Forgiveness essay
“I forgive you”, this statement holds such a strong meaning behind it. By saying these words you can accept the wrongs done against you and move on with your life as if it never happened. In our lives I feel we may have lost the real genuine feeling of forgiveness. Most people I meet say the word like its part of their daily vocabulary and just say it so they don't have to talk about whatever it was they did anymore. One person who I feel may have still had a true idea of what forgiveness should be is Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor. He showed me this though the battles he fought in his mind and soul on whether to forgive the Nazi SS man or not. Forgiveness is a necessity in life if we ever want to progress in life and in society we must learn how to forgive everyone.
Forgiveness in our own lives is a necessity if we ever want to get over any adversities in our lives. One man whose life was helped by forgiving is Dith Pran. Dith lived through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s death grip on Cambodia. The way Dith sees it is that he can forgive the soldiers who were following the orders of the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, but he said he could never forgive the leaders of this terrible group. He says: “I understand why they did what they did. I think the key to forgiveness is understanding. I just will never understand why the Khmer Rouge top leaders did what they did” (Wiesenthal 232). Without forgiveness Dith may have never been able to move on and would not have told his life experiences to many people. Later in life Dith wrote The Killing Fields, exposing the brutality and cruelty of Pol Pot’s regime. Another person whose life was constantly full of thoughts of forgiveness was Simon Wiesenthal. Simon was given a choice to either forgive the SS man who wronged his people or to leave him unforgiven and tormented with his thoughts. Simon surprisingly chose a different option; he left without a word. His reaction seems to have troubled him throughout his life. Simon says: “There are many kinds of silence. Indeed it can be more eloquent than words, and it can be interpreted in many ways. Was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong?” (Wiesenthal 97). Looking at both perspectives we can see that one person accepts that you must forgive, and another is unsure what he should have done and lives with the doubt. I feel that Simon should have forgiven the SS man and moved on with his life, because then he may not feel that he may have done the wrong thing by not forgiving the soldier. My conclusion after reading both views is that life after forgiving someone is a lot more enjoyable because you don’t have to live your live with second thoughts on if you made the wrong choice by not forgiving.
If forgiveness was not present in our nation’s society and the World’s societies many countries would not be able to cooperate with one another. Even though forgiveness is present in nations world wide there are still some ethnic and religious groups that cannot forgive one another and move towards peaceful interaction with one another. One example of this is the Jews and the Palestinians. The conflict between the two groups can be traced back directly to the Bible. The conflicts have not been solved since the split up of the two tribes; one became the Hebrews and the other the Ishmaelites. The main point is that each group wants control of the “Holy land” and they cannot forgive one another for attempting to steal it from each other. The Jews just recently regained control of Jerusalem after many years of being scattered around in many countries. In this situation I think that a common ground must be found between the two nations. The only problem is that it clearly states in the Bible that the two nations will always be in constant conflict with one another until the end of days. This would be a great example of forgiveness that would not be sincere, and would probably end up in a temporary time of peace but then something happens that starts the cycle all over again and ruins the peace. Forgiveness on this large of a scale is tenuous and even if the Jews and Palestinians do reach a common ground not everyone will forgive each other, there will still be individuals in society that will not forgive.
Another area where forgiveness is needed in society is between the White Americans and Native Americans. The Native Americans were blindsided by the sudden appearance of the white man wearing strange cloths and speaking a different language than their own. Not much long after they landed the white settlers were growing in numbers. After much of the east coast was colonized the whites kept pushing the natives further and further out of their home ranges, and eventually relocated them on Government reservations. The injustices against the Native Americans were terrible and we should apologize for our actions. The question I have is can the remaining Native American tribes forgive us for what we did to their relatives? I feel that forgiveness can be given it’s just that it takes both a sincere apology and a true acceptance to forgive the one that wronged them. I feel that we may apologize, but the native may never forgive us for what we did to their relatives.
How do we forgive if we don’t know how to forgive someone full heartedly? In my opinion the answer is with God’s help. God has helped me forgive some people who I really didn’t want to forgive but I was able to forgive them all the same. I wonder how different Simon’s life would have been if he forgave the SS man? I feel that if he would have forgave him he would have forgiven him just because the Nazi was on his death bed. If Simon honestly forgave the man for what he did then I feel that he possibly could have lived his life without having the “what if questions” playing over and over in his head. How different would our lives be if we were to learn how to truly forgive people who wronged us? Forgiveness is the one thing that can make progress when momentum has slowed or stopped. In The Sunflower one of the essays responding to Simon’s question was by Desmond Tutu, a priest from South Africa. His response was very interesting, and it gave some good information on what forgiveness is. He talks about how he had to live through the apartheid that happened in South Africa. His view was that no matter how severe the injustices that were committed against you you should still forgive the ones who wronged you. Desmond says: “without forgiveness there is no future” (Wiesenthal 268). There was another quote that I really liked because he quotes a part directly from the Bible: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do. I sit and marvel at it all as I preside over the process of seeking to bring healing and reconciliation to a deeply divided, wounded, and traumatized nation” (268). I feel that if a man who went through such a hard time as he did that forgiveness would be a hard idea to comprehend. If a man like Desmond can learn to unconditionally forgive a group of people that were against him to the extent of the Apartheid, then I think we all can learn a lesson in how to forgive from him. These examples go back to the idea that forgiveness is a necessity in our lives, I think that Desmond’s testimony is a perfect example of how forgiveness improves your general view on life.
Forgiveness is a necessity in life if we ever want to progress in life and society we must learn how to forgive everyone. Personally in my life I have never had a hard time forgiving someone for what they did to me, but the reason is because I have never had any really terrible hardships in my life to date. I hope and pray that if I ever do go through anything like Simon, Dith Pran, or Desmond Tutu went through I could forgive the ones who would be responsible for my hardships. My closure is that I feel if I expect others to forgive me for what I did to them then I should forgive the ones who wronged me.