With forgiveness all things become experienced anew.
Peace comes with oneness recognized.
It reads in A Course In Miracles: "Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you?" T-17.2.1:1
It is very hard for our ego minds to forgive. It feels better to harbor resentments because then we feel justified in our defensiveness and retaliatory attacks. We feel safer without forgiveness because our defensiveness is born out of our fears because we lack faith. Jesus said, "Oh ye of little faith! If you only knew how much God loves you."
In Unitarian Universalism our third principle is "acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations." This acceptance requires forgiveness for without it we probably project our fears of many kinds which keep us estranged. How can UUs better practice forgiveness?
Forgiveness doesn't always mean reconciliation. They can be two different things. I can forgive someone for my sake without wanting to reconcile with them, but my rising above my petty resentments and grievances frees me to be more loving.
While forgiveness is important, I also think that UU is failing because of what Edwin Friedman called a "failure of nerve". There is a reluctance to lead and take a differentiated stand and position on our congregations and so mediocrity is not only accepted, but becomes the status quo.
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