we can be encouraged by the life of the supreme example and model, Christ Jesus.

The word "love" can be devalued by casual use. In our relationships, as in church work, we may use the word so frequently and so lightly that we lose its import and miss its demands. "Yours lovingly," we may sometimes sign letters. But to do it with casualness may mean that when we really want to express genuine, deeply felt love, we have trouble finding the right words. Mrs. Eddy, because she perceived the vast dimensions of love to such an extraordinary degree, was more thoughtful in her use of the term than most of us probably are. This is her comment about divine Love: "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 249-250.}

Sometimes when we feel we've forgiven an individual for an unkind or brutal act, and we've done so on less than a wholehearted spiritual basis, we might find from honest self-examination that the forgiveness was a form of self-gratification. It may have been a self-indulgence impelled by a false personal sense of humility, ending up as a contradiction—an occasion for humility to be proud of its humility. The forgiveness erected on a spiritual foundation blesses universally. It fortifies our ability to see all men and women in their actual selfhood.

Simmering resentment is more readily replaced by steady affection when we let divine Love propel our thought out of the world of personal entities and events into the reality of infinite Love and its universe. Harboring intense dislike, mentally compiling colorful catalogs of hurt feelings, pursuing strategies of revenge, can leave us open to a lapse in health and prone to other difficulties. Should we be struggling with resistant problems of any kind, it might well be necessary for us to root out lingering memories of unhappy events and entrenched disappointments.

How can we do this? Instead of recycling hurts from the dream-world of personal sense, we can remember that the only actual "events" are those which have their roots in immortal Love. We can remember and acknowledge the truth of being. All that exists is divine Love and its omniaction. We can gain the spiritually scientific understanding of the divine All. This impels us to forgive all because there's nothing to forgive. What sounder basis can there be for forgiveness?

Geoffrey J. Barratt