We Need to Learn Forgiveness

The ancient Israelites were given a mantra by which they could steer themselves on a straight path to eternal bliss with God in heaven: “You shall love the Lord, your God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, with your whole soul and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Luke 10:27). When God’s divine Son became human and dwelt with us, He repeated this same mantra.

How wonderful the world would be if all of us followed that advice seriously and really put it into practice in our lives. There would be no strife, no stealing, no fights, no murders; best of all, there would be no war. We would almost have heaven on earth. The only grief humans would experience would be sickness and accidents. If we followed the two greatest commandments, is this too much to imagine?

Not Much Forgiveness in America

Today, we Americans experience hell on earth, all the time, every year, in every age group. It is especially true today when we are at each other’s throats accusing each other of responsibility for everything that has gone wrong in our country, even wrongs done in previous generations.

Why is that? This is exactly the opposite of what God wants. This generation is not responsible for what happened in past generations. Americans today did not experience the wars with Mexico and Spain. No one from our own Civil War is even alive today. God has long ago explained who the devil is and what the devil’s agenda is both in Scripture and through the inspired teaching of His Church, and he is at least the remote source of all this evil, past and present.

The Cause of Injustice

It was the devil who inspired some of our ancestors into enslaving the blacks. There were always some among our ancestors who argued against slavery, claiming that it was evil and wanted it stopped. There has always been evil operating among humans, and God wants all of it stopped. Dueling was widely practiced in the past, and some of our ancestors opposed it, especially the churches. Actually, every kind of evil was practiced by some humans in this world; none of it sanctioned by God, all of it stirred up by the devil.

We all gravitate toward evil because of concupiscence, the innate desire to do what we know God does not want us to do. We are all tempted to steal, to lie, to fight, sometimes even to kill. It’s bad enough that the devil tempts us. Concupiscence is an inner urge to do things offensive to God in one or more ways that become real challenges for us who are trying to live righteous lives. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and lust are the three temptations that plague a great deal of humanity.

Humans, due to original sin, have animal instincts, but we are not animals. God expects us to discipline ourselves to live morally correct lives according to His teaching. Too many Americans do not believe in God, do not love God, and far too many chose not to obey God. God revealed that the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. If you are one of those who does not believe in God, does not love Him, and refuses to obey Him, you are on the verge of being devoured by the devil.

Slavery, Our Predecessors’ Worst Error

The world displays evil because the devil is, as Jesus said in Scripture, the prince of this world. He devours us by tempting us. We should correct each other when we see one another doing wrong or actually being tempted through concupiscence. We all experience it. But we are not guilty if we just experience it. We are guilty only if we carry out evil conduct against others.

Why punish this generation for the slavery that was practiced 160 years ago. None of us today ever owned a slave. I look around and see black people excel in sports, in movies, in music, as doctors, as politicians, even as president of the United States. This is what really happened in our country. No other country has ever so completely overcome its racial divide as we have.

Accusing present-day Americans of unjustly interfering in the governing of other nations, attributing the most selfish motives to our own people, is totally unjust to us present-day Americans who have no guilt in causing this injustice. We should encourage other Americans, including ourselves, to try to make amends for the injustices done by earlier generations of Americans, but we should not be bashing one another.

American Conduct During World War II

I lived through WWII. I remember when America did not want to enter into that war. Then we got forced into it after Germany declared war on us and Japan attacked us. I was alive during the whole war. I saw what it cost America to go overseas and fight against the three aggressor nations. We brought them to defeat and generously helped the nations that suffered the most damage in the war, including the perpetrators of the war: Germany and Japan.

Even though everybody knew Germany and Japan started the war for selfish reasons, I saw what America and England and France did to help their enemies rebuild their countries. Only Russia wanted more after Germany was defeated, but I saw America come to Germany’s rescue with the Berlin Airlift.

