Daily Meditation: Friday, April 25, 1997

Suppose you have done someone wrong, and you go and …

04/25/1997

Suppose you have done someone wrong, and you go and apologize. That is all very well, but it is not enough: you must still repair the damage you have done, and only in doing so will you be acquitted. Apologizing to the person you have harmed and asking forgiveness is not enough, and divine justice will pursue you until you have put right the wrong. You will say: ‘And if the person I have wronged has forgiven me?' No, the matter is not settled that easily, because the law and the person are two different things. The person forgives you, but the law does not. It pursues you until you have made amends. Obviously those who forgive you demonstrate nobility and generosity, and they free themselves from the torment and rancour which bind them to the lower regions of the astral plane. Jesus commanded us to forgive our enemies so that we could free ourselves from the negative thoughts and feelings which eat away at us and destroy us. But forgiving does not settle the issue. Forgiving frees the one who has been ill-treated, who has been wronged, but it does not free the one who committed the wrong. In order to free themselves, the guilty must make amends.