The same walls that separate one person from another are also walls that come between ourselves and God. When God looks at us the primary area in which we are challenged is that of our relationships with others.
Harmony in our relationships is woven with a pattern of demands, like respect, communication, dialogue, protection, acceptance… But there is a primary and necessary condition: to forgive. We need peace. Only in peace does the encounter with God take place. And only by means of forgiveness does peace come about.
When we speak of accepting others, we understand it exclusively in the sense of forgiving. To forgive is to let go of resentment toward another. With the act of surrender, resistance is placed in the hands of the Father, -resistance to the other and resistance to myself – in a unique act of adoration, in which and by which we are one.
Therefore, to forgive is to extinguish feelings of hostility as if blowing out a flame, like a loving sacrificial homage to the Father.
There is intentional forgiveness. It is a willful forgiveness because we want to forgive. We want to wrench from the heart all hostility and not feel any hard feelings. We sincerely forgive but this includes those who say: I forgive but I do not forget. This forgiveness is not enough to heal the wounds.
Emotional forgiveness on the contrary, heals the wound because it does not depends on the will. One way to grant emotional forgiveness is through prayer in the presence of Jesus. Evoke by faith His presence and then the memory of your “enemy”, brother or sister.
Imagine how darkness disappears in the presence of any light. Now, feel the anger fade in the presence of Jesus. Feel the peace, like fresh air, entering and filling your soul. Imagine yourself, in this moment, approaching your “enemy” to embrace him or her.
Normally, however, after the moment of intimacy with Jesus has passed, it’s probable that you will feel aversion towards that brother again, although less intense. Don’t forget that any wound needs many sessions to heal completely.
Another thing can happen. You have forgiven. The resentment, appears, to have disappeared completely. However, after a long time as you get up one morning, suddenly, you don’t know how nor why, everything comes back: once again. The flames of malevolence rise up, high and alive.
Don’t get scared or impatient. Repeat the act of forgiveness in intimacy with Jesus and slowly you will be completely cured of the sores and like a blessed shadow peace will fill your soul.
Extracted from the book by Father Ignacio Larrañaga, Sensing your hidden Presence.
