Daily Meditation: Thursday, December 4, 2014

Amends (making) for one’s mistakes - is the only way for the guilty to be freed

12/04/2014

It is good if someone who has acted wrongly recognizes their mistake and regrets it, but that is not enough. Even if the remorse and the tears that sometimes accompany it are a kind of purification, to be forgiven you have to make amends. You have wronged someone, and you go and offer your apologies. If they accept them, that’s fine, but you still have to repair the damage: only then will you be quits. Saying to someone you have wronged, ‘I’m so sorry, forgive me…’ is not enough, and divine law will pursue you until you have put right the wrong you have done. You will say, ‘But the person I wronged has forgiven me!’ No, the matter is not settled that easily – for the person is one thing, the law another. The person has forgiven you, that’s true, but the law, the divine law, does not; it pursues you until you have made amends. Of course, the person who forgives shows noble qualities and generosity. But the forgiveness does not settle the matter: forgiveness frees the victims, those who have been mistreated, wronged, but it does not free the guilty. The guilty have to free themselves by making amends.