Carmel Reflections

24 - Armed with Forgiveness

                      Forgiveness liberates the soul. 

                      It removes fear. 

                     That's why it is such a powerful weapon.

                                        Nelson Mandela

I never thought of forgiveness as a weapon until I saw this quote. 

I thought it meant letting someone off, not minding any more, even forgetting. You really can't do that. It could be dangerous. We must learn from what happens in the past to help others and ourselves in the future.

Perdonare - to give completely without reservation (one meaning in Vulgate Latin)

Forgiefan - to give up one's own desire or power to punish (Anglo-Saxon to late Old English, not meaning to give up the desire for justice)

There are many more variations of meaning but these two stick in my mind. The first is what I want from God for myself. So often it represents the unconditional love we give to children. The second for me relates more to my reaction to injury, to my own pain and the pain of others, in our world.

When people read Re Ply which was my first story here, they commented on the warmth. It is real. I rebuilt and rewove myself, remembering love. But yet I do know what it is to hate. Massively. It is an enormous instinct in recognition of pain. I know it can reverberate throughout a lifetime. 

                    'Let no-one pull you low enough to hate them.'

                                        Martin Luther King Jr

I have heard it said that forgiveness is a gift, and comes by grace. But I didn't realise they meant that the ability or occurrence of being able at some level to forgive is itself the gift. It is sacramental. 

I had thought that it only meant that a perpetrator went away with a sense of being forgiven.

When forgiveness comes to the forgiver, through all their pain, they say there can be a lifting of a burden so real it feels physical, in the person who forgives. 

Gordon Wilson lost his daughter at the Poppy Day massacre in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, but went on to publicly forgive the perpetrators, creating a significant turning point in the troubles:

In an interview with the BBC, Wilson described with anguish his last conversation with his daughter and his feelings toward her killers: "She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say." To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, "But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night." 

As historian Jonathan Bardon recounts, "No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact."  

 Extract from Gordon Wilson's Wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Wilson_(Northern_Irish_peace_campaigner)

Does the forgiving free the soul, diminish fear, as Mandela says? 

How could I argue? What do I know? Many people describe it, which I have found so hard to imagine.

Without ceasing to be active and proactive for justice.

I could long for this. I could ask for this.

As the deer longs for running water, the soul longs.

The video below is beautiful. See chapter 1 'The Deer' here for the English translation to this Dutch version of psalm 42.

There is a part of the Office (ancient traditional prayer) that reminds me of this strength of Mandela. It is the joyful heartfelt song of the long suffering Zachariah:

Canticle of Zachariah / Benedictus

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up for us a mighty saviour
In the house of David his servant,
As he promised by the lips of holy ones,
Those who were his prophets from of old.

A saviour who would free us from our foes,
From the hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our ancestors is fulfilled
And his holy covenant remembered.
He swore to Abraham our father to grant us,
that free from fear, and saved from the hands of our foes,
we might serve him in holiness and justice
all the days of our life in his presence.

As for you, little child,
you shall be called a prophet of God, the Most High.
You shall go ahead of the Lord
To prepare his ways before him.
To make known to his people their salvation
Through forgiveness of all their sins,
The loving-kindness of the heart of our God
Who visits us like the dawn from on high.

He will give light to those in darkness,
Those who dwell in the shadow of death,
And guide us into the way of peace.

There are some things that are horrendously difficult to forgive.

Mandela, and the Canticle of Zecharia, do not forget justice.

The Benedictus was sung by Zechariah in Hebrew at the naming of his son, John the Baptist. It was given in Greek in the Gospel of Luke (1:68 - 79), and later put into Latin. I only know it in English, of which there are a few versions. It is a part of the ancient Office of the Church, and has been said daily in the mornings as a key part of Morning Prayer for many centuries. Because it is always the morning somewhere, as day dawns somewhere in the world at every moment, it has been said for centuries ceaselessly with the continual reach of the dawn.) 

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini / Bless you in the name of the Lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai3UhslbPOk