Forgiving Others. Abbot Tryphon

Forgiving Others

The capacity to forgive others requires cooperation

The ability to forgive others requires work on our part, for we must cooperate with the grace that comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Since we have been forgiven much, we, in turn, must forgive much. The Lord Himself told us that we must forgive our brother seventy times seventy, no easy feat, to be sure. Yet it is this same Lord Who gives us the power, and the will, to be quick to forgive those who have hurt or offended us. It is this very Christ Who demonstrated the importance of forgiving others when He forgave those who were crucifying Him. "Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34)."

The capacity to forgive is directly related to the capacity to love, and it is in our act of forgiving others that we find forgiveness. For it is in the turning away from our own self-concern, and our own self-will, that we begin to see that our salvation is directly linked to the salvation of our neighbor. To refuse to forgive our neighbor, is do cease having the capacity to love, "for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20)?"

With love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon