Saucier -- A healthy request

Forgiveness was a big deal for Jesus.

He practiced it up until his dying breath and urged us to do the same.

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Jesus doesn’t just tell us to forgive others: he suggests that it is in our own best interest to do so.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

“... and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

It’s not easy, but science is showing us that us that Jesus was right. Forgiveness is important to our flourishing and well-being.

According to a recent study, forgiveness is a psychological ideal, as well as a moral one.

People with a practice of letting go of the wrath and resentment from being harmed or offended scored higher in psychological areas like happiness, positive attitude, and a sense of meaning.

Scientists refer to this attitude as “dispositional forgiveness.”

It’s not about excusing harm, much less about forgetting it. It is about refusing to allow the incident to have power over us.

It’s not the offense. That could be someone cutting us off in traffic, a personal betrayal, or harming someone we love.

Any of these can cause bitterness or a desire for satisfaction that darkens our mood.

Our forgiveness resets us.

It’s not about the worthiness or remorse of the offender. Waiting for an apology or satisfaction, all the while seething with anger, allows the other to control us.

Forgiveness breaks that hold.

Years ago, I did an interview with Bud Welch, who lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing.

He said he had to experience deep grief and raging anger, but the only way to get beyond that was to forgive Timothy McVeigh.

Forgiveness is an act of love for the self — a desire to put aside the bitterness and seek healing.

That’s hard, but Peter comes to mind. Aghast at the extent of the forgiveness Jesus preached, he asked, “Seven times?” Not “seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy-seven times.”

That number suggests that forgiveness becomes easier when it becomes habitual.

The scientists agree, so much so that they have developed training sessions to help learn to forgive.

Perhaps churches need to do the same, to move from preaching forgiveness to actually teaching it.

We believe in a grace that gives us the power to change. And it should be easier for us to forgive others because we have already been forgiven.

After all, we are disciples of the Great Forgiver.