Forgiveness is the Bridge to Peace
Heads up for the reader: this is a tough discussion topic.
Forgiveness is the release of fear and conflict through love.
What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is the release of fear and conflict through love. It can be your release of someone else from their obligation to you, for some perceived transgression. Or it can be your release of yourself from fear of the unknown (like death), or tragedies that the media shows us, like the shootings, war, famine, and natural disasters that continue to happen.
A Course in Miracles teaches “I am the Holy Son (Daughter) of God Himself”. This may sound old school. For me God means Source, or Spirit, or Universe energy. I believe we are infinite beings, souls of love, on this journey together on earth for this life to explore aspects of the soul. When we understand we are powerful beings of Source, we do not need to fear. While we perceive ourselves as separate beings in our human bodies, we are really all in this together, interconnected with each other and all living things.
As an infinite being I theoretically do not fear death, although I admit it is taking me some time to warm up to the idea. By believing in a world without fear, I can be free, no longer a prisoner. I do not have to fear (or be in conflict with) the people in my life, the systems I am a part of, or the violence that the media reports on. While releasing myself as a prisoner, I can set the world free from the jailer role I have given it.
While releasing myself as a prisoner, I can set the world free from the jailer role I have given it.
Consider Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, who is on death row at a maximum-security prison in Colorado. I have been thinking about him recently. My feelings and thoughts about him are conflicted.
Why did he do what he did? No one will really know because we can’t be inside his head. It is hard to imagine seeing how things were so confused in his perception, that a bomb would be part of a solution. Yet even though his actions are hard to find empathy for, isn’t he one of us?
Can we forgive him? If we accept that he is a part of the world, a facet of our whole, can we accept him as a person, even though we don’t agree with his actions?
The ultimate act of love is forgiveness, no matter the transgression. I do believe that forgiveness should be possible for someone like Tsarnaev.
I understand it is hard to be at peace with a mass killing. I know that I am not. But maybe we can start with peace in our own lives, using forgiveness to release ourselves and our world from prison. As we practice forgiveness in our lives, peace will follow.
