Forgiveness Cannot Be Complete without Justice (Part 2)
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By: Father Shay
Forgiveness is not an act of a single person towards another. It is a process of reconciliation that requires an open response from the offender. It is both giving and receiving. It is two-way restoration of relationship, it is a peace making process to mend the hurt and repair damage caused to the offended party. The aggrieved person can offer forgiveness only if the offender has a sincere repentant disposition to receive it. Only then can the reconciliation at the heart of forgiveness take place.
To be worthy of forgiveness we have to humbly accept that we made a mistake and did what was wrong, admit it and repent with genuine remorse and be willing to do penance and make restitution. Otherwise the exchange involved in forgiveness cannot take place, peace cannot be restored, and the wounds will not heal.
For forgiveness to become a reality there is a process of justice that has to run it's course. The offence has to be clearly recognised and acknowledged, both parties have to be heard, the offender accepts the process, admits guilt and humbly accepts just punishment.
In the case of Rosaline , who¹s story I wrote about in a previous column, none of that happened at first. The rapist was a hardhearted villain and refused to acknowledge his fault. Eventually confronted with the evidence and the courage and forgiving attitude of Rosaline he repented. He confessed and accepted his sentenced as a just penance. It is always good to try and recognise that the sinner is God's child too, a lost sheep that we have to reach out to and call to repentance as Jesus did. "I have come to call sinners not the just" He said. We can try to understand and have compassion for the wrong doer while abhorring his crime.
Rosaline had no ill feeling, hatred or anger for her abuser. Her complaint of the injustice and wrong done to her was justified and not an act of revenge or vengeance. It is important we don't confuse a hunger and thirst for justice as a desire for revenge. Jesus said those who do seek it are blessed. Her therapy and finding justice has healed the feelings of powerlessness humiliation and degradation. She has got on with her life and graduated head of her class. Forgiveness must never be confused with cowardice, capitulation and moral intimidation either once justice has been done. They cannot be separated no matter how much the guilty want to get away from admitting responsibility and be held accountable.
Forgiveness does not mean we surrender to Evil. The people doing evil deeds have first to be persuaded to repent accept guilt and brought to justice. The terrible atrocities, torturing and killing of innocent people around the world by human rights violators have to be brought to justice. The International Criminal court was set up to bring to justice the perpetrators of genocide, mass murders, systematic torture and other such heinous crimes. There can be no blanket forgiveness for these horrible crimes against thousands of people without justice. If there is true repentance then forgiveness is possible.
To ask for forgiveness without repentance and expect that all responsibility for committing crime is taken away is nonsense. Forgiving others in a generous spirit for minor mistakes and wrongdoing recognising that it comes not from malicious intent but human frailty, without seeking punishment or recompose is a good thing to do. For serious crime, divine justice calls for admission of guilt and a change of heart and mind.
The power of forgiveness is effective when it invokes in the wrong doer true repentance and sorrow. The promise and hope of forgiveness is a positive and powerful way to bring an offender to the truth and a transformation in the spirit. But that does not then banish the need for penance. This is simple justice and a chance for the offender to reform.
God does not want us to have a total blind belief that forgiveness means surrender and appeasement to evil. Also, the act of free will to accept and change has to be there before forgiveness is meaningful. [END.]
