Forgiveness is
never easy when one does not see or sense remorse in the perpetrator’s eyes.
Yet to be above
them in moral judgement we need to think first, could it have been any of us in
that person’s place when the deed was committed.
The crimes might
be those of abuse from one to another, yet it is the harshness of the crime,
which is where we all must look and learn.
To see if we also had a hand in that crime to a lesser extent and, if so,
do we not warrant forgiveness when the time is right?
Many people do
not actually do the crime themselves, but are equally guilty by their complicit
actions by not preventing it when they had the chance to do so. We often say we were not involved or we knew
it was happening, but chose to turn a blind eye.
This is more
often the case when we actively know abuse is taking place, yet we chose to do
nothing, hoping it would all go away and we won’t be asked to take action in
its prevention.
When the full realisation comes in that we were complicit in the crime, then we have to search our own feelings and ask for forgiveness and begin to show genuine remorse.
If not, then we
can’t expect to be forgiven. We become
as guilty as the perpetrator who committed the crime.
When will we
start to learn that we all must take personal responsibility and, when we see a
wrong being committed, we must do the right thing and go to that person’s
defence.
It is when we all stand together that crimes will have no place in our society, because society will not tolerate these conditions, so we begin to breed a better, more robust and healthy society, where care and attention is given to all and collectively we can all take part in building a safe and healthy society, where all gain and where forgiveness is not required.
Jenny Ayers
Thursday, 26th June 2014
