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Editorial
RELIGIOUS TOPICS - FORGIVENESS
"The quality of mercy is not strain’d, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath". So, in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, forgiveness of debt is recommended by Portia, dressed like a doctor of law. However, in the Bible, forgiveness is not simply a recommended quality, but it is actually central to the Christian understanding of the relationship between human beings and God.
According to the Lord’s Prayer, we are to pray for forgiveness of our "trespasses" (the Matthaean version says "debts"), as we forgive those who trespass against us. The divine forgiveness is freely available to those who are penitent and are willing to forgive those who have offended them. In the parable of the unmerciful debtor, Jesus drew attention to the very human tendency to require forgiveness for one’s own transgressions, whilst proving unforgiving towards those who were in turn in need of our forgiveness of them. His own declaration of forgiveness, with its implied claim to a divine prerogative, caused much controversy.
Jesus not only claimed the authority to make such a declaration but also delegated this to his Church, for "whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained". For four centuries, from the time of the Reformation, these biblical words formed part of the formula of the ordination of priests in the Prayer Book and they still appear in Ordination Services One. In Ordination Services Two, there is a petition to give grace and power to those being ordained to "pronounce absolution", and a specific and personal ministry of absolution is to be found in the section of Penitence and Reconciliation in the Ministry to those who are Sick, which commences with the text of 1 John 1: 8 - "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Indeed, in the Prayer Book, penitence is always a prerequisite of absolution.
Jesus himself practised forgiveness in a particularly striking way in his petition, "Father, forgive", in relation to those who were actually nailing him to the Cross. He wanted to forgive so much that he excused the actions of his killers on the basis that they did not know what they were doing. In this way, God’s love and desire to forgive were given unmistakable emphasis.