Is forgiveness the answer to personal salvation if our lives are plagued by wrong doings? Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower beckons thoughts about the issue of forgiveness.
Simon a Nazi concentration camp survivor tells of his personal struggle with a repenting SS soldier lying on his death bed. He questions himself whether or not to stay and listen to this man who killed innocent men, women, children, and was ultimately part of humanity’s darkest times. During his time in the room with the SS soldier Simon is asked a question that would haunt him for the remainder of his life. The SS soldier asks Simon to forgive him of his past transgressions, Simon being in a concentration camp and all remained silent, but later questions himself about his experience. This struggle to find and define forgiveness comes to light when Simon poses the question “What would you have done?” The definition of forgiveness is fleeting, because it is person and situational dependant.
Forgiveness is person dependent for the reason that every one is different; no one has the same thoughts. Culture, religion, and family are just some of the things that obviously influence how a person defines forgiveness. An example of how religion can influence thought and forgiveness, I consult a Buddhist, Matthieu Ricard. Ricard states that according to Buddhist teachings, “forgiveness is always possible and one should always forgive” (p.235). For me this particular teaching seems morally right, but I think it is naïve to think that you can forgive anybody for anything. An example came from the brain of Tzvetan Todorov who says “murder, by definition, cannot be forgiven: the injured party is no longer there to do it.”
Simon’s past experiences defined the nature of his reaction to the dying SS soldier. I believe that anybody that was living in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany would have done far worse than just remained silent, as Simon did. For that Simon may be a better man than I could be. I would have let the man have a little piece of my mind and probably would not have given him the time of day. On a personal level I have suffered the same daunting question of whether to forgive or not to. A sick part of the human condition is the uncanny ability to remember, but it is also one of the greatest abilities of the brain. For me forgiveness is hardest when it is I, whom I must forgive.
This was first brought to my attention when my father asked me a question that at the time didn’t have much meaning because I was so young, but has stuck with me. He asked me, “Who you have to live with 24 hours a day 7 days a week?” I answered “I don’t know”, and he went on to tell me that the hardest thing that most of us have to go through is learning to like yourself, and to forgive yourself for the mistakes you make in life, because no one gets out alive. This conversation weighs in on everything that I do in life. So forgiveness to me starts internally and remains an internal question.
So to answer the question what would I have done, I would say the correct answer is no answer. There are right and wrong answers, right for some is wrong for others and the cycle is endless. The only thing that can be accomplished is to accept the fact that right is wrong and wrong is right, depending on the person and the situation.
Simon a Nazi concentration camp survivor tells of his personal struggle with a repenting SS soldier lying on his death bed. He questions himself whether or not to stay and listen to this man who killed innocent men, women, children, and was ultimately part of humanity’s darkest times. During his time in the room with the SS soldier Simon is asked a question that would haunt him for the remainder of his life. The SS soldier asks Simon to forgive him of his past transgressions, Simon being in a concentration camp and all remained silent, but later questions himself about his experience. This struggle to find and define forgiveness comes to light when Simon poses the question “What would you have done?” The definition of forgiveness is fleeting, because it is person and situational dependant.
Forgiveness is person dependent for the reason that every one is different; no one has the same thoughts. Culture, religion, and family are just some of the things that obviously influence how a person defines forgiveness. An example of how religion can influence thought and forgiveness, I consult a Buddhist, Matthieu Ricard. Ricard states that according to Buddhist teachings, “forgiveness is always possible and one should always forgive” (p.235). For me this particular teaching seems morally right, but I think it is naïve to think that you can forgive anybody for anything. An example came from the brain of Tzvetan Todorov who says “murder, by definition, cannot be forgiven: the injured party is no longer there to do it.”
Simon’s past experiences defined the nature of his reaction to the dying SS soldier. I believe that anybody that was living in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany would have done far worse than just remained silent, as Simon did. For that Simon may be a better man than I could be. I would have let the man have a little piece of my mind and probably would not have given him the time of day. On a personal level I have suffered the same daunting question of whether to forgive or not to. A sick part of the human condition is the uncanny ability to remember, but it is also one of the greatest abilities of the brain. For me forgiveness is hardest when it is I, whom I must forgive.
This was first brought to my attention when my father asked me a question that at the time didn’t have much meaning because I was so young, but has stuck with me. He asked me, “Who you have to live with 24 hours a day 7 days a week?” I answered “I don’t know”, and he went on to tell me that the hardest thing that most of us have to go through is learning to like yourself, and to forgive yourself for the mistakes you make in life, because no one gets out alive. This conversation weighs in on everything that I do in life. So forgiveness to me starts internally and remains an internal question.
So to answer the question what would I have done, I would say the correct answer is no answer. There are right and wrong answers, right for some is wrong for others and the cycle is endless. The only thing that can be accomplished is to accept the fact that right is wrong and wrong is right, depending on the person and the situation.