Repentance and Forgiveness

Forgiveness. Who truly understands the meaning behind forgiveness? The dictionary defines “forgive” as to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake. However, is that all it really takes to forgive? Forgiveness is a conceptually, psychologically, and morally complex phenomenon that seems to bring forth a different understanding in each individual. In contradistinction to the general idea of forgiveness of another person’s wrongdoing, there is also the internal debate whether self-forgiveness is warranted when you yourself has committed a wrongdoing on another. Together, my views on forgiveness and self-forgiveness must coincide or I would look at myself as nothing less than a hypocrite. In the hardest of situations, to forgive seems almost unthinkable; however, granting forgiveness is crucial because the internal struggle that comes along with not forgiving is damaging to oneself, the pain inflected on the wrongdoer can only be lessened with the blessing of forgiveness, and last due to religious beliefs on forgiving. The hurt someone causes you, whether it be physical or emotional pain, is often sometimes so hard to bare that it can cause a resentment and anger towards the wrongdoer. When I think of being hurt by someone, there are too many scenarios that run through my head to even imagine how I would possibly react to all of them. However, the extrema of wrongdoings that could be done upon me are always what seem to stick out in my head. There is always the lower end of the scale, that I would never think twice about holding a grudge about. In contrast, I imagine the upper end and think of someone harming my family or close friends and the first thought that comes to my mind is that I would myself want to hurt that person. However, with much thought and after watching the film on the power of forgiveness in class I began to reconsider my own views on forgiveness. A recent fight with my roommate was the first