So, forgive and forget, eh?

Just like that, no matter the crime? Well, maybe not “just like that, with a snap of the fingers”, but we do need to forgive. Now, we humans are apt to hold onto small snippets of injury that could be released with little effort if we really thought about it. But, unfortunately, sometimes we get into a rut and just decide to martyr ourselves over small slights. Even here, there is such a sadness at the fact that, “letting go” would improve the health and well-being of the organism. In fact, one of the things that saddens me the most is the misconception that forgiving someone automatically absolves them of the crime, as though it were never committed.

That can happen, as I understand it, but not by your word or action, it happens at a much higher level than most humans can even hope to attain in a particular lifetime. You may learn compassion, and you may learn utter forgiveness, and it releases you from the blockages that such anger causes in the flow of energy. Only as the “other”, i.e. the one you have forgiven learns to forgive are their shortcomings forgiven them. Each of us must learn forgiveness for our shortcomings to be absolved. You do not absolve another’s crimes by forgiving them, you only release the life-force to flow freely within you again.

C Forgive me, at the risk of belaboring a point too far, I am going to use a little analogy. Imagine that you are pointing to the one who wronged you in an accusatory manner. There in the fingers folded back on your palm held tightly is a list of the wrongs committed. You must release that list, open your palm and relax, letting go of the hurt and pain that was caused by the wrong in order for the healing balm of the Holy Spirit to begin to enter you and heal you. This is the forgiveness you are being asked to give, indeed, commanded if you want the healing for yourself. This process actually does not affect the other person at all. It is for you alone to receive the gift offered.

This same process must happen in the person who wronged you for their wrongs to be righted, and for them to receive any healing from the Holy Spirit. Now, the truth of it all is that, if you are no longer holding onto the hurt and pain, as you have every right to do, but it will continue to harm you if you do, the other person, sensing that what they did no longer has the power to hurt you, may actually begin to look at the events and begin to release their own “angst”. There is no guarantee of this, and it should not be looked for, but it has been known to happen, as when the Holy Spirit is in a project, miracles most certainly can happen!

Relaxing the fist is not easy. Sometimes you have to take your other hand and pry open your own fist, i.e. a lot of prayer, but if you can get there, the rewards for you are immense. C

So, what this means, ultimately, is that, yes, you must forgive, but, should you hope that the other’s sins will be ultimately forgiven you must pray that they learn to forgive also. The grandest part of this little piece of knowledge is that once you realize that this is how the flow works, you know that the one who committed the crime against you, in order to be forgiven, must repent and forgive also. You know that the forgiven individual is not going to commit the crimes of the past, because they have turned their life around and now serve the Holy One and the “energy” can flow for all.

Do you see, my friends, that this is why it is so important for you to mind your own path, and not your neighbor’s, not even your “enemy’s? Each of us will go before the ‘Holy Counsel’ and answer for our own crimes. This is where they are absolved and it is and will always be individual by individual, not a group process. If, when you come before the Counsel you have forgiven, i.e. released all injuries done to you, and are at peace, your shortcomings can also be forgiven, for the healing energy can flow through you.

Following this line of thought further, it will come to pass that the more folk who learn proper forgiveness, the stronger the energy will flow for all mankind, and the stronger the energy flows, the sooner will all receive the healing needed to grow strong and healthy minds and spirits. Whoa, now that would be glorious in the extreme, yes? Yes!

But . . . . .we must remember that the changes that occur in the heart in order for forgiveness to happen are seldom instantaneous. Many times, when a crime has been committed, there is a loss that must be grieved before true healing can even begin. Like the stages of the butterfly, changes happen over time, but they are worth waiting for, for the human that learns to forgive does, eventually, become a fully winged and free butterfly!