My Dear Daughter,
I have always told you and your siblings that it is in one’s best interest to forgive. I even joke that it is a “selfish” act to forgive because in forgiving you are looking out for your best interest.
I recently came across an abridged version of what Pope Francis wrote about the place of forgiveness in the family. It beautifully outlines why “forgiving all things” are the best policy to apply in all our relationships as one journey through life on this earthly plane.
FAMILY – PLACE OF FORGIVENESS
There is no perfect family.
We do not have perfect parents,
We are not perfect,
We do not marry a perfect person or we do not have perfect children.
We have complaints from each other.
We are constantly disappointed.
There is no healthy marriage or a healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is vital to our emotional health and spiritual survival.
Without forgiveness, the family becomes an arena of conflict and a fortress of evil.
Without forgiveness, the family becomes sick.
Forgiveness is the asepsis of the soul, the purification of the spirit and the liberation of the heart.
He who does not forgive does not have peace in his soul or communion with God.
Evil is a poison that intoxicates and kills.
Keeping heartache in your heart is a self-destructive gesture. It’s autophagy.
Those who do not forgive are physically, emotionally and spiritually ill.
For this reason, the family must be:
- A place of life and not a place of death;
- A place of paradise and not a place of hell;
- A healing territory and not a disease;
- An internship of forgiveness and not guilt.
Forgiveness brings:
- Joy where sorrow has brought sadness
- Healing where sorrow has caused the disease.
A family is a place of support and not of gossip and slander of one another.
Shame those who plant evil about others.
We are family and not enemies.
When anyone is going through a challenge all they need is support.
Pope Francis.
My dear, please bear this in mind in all your dealings within the family and in your human relationships.
Love you always,
Dad.