Forgiveness

Just as Jesus wants to make me available for bread, available to satisfy my brothers, so he asks me to be available for forgiveness: forgive me as I forgive!
Here then is a, but profound, assumption of responsibility.
However, a question may come to mind spontaneously: does our forgiveness come first or does God’s forgiveness come first?
If we take this phrase literally, if God were to truly forgive us as we forgive, who would ever receive forgiveness?

Let us think back to the parable of the forgiven debtor or the parable of the merciless servant (Mt 18:23–35).
That servant, despite having experienced forgiveness, being forgiven freely, was unable to free himself from what in him was an obstacle to love, he was unable to understand what being forgiven to such a great extent entailed.
This is essential: to discover how much we have been and are forgiven every day, so that we in turn can become capable of forgiving, so that we can place ourselves before others as God, freely, out of pure love, places himself before us.

It is not that I can almost “buy” God’s forgiveness, having forgiven others, and that I must forgive them for this purpose. I forgive because I have experienced forgiveness, because I have discovered that God loves me, not to be able to boast a credit before God.
As God freely forgives me, so I must freely forgive.
He is my Father, I must learn from him, like Jesus.
 

Father Mario Nascimbeni
from Progetto (now NP) October 1992