True or False: Romans teaches that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.

Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Dude Abides

Home
Progressive Christian

Last updated on: September 1, 2006 at 1:12 pm by Cathleen Falsani

2006-09-01T13:12:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US …

Forgiveness is superhuman.
I mean “super” in the sense that it requires us to go beyond our human-ness to get there.

It’s a thought that surfaced repeatedly as I watched year-old images of battered, desperate New Orleanians, abandoned in an ocean of chaos and sorrow.

A year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, a different kind of devastation lingers.

No, it lurks. In the hearts of many folks who live (or used to live) along the Gulf Coast. In the minds of families living in Middle Eastern war zones. In the souls of millions of displaced, injured, terrified people in Sudan. In my spirit, and probably in yours, too, if you’re honest about it.

There’s so much pain, so much bitterness, so many walking wounded — physically, mentally, spiritually.

How do you even begin to heal all of that?

Forgiveness seems at once too simple and much too hard.

During these tense times in the global village, the chances of forgiving or being forgiven feel as slim as the odds that I might be able to master the Brazilian art of Capoeira, memorize the collected works of Marcel Proust — in French — and fit into my 1980 Girl Scout uniform by Saturday.

So thank God for the Internet, wherein lies our hope.

Last month, the National Jewish Outreach Program launched a Web site called Project Forgiveness, where people can ask for forgiveness for past transgressions — against another person, against God, against themselves — or offer forgiveness to another anonymously.

The idea is to offer a safe place to get the universal forgiveness ball rolling, one person at a time.

On Thursday, the latest anonymous entry said simply: “Papa, sorry I broke curfew again.”

The month leading up to Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year (Sept. 23-24 this year) — is considered a propitious time for forgiveness, Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, founder of the National Jewish Outreach Program, said.

“We have this concept that God is in the fields,” Buchwald said. “He’s not in his temple, he’s not in his abodes . . . he’s not transcendent. He’s very, very imminent. He comes out to the fields, to the people in the fields, begging them, ‘OK, come to me and just ask for forgiveness.’

“God is coming out and waving to you, and if you’ll just make that little gesture, he will be there,” the rabbi continued, launching into an old Hasidic story about another rabbi who once asked his congregation how far east was from west.

“They’re sitting there dumbfounded, and [the rabbi] says, ‘One little . . . spin.’ If you turn right, you’re facing east, and if you turn left, you’re facing west. We have this sense of just overwhelming proportions and that everything is just so hard, everything is just so distanced.

“But the truth of the matter is, there’s just a little turn that you have to make, and suddenly you’re in a new place.”

A little turn.
Two little words.
One anonymous e-mail.

Since the Project Forgiveness blog went up last month, dozens of people have posted confessions and absolutions anonymously.

Some were long and complicated messages: “I am sorry for blaming you for my second marriage gone wrong. It was wrong of me to spread rumors and make up stories to make myself look good and make you, an innocent bystander, look bad. . . . Please forgive me.”

Others were painfully poignant in their brevity: “You walked. I waited. I hurt. I forgive.”

And then there was this message, with a picture of two adorable little girls: “I’m sorry I lose my temper. I’m sorry I work so much. I’m sorry I don’t play more. I’ll try harder.”

It was signed, “Mommy.”

Small sins (if you believe in a hierarchy for such things.) Huge quests for forgiveness.

As I was surfing to the Project Forgiveness Web site the other day, I mistyped and wound up at an equally compelling site for the Forgiveness Project, a nonreligious organization based in Britain that has collected remarkable stories of forgiveness from around the world — Northern Ireland, Israel, Rwanda, South Africa, New York City.

If you’re having trouble asking your partner to forgive you for being selfish, or if you’re still holding on to anger about something ridiculous your boss said three years ago, spend a few times on the Forgiveness Project site. It’ll change your perspective in a hurry.

Read Gill Hicks’ story. Her picture, seen at the top of this post, (each story is illustrated with a portrait of the person telling it) put me in my place. She’s sitting on a couch — a young woman looking straight at the camera with a benign expression on her face and stumps where her legs used to be.

Hicks lost both legs beneath the knees in the July 2005 terrorist attacks on the London Underground.

She says, “I wish the world would Stop — just stop and give us all the time to see what is happening. . . . When will the final bomb explode? When will enough be enough?

“The cycle has to stop — I cannot hate the person who has done this to me,” says Hicks, who calls her horrific experience in the bombings a “blessed gift.”

“The cycle must end with me,” she says.

Forgiveness is, by definition, an unfair endeavor. It can be neither demanded nor forced. But it is the only chance we have to end the never-ending revolution of unforgiveness.

One small turn — or the click of a (mighty) mouse — could do it.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 30, 2006

Next Post

September 2, 2006

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Romans teaches that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE