Luke 5.23

From London's Sunday Times:

"‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” In the most important prayer in Christendom, the Lord’s Prayer, there are only seven requests and that is one of them. Forgiveness is central to Christianity (it is important in other faiths, too). Christians are taught that Christ sacrificed himself on the cross on Good Friday so that they might be forgiven for their sins and that they in turn, in the imitation of Christ, must forgive others. I was taught this myself as a child and I always found it incomprehensible.

I could imagine, just about, that God in his mysterious way, if he existed, could forgive whatever he chose, but I could not understand the meaning of human forgiveness, at least not in extreme cases. Forgiveness may be divine but I don’t think it is human. To me it seems either pointless or meaningless.

Holy Week is a time when traditionally the Christian world, and even heathen Anglicans like me, reflect on forgiveness."

Here's the whole, sad thing.

But then, Kendall Harmon posts this from BBC Radio:

"In July last year Anthony Walker - eighteen and studying for his A levels - was murdered near his home in Liverpool. Two white men of roughly his own age abused him racially while hewas waiting at a bus stop - they chased him into a park, and one of them drove an ice axe into his skull. The two men are now in gaol - and Anthony’s mother Gee Walker has taken the very remarkable step of saying publicly that she forgives them."

Listen to the whole thing.