Real life

Holding grudges, nursing resentments, hiding hatreds, disguising disapproval, harboring thoughts of revenge—these are not what real life is made of. It doesn’t matter what people have done to us, it doesn’t matter that we’ve been disappointed by relationships, that we have (or feel we have) been abandoned, even rejected by those who (we feel) owe us more than we’ve gotten from them—that is, it doesn’t matter to the one who knows for sure that every victory that matters has been granted, that nothing has been withheld, that the fruits of victory are unassailable peace and indefectible love.

I, for one, would rather have and experience that peace and that love, even at the price of letting my enemies, those who have abused and offended me, off the hook, even at the price of telling the judge, there is no contest or complaint, no one has wronged me, let them go free. And if even the judge—perhaps the one that hides behind the throne of my conscience—objects, and takes up my cause, the one I would lay down, then I would rather take up their defense, excusing them to the judge, in order to be assured not of being avenged but of being the victor, in unassailable peace, and indefectible love.

This is the key that unlocks every locked gate, even the gates of Hades that are once and for all unlocked by Him who endured to the end without defending Himself the abuse and offense of the whole world. This is the power—not earthly might—that dissolves grudges, collapses resentments, evicts hatreds, convicts disapproval, disables thoughts of revenge. This is the divine energy that real life is made of, that makes real life, that sustains it, and that stamps it with the seal of eternity. This is the inner force of the loving heart. Yes, forgiveness, sacrificial forgiveness, is the only fountain of peace and love.

This is what began with Him and in Him, and in unity with the Father and the Spirit, is in the end what heals every sickness to which our mortal life is prone, and makes us, eternal.

Glory to God.