In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account.
Our history is an inevitable component of our being. One thing only can release us from the grip of our history. That one thing is forgiveness.
When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it.
It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.
You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
Common sense suggests that if no one ever judged other people, there would be no real human community.
