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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Dr Calvin T Samuel

Good morning.

‘Forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us.’

These are, I think, some of the most challenging words of the Lord’s Prayer.

To forgive is a deeply costly undertaking. Some might remember the Revd Julie Nicholson, a priest in Bristol, who could not forgive the terrorist who killed her daughter in the 7/7 bombings of 2005. She, therefore, bravely concluded that she could no longer with integrity exercise her ministry as a priest, leading others in saying those words of the Lord’s Prayer, for example, whilst she herself remained unable to forgive.

Forgiveness is a deeply costly undertaking. For it requires that we acknowledge the wrong done to us, or even worse, to those we love, and to choose no longer to seek personal redress from the wrongdoer, though, of course, wrong actions often bring consequences of their own, and justice appropriately includes repreparation.

Paradoxically, forgiveness is costly not only to the forgiver, but also to the forgiven. We who have been forgiven much, knowing that our forgiveness is by definition unmerited and underserved often carry a debt of gratitude towards those who have forgiven us because we know all too well that we do not deserve it. Therefore, it can be in some cases nearly as hard to receive forgiveness as it is to offer it.

Yet some of the most complex and entangled circumstances we face can be unlocked only by the power of forgiveness, precisely because it both acknowledges that have been wronged and yet chooses no longer to seek personal redress. But it is always deeply costly.

Forgiving God,
teach us by your grace
to forgive those who trespass against us
as you have already forgiven our trespasses.

Amen.

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