Forgiveness

"The final wisdom of life requires, not the annulment of incongruity, but the achievement of serenity within and above it.

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be completed by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be made whole by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are fulfilled by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be healed by the final form of love, which is forgiveness."

Reinhold Niebuhr in The Irony of American History

[COVENANT, Number 16, December 2003]