During the Sundays of Lent during the adult education hour, we will take a look at forgiveness, using the work of Father Frank Desiderio, a Catholic priest whose current ministry is helping people to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is good for your body, mind and spirit. You probably know that intuitively. There is plenty of research to prove that forgiveness helps heal the body and works in the brain to counteract the negative effects of anger.
For the Christian, forgiveness is a non-negotiable. Jesus insisted on it “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14-15). Jesus forgave unconditionally from the cross, “Father forgive them they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24). We are called to be like Christ and forgive generously and sincerely. The question is often how to forgive.
Here’s a true/false quiz about forgiveness. We’ll take a look at the answers on our first Sunday together.
I. True – False Quiz
A) When you are trying to forgive you have to give up being angry.
B) To forgive is to forget.
C) To forgive means letting the person back into your life and hitting the reset button.
D) Forgiveness is putting up with some behavior that is hurtful to you.
E) You should wait until the person who hurt you apologizes before you forgive?
F) Forgiveness says, “That’s okay,” when the person gives a reason for why they hurt you.
G) Forgiveness means confronting the person with your anger and telling them how their behavior hurt you.
H) Forgiveness is deciding to not get even with the person who hurt you.
I) Forgiveness is accepting the person, warts and all.
J) It is good to tell the story of what happened to you, over and over to vent your anger.
K) Forgiveness is letting go of hard feelings and thoughts of revenge.
L) Forgiveness is a one-time event; I forgive and move on.