Lux Mundi: Forgiveness: The Prisoner That It Really Frees Is You

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Forgiveness: The Prisoner That It Really Frees Is You

For my section of the Lux Mundi blog, my goal is to give you one tip of advice per post for you to change your life to live more like Jesus did. In my first post I asked you to greet every person you pass, whether you know them or not, with a warm smile and say hi. In this post, I'm going to ask you for something probably more difficult for us people. Us people as in a people who hold grudges, a people who would much rather hate someone then love them despite their faults. I'm going to ask you to forgive. I don't want you to just forgive others when they apologize for what they've done. I want you to forgive others BEFORE they apologize. Even if they never apologize, I want you to forgive them! It's not healthy for you to be angry. I once read in the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven, "Anger is a curved blade, you only hurt yourself." Your being angry does NOT affect the other person whatsoever, despite popular belief. You're only hurting yourself, because your making yourself a prisoner enslaved by that person's actions. You may think I'm wrong for saying that, but just think about it. When you're holding a grudge against someone... who usually seems more upset? You or the other person? You! There you go, you just proved it to yourself!!

This insight came to me when I was driving in my car one day listening to the KLove radio station (96.7 FM). Matthew West was talking about a new song he wrote. The song is called Forgiveness. He said that a woman named Renee once wrote to him telling a story about her daughter. She wrote that her daughter, Megan, was killed by drunk driver, Eric, at 20 years old. Eric was sentenced to 22 years in jail. Renee lived from then on in bitterness and hatred for Eric. However, Renee was wise. She decided to visit Eric in jail and forgive him for what he had done. Without him ever even saying sorry!! She asked the judge to allow Eric to be released early from jail. Renee wanted Eric to travel the country with her to give talks on drunk driving. Only after personally forgiving Eric, Renee was able to live her life happily. Her forgiveness literally freed Eric from being a prisoner. However, the prisoner that it really freed was Renee. This is a powerful and true story which is proof that sincere forgiveness can be given even for the worst and final of actions.

I can honestly tell you that the past few times my friends or family have wronged me, I sincerely forgave them. It feels good for two reasons. First of all, it feels great to sincerely forgive someone for what they have done, because you know everyone makes mistakes, and you won't be angry anymore. Secondly, it feels even better to just know that you are living more like Jesus did. It's a fulfilling feeling to know that you are doing something Jesus would have done. It's not something simple. Forgiveness is something to be proud of yourself for. Show it off, show off your forgiveness.

"Being Christian means forgiving the inexcusable, because Jesus forgave the inexcusable in you." -C.S. Lewis

-The Heart You Set Free

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Us

First of all we are all young people and proudly Catholic. We are a group of close friends in college and we are lively and practicing young men and women who have devoted our lives to the service of Christ and His Church in whatever way the Lord sees fit! That is partially the most exciting part of this group. We all went to high school together, and we met in our senior year. A string of circumstances brought us together to pray and discuss our faith. It was a truly incredible time! For now there are only a few of us working on this blog but we hope some others will join us as time goes on.

This Blog was my idea. I have been looking for a way to get involved in spreading the Gospel in a real and effective way for two years. I cannot stand being on the side lines. One day some inspiration came to me: A blog by Catholic youth for everyone. Since I can remember there has been a lack of an intense youthful presence in the Church. That is most certainly changing, and I want to be part of it! In my many experiences with catholic blogs, I have had to go to several places to read all the information and discussion I wanted, so my thought was to create a one stop blog, simple and easy, which has several “voices” with one directed sound. I don’t know if that makes sense. I want to have one direction with several different authors and perspectives but all young. I also don’t want the writing to be overly elevated nor obsessively analytical, which can sometimes scare people away. But we also can’t dumb down the faith; to do that would be an insult to the one true faith. That, for the most part was the idea! There are things similar, but none like what I was really hoping to do. One night I was blessed with this inspiration. But I have been frightened to take it on, that is one of my faults, misguided fear. The idea wouldn’t go away and I figured I needed to try but I couldn’t do it alone. There was only one group of people who could help me do this and so I enlisted the help of my friends; and here we are.

A little bit on our beliefs: We are most definitely and unapologetically Catholic. So, although this may be a cliche, if you need more information, google the phrase Nicene-Constantinople Creed. That should sufficiently point out our doctrinal backgrounds. One thing we do wish to express explicitly is our total reliance on the authentic authority of God, both in Heaven and on Earth. We commonly encounter that which is on Earth, although it is eternally united to that of the Lord! What we are saying is we submit ourselves to the judgment and guidance of the Holy Father and the Magisterium. That is of the utmost importance. Many Catholics today neglect authentic Revelation (i.e. Tradition) and authentic authority! But that is for another time!

We love Christ and His Church. We are not perfect, in fact we are sinners, and I particularly am quite the sinner! However we are striving for holiness and to live a saintly life so that we might in the next life be rewarded with entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We hope you find your way to an informed faith through this blog. We don’t expect to reach millions but maybe a few will find us and be inspired, maybe someone will find us and through the grace of God find his way to authentic Catholicism. If but one finds this to have made a positive impact in his life, it shall all be worth it! But we will be careful; we don’t wish to have a negative effect on anyone!!!