Womanist theologian Karen Baker-Fletcher describes forgiveness as a source of healing that can help break repetitive cycles of hatred and violence.
Forgiveness is grounded in love that demands justice. Forgiveness is a God-given grace that frees the sinned against to pray for the salvation of sinners to free the world from further hatred, violence, and desecration. Forgiveness is … the act of desiring divine overcoming of evil while also desiring the salvation of those who have been seduced by it. Forgiveness is grounded in a tough divine love that prays for the power of righteousness to persuasively, powerfully move sinners into righteousness against all visible odds so that evil is overcome.
In contrast, hatred desires the permanent annihilation of the other. Hatred has a negative capacity to infect the souls of well-meaning people of faith and the faithless alike when they are on the receiving end of sin. Hatred tempts the hated to hate. Forgiveness frees the sinned against, liberating them from continuing the cycle of hatred they have experienced. The pain of woundedness in forgiveness does not simply evaporate. That would be a denial of creaturely and divine humanity. To the contrary, the pain remains but is transformed into the healing force of compassion for a deeply wounded world and to joy wherever a witness to healing appears. [1]
Through their work in social justice movements, embodiment teacher Prentis Hemphill names the inherent strength of a conscious act of forgiveness.
Forgiveness and grace have much more to offer any culture than we give them credit for. They are rare sightings these days, yet where I have seen them, when I’ve been offered them, I realize that they are not the weak, pitiful emotions of people who don’t value themselves. They are the generous gift of people who know their worth cannot be diminished or compromised. When we offer grace or forgiveness, we refuse the false correlation between our worth and actions. But I’m not speaking about the kind of grace or forgiveness that coddles or panders. We don’t forgive out of our own desperation for another person; we forgive to invite one another back into our highest selves, back into our commitments. There is an acknowledgement that someone has been wronged or hurt, and forgiveness extends the possibility of trying again. I have struggled my way through forgiveness and grace, just as most of us struggle with them because of how often our hearts have been broken and how often we’ve been betrayed. I think it’s important for us to heed the warnings. Maybe eventually we can all learn to forgive far and wide, the way religions have taught. But for me to think of it that way is too tall an order. Maybe now we only need to forgive close in, nearby: the people in our families and our communities, the people we struggle alongside. Rather than denounce mercy, we try it in small doses. From there maybe forgiveness and grace spread and cover us, become more of the air we breathe. [2]
References:
[1] Karen Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2006), 113–114.
[2] Prentis Hemphill, What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World (New York: Random House, 2024), 173–174.
Image credit and inspiration: Riho Kitagawa, Kintsugi pottery (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Kintsugi is the artform of repairing a break with gold; we allow the pottery to move forward in grace and beauty, not by discarding or erasing, but by transforming the break into art.
Story from Our Community:
For me, mysticism manifests in everyday interactions with others. By fully participating in the endless opportunities to love and forgive others—and myself—I am really saying “yes” to the depth of my life. I see life as both a pilgrimage and privilege with guidance and comfort from the Holy Spirit along the way.
—John M
