Forgiveness doe not mean condoning what has been done. It means taking what has happened seriously; drawing out the sting in the memory that threatens to poison our entire existence. It involves trying to understand the perpetrators and so have empathy, to try to stand in their shoes and to appreciate the sort fo pressures and influences that might have brought them to do what they did.
Forgiving has even been found to be good for you.
Forgiveness means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin, but it is a loss which liberates the victim.
Desmond Tutu – 0712604855
From the book “No future without forgiveness”