The Force be with you!

The Force be with you!

In the final episode of George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, The Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker gets re-united with his father not by giving bent to his hatred but by resisting it and offering love and forgiveness. The dark side of the Force is defeated by the young Jedi’s love and bravery, instilled by his masters. The Force is with those who love and forgive.

In many epics, including the Hindu Bagavad Gita, bravery belongs to those who forgive, to those who offer love for hate.

Hanging on the cross in Calvary, Christ utters a prayer of forgiveness for the very people who have brought him excruciating pain and eventual death: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” These loving words summarize Christ’s basic attitude towards relationships.

Our Christian life is bound to be a journey of forgiveness. Fear and violence are to be confronted with the loving force of Christian forgiveness. Our Christian community has to be a community of the forgiven and the forgiving.

Let us consider this basic Christian option to become a forgiving person, just as Christ was forgiving until the last breath of his life. Let our attitude of forgiveness become our legacy to a world that is full of hatred and indifference. Let our forgiveness become not only an occasional act, but a permanent attitude.