Forgiveness is God’s power to remove barriers, to lift burdens, to loosen bonds, and to set people free. It is the expression and the experience of God’s radical grace. Thus, forgiving is not just something that God does; it is the deep outpouring of who God is, in every part of our lives. Everything is lived in the “give-ness of God!” We are gifted repeatedly in ways meant to liberate.
This realization shakes the very foundations of the world we live in, unleashing a creative power for life-giving change that is greatest when situations seem most hopeless, and transforming not only our experience of the divine but also our experiences of one another and of ourselves. Forgiveness, in all its forms, breaks cycles of violence and recognizes the image of God in all people. It opens futures that have been closed, heals wounds that we have continued to carry from our past, and engages us with dynamic possibility in the present.
Jesus of Nazareth embodies God’s forgiveness, sharing with us its liberating power, while opening us to new ways of living and loving. The promised “new world” is revealed in the midst of the everyday.