It is in Pardoning that we are Pardoned

Greetings Dear Reader,

I know constantly how desperately I am in need of forgiveness and pardon for my failures.  Some of them will echo long after I have left all concern for such matters. It is only in making the effort to pardon others without condition that I realize just how valuable the same thing is to me.  The lurking curmudgeon in me wants to hold grudges and demand restitution for wrongs done to me.

It is too easy to focus on who needs to make things right with me.  It is too easy to be blind to the ways in which I slight others.  The path to pardon is in pardoning others.  When Christ modeled how we should pray he made it clear that he wished for the Father for forgive us in proportion to the forgiveness we provide to others.  Fortunately forgiving others is something that Christ empowers us to do if we are willing. 

Holding onto our anger and hurts damages us.  Holding onto too many of them turns us bitter and malignant.  There is a healing freedom in truly forgiving others.  We are not hold anger even for a day.  We are to truly forgive and let God deal with the justice.  It is in pardoning others that we are pardoned.  Even now, as I write I realize that I need to lay aside something that I had not knowingly held.  I am thankful that I will be able to pardon this individual because there is so much freedom in the pardoning.  The person matters to me and I do not wish to treat her with anything but loving kindness.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. – Saint Francis of Assisi

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."