Unusual Channel
By Ma. Renette B. Uy

Forgive and forget

“Love your friends, no matter who they are.” Is that an understatement or what?   What if they betrayed you? How can you love another person when you hate them so much? How is that possible? Or is it really possible? Geez, one has to be really a saint to do that, huh! How about this one… “love your enemies, no matter what”… are you dense? Ah huh, what was that about enemies? Love or hate them? Easy to hate, huh! But how difficult is it really to love someone you really hate?

How far can you forgive someone? I remember several years back, there is this person who caused me so much pain, so much betrayal that I felt if not only that I hate cockroaches and I know there's a lot inside a prison cell; geez, I would have wring this person's neck in an instant for making my life miserable then. This person was a friend and became someone really special to me. How is it possible for this person I thought I knew then to hurt me and not think of the friendship? And as if it's not enough it just happened to me again. A good friend, or so I thought, betrayed me. Sometimes I wonder why these things keep happening to me. If I were not a renewed person I would have believed that I must have been bad in my past life and this is karma. But since I am a renewed person, these days, I look at it instead as my spiritual purification. I have to see and experience these sort of people so that I may learn from them and hopefully do not make the same mistake; that, I may learn and understand them instead, and not judge or cast them away; that, I may learn to forgive this person than to continue hating her; and that in forgiving I will be released from any heartbreak and from the bondage of the sin of unforgiveness. For some, it may seem easy. For me it is… hey, I am not a saint and I guess I have no intentions to be one though that is not a bad idea. I am still “me” after all, all human and would always justify my doings. That's not a bad thing but it is not a good thing also. Confusing? Doesn't make sense, huh? Oh well, we live in a cruel, worldly plane.

I still go through the pain of betrayal and forgiveness seem remote because of the hurt I feel. Every time I feel this way, I try to think of how God can be compassionate and forgiving to all His children on earth. There is this song entitled, “The Prayer” by Josh Groban and Charlotte Church and there is this line that says, “Lead us to a place guide us with Your grace to a place where we will be saved… give us faith so we will be saved.”   I said to myself, let this be my prayer every time I feel pain, every time I feel lost and do not know how to deal with things that happen to me. That in my moment of prayer, I will be like a child praying, asking for guidance and hoping that my prayer will be granted by the Holy Father. That, I should see things the way God saw it. And that, in the same way I commit sin and ask for forgiveness shall I also learn how to forgive.

Betrayal is painful but like Jesus when He was about to go through His sufferings and passion, He asked all His apostles to join Him on His table and eat. He fed them despite knowing one of them will deny Him and one of them will betray Him. How compassionate and forgiving He is so why can't I be like Him? How hard can it be, knowing in the end I will be saved because I have forgiven? Of course, for the love of God I must learn to forgive and forget.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”