DEMONSTRATING FORGIVENESS
'And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise.' (Luke 6:31)
The forgiveness of others is the vestibule of Heaven. You have to
get rid of all resentment and condemnation of others, and, no least, of self-condemnation
and remorse. You have to forgive yourself, but you cannot forgive yourself
sincerely until you have forgiven others first.
Of course, nothing in all the world is easier than to forgive
people who have not hurt us very much. But what the Law of Being requires of us
is that we forgive the very things that are so hard to forgive that at first it
seems impossible to do it at all. But the Lord's Prayer makes our own escape
from guilt and limitation dependent upon just this very thing.
If your prayers are not being answered, search your consciousness
and see if there is not some old circumstance about which you are still
resentful. Search and see if you are not really holding a grudge against some
individual, or some group. If so, then you have an act of forgiveness to
perform, and when this is done, you will probably make your demonstration. If
you cannot forgive at present, you will have to wait for your demonstration
until you can, and you will have to postpone finishing your recital of the
Lord's Prayer too.
FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES
'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass
against us.' (Matthew 6:12)
This clause is the turning point of the Prayer. It is the
strategic key. Having told us what God is, what man is, how the universe works,
how we are to do our own work, what our true nourishment or supply is, and the
way in which we can obtain it, he now comes to the forgiveness of sins.
The forgiveness of sins is the central problem of life. Sin is
sense of separation from God, and is the major tragedy of human experience. It
is, of course, rooted in selfishness. It is essentially an attempt to gain some
supposed good to which we are not entitled in justice. It is a sense of
isolated, self-regarding, personal existence, whereas the Truth of Being is
that all is One. Our true selves are at one with God, undivided from Him,
expressing His ideas, witnessing to His nature. Because we are all one with the
great Whole of which we are spiritually a part, it follows that we are one with
all men.
Evil, sin, the fall of man, in fact, is essentially the attempt to
negate this Truth. We try to live apart from God. We act as though we could
have plans and purposes and interests separate from Him. All this, if it were
true, would mean that existence is not one and harmonious, but a chaos of
competition and strife. But, of course, it is not true, and therein lies the
joy of life.
AS WE FORGIVE
As we repeat the Great Prayer intelligently, we are suddenly
caught up and grasped as though in a vice, so that we must face this problem of
separation from God. We must extend forgiveness to everyone.
Notice that Jesus does not say, 'Forgive me my trespasses and I
will try to forgive others.' He obliges us to declare that we have actually
forgiven, and he makes our claim to our forgiveness to depend upon that. Who
could be so insane as to endeavour to seek the Kingdom of God without desiring
to be relieved of his own sense of guilt? We are trapped in the inescapable
position that we cannot demand our own release before we have released our
brother.
'Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my
thoughts.' (Psalm 139:23)
FREEDOM IN FORGIVENESS
'If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you' (Matthew 6:14)
Setting others free means setting yourself free, because
resentment is really a form of attachment. It is a cosmic truth that it takes
two to make a prisoner; a prisoner and a jailer. There is no such thing as
being a prisoner on one's own account. Moreover, the jailer is as much a
prisoner as his charge. When you hold resentment against anyone, you are bound
to that person by a mental chain. You are tied by a cosmic tie to the thing
that you hate. The one person perhaps in the whole world whom you most dislike
is the very one to whom you are attaching yourself by a hook that is stronger
than steel. Is this what you wish? Is this the condition in which you desire to
go on living? Remember, you belong to the thing with which you are linked in
thought, and at some time or other, if that tie endures, the object of your
resentment will be drawn again into your life, perhaps to work further havoc.
No one can afford such a thing; and so you must cut all such ties by a clear
act of forgiveness. You must loose him and let him go. By forgiveness you set
yourself free; you save your soul. And because the law of love works alike for
one and all, you help to save his soul too.
Around the Year With Emmet Fox, Emmet Fox
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