It’s not easy to hear the call of Jesus to forgiveness, nor to grasp all the implications it may have. To accept that a man is more human when he forgives than when he seeks revenge.
Without a doubt, one must understand the thought of Jesus well. Forgiving does not mean ignoring the injustices committed, nor accepting them passively or indifferently. On the contrary, if one forgives, it is precisely to destroy, in some way, the spiral of evil, and to help the other to rehabilitate and act differently in the future.
In the dynamics of forgiveness, there is an effort to overcome evil with good. Forgiveness is a gesture that qualitatively changes relationships between people and seeks to envision future coexistence in a new way. Therefore, forgiveness should not be merely an individual demand, but should have a social translation.
Society must not abandon anyone, not even the guilty. Every person has the right to be loved. We cannot accept that penal repression only “returns evil for evil” to the imprisoned, sinking them in their crime, degrading their existence, and preventing their true rehabilitation.
The great jurist G. Radbruch believes that punishment as an imposition of evil for evil must disappear, to the extent possible, into “an incentive to atone for evil, the only way in which justice can be exercised on earth in a way that does not worsen it, but transforms it into a better world.”
There is no justification for acting in a degrading or unjust manner towards any prisoner, whether a common criminal or a political prisoner. We will never advance towards a more humane society if we do not abandon postures of retaliation, hatred, and revenge.
That is why it is also a mistake to incite people to revenge. The cry of “the people will not forgive” is, unfortunately, understandable, but it is not the right way to teach them to build a more humane future.
The rejection of forgiveness is a cry that, as believers, we can never subscribe to, because, ultimately, it is a rejection of the fraternity beloved by He who forgives us all.
José Antonio Pagola
Published on www.gruposdejesus.com
English version translated with AI