The World Appreciates What America Has Done

Then America had to endure the Cold War to try to keep Russia at bay so more countries would be safe from Communist takeover. I lived through that whole period. I know what America did. And I am proud to be an American

After the war, I traveled to some countries for my job. I could see, in countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and England, how appreciative they were of what America did to preserve their freedom.

Bearing False Witness

There is another warning from God and also preached by Jesus and His Church: “You shall not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16). Bearing false witness against today’s Americans for what previous Americans did offends God as well as our fellow Americans. And it causes today’s citizens grief because they are blamed for something they did not do.

Why don’t we pull together and praise each other for what our country did that was right and try to correct the wrongs previous Americans inflicted on others?

Imagine what America would be like if we were willing to forgive others, and those who bear some guilt were repentant and willing to amend their ways. Prejudgment against anybody is morally wrong. And we all should try to discipline ourselves not to display prejudice.

If we were kind to others and treated them with respect, and especially if we all had the same understanding of the conduct that is required, like displaying, as Abraham Lincoln mentioned, charity for all, malice toward none, we certainly would have a much better and more peaceful life for all of us in America.

There are some difficulties in attaining this mindset in the American people today who were not present when our country started. At that time, almost all American were Christian. Their faith in Christianity kept them from delving into wicked activity much better than obedience to the laws of the state.

Loss of the Christian Mindset

Today fewer Americans believe in Christianity than during the time I grew up, and not as fervently as preceding generations. When they wrestle with how they should behave toward others, they are often not influenced by Christian principles. If they were, they could react to others in a more charitable way that leads to the diminishing of the chaos and argumentation we all see today.

There is a reason for this: liberals have eliminated the teaching of religion or ethics in public schools, not to mention the aggressive antagonism of our media toward religion. Literature, and movies are much more hostile to Christian principles than in earlier years. Television shows and movies portray fictional American criminals that are so hateful towards law and order that nothing makes them feel contrite for what they do. Almost without exception, recent liberal policies assure that criminals are handled with kid gloves making sure their rights are not violated while the police are trying to curb their criminal activity.

This makes for exciting action-packed fiction, but in the absence of any wholesome training in morality and ethics, it gives the American people, especially our youth, the wrong message about the cause of crime. Nobody has the right to commit crime, like murder, rape, robbery, and contempt for our legitimate laws. If our youth do not see examples in our literature and entertainment of decent people adhering to fair laws, they will finally begin to show contempt for self-motivation to obey well-conceived law themselves.

The result of what we are doing is that whole generations of American youth grow up without exposure to Christian principles. We should make an effort to teach morality and ethics in families and schools. We cannot leave it to our entertainment industry because they are pursuing money-making exciting dramas and not teaching right from wrong.

Our youth should learn religion from their parents at home, but our homes are destroyed by the high divorce rate. The result is too many children growing up with a single parent who has to work to support the children but who also find it hard to find time to teach their children these values.

Divorcees who remarry can provide homes with two parents, but the parent who is not the biological parent cannot bond as well as the biological parent can. This destruction of the nuclear family leads to the general loss of Christian principles forming the minds of our children, and it is the cause of the present very serious division of the American mindset.

Conclusion

We need to fall back on our Christian roots. It is our former adherence to Christian principles that made the America of previous generations the envy of the world. The charitableness of previous generations of America set the standard for the whole world. Slavery was abolished by Americans who were outraged that it was practiced in our country. The Americans who fought the war to abolish slavery endured many hardships and costs to finally rid our country of the scourge of slavery.

We have today 1.7 million immigrants who already fled to America to participate in what our predecessors built, while at the same time we are encouraged by certain sectors of America to drift away from the Christian mindset that inspired previous generations to make America the great country the whole world admires.

Today we also have huge masses of disgruntled Americans who protest against God for being male chauvinist and being someone who does not support women’s rights to have their own children aborted. Won’t these migrants be disappointed if the progressive left destroys what made America great right in front of their eyes?

Those who endured so much grief, danger, and exploitation to get here might, if Christianity fails in this country, think that they escaped the frying pan only to jump into the fire.