Page 225 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II
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Resentment can be seen as anger that has gone inwards. Bitterness and
resentment are often the hidden results of a resistance to forgive and let go.
Unforgiveness can be compared to burning the bridge upon which we
ourselves must walk or drinking poison while hoping the other person dies.
The saying, “To err is human, to forgive is divine,” is most appropriate here.
The ability to forgive flows from our faith in a God who is forgiveness. That
faith leads to hope in a brighter future based on the ability to love, which
itself is a form of forgiveness. The unrighteous, those who lack this faith, will
doubt the power of love, begin to despair, lose hope, and end up in a kind of
living death, which is the opposite of love.
The biblical saying, to those who have much, more will be given, but to
those who have little, even that will be taken away, applies to love as
forgiveness. It is only love, that when given away as forgiveness, grows
exponentially as peace and even joy, but when held back through
unforgiveness, atrophies and diminishes.
c
b
a Luke 6:27-36; 1 Peter 1:17; Romans 2:11; Proverbs 12:2;
Proverbs 22:1.