The concept of forgiveness is one of the central elements of the Christian life, seen as the act of, condition of, or disposition toward pardoning sin. Given new expression by Jesus and closely associated with the atonement theology developed by St. Paul, forgiveness became a characteristic of the early church and, according to the Acts of the Apostles (10:43), a hallmark of belief in the founder through whom the forgiveness of sins is assured.
The Greek verb aphi mi (to forgive) is used over 140 times in the New Testament, although comparatively little in the letters of St. Paul. Jesus’ own discourses on forgiveness are plentiful. The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), in which believers petition God to “forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us” (verse 12), is given further emphasis by Jesus, who exhorts and cautions that if forgiveness is withheld, then the heavenly Father will not forgive (verses 14-15). So important is the need to forgive, at least in the context of the gospels, that in reply to Peter’s question about how frequently one should forgive, Jesus counsels forgiving seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:21-35). The gratuitous nature of forgiveness, however, is tempered by reasonability. Jesus recognizes that contumacy in sin is unforgivable (Matthew 16:19; 18:15-18), as is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29), and even while modeling the necessity of forgiveness, he is firm in his insistence that one’s sins should not be repeated (John 8:11). The remission of sins is sometimes allied with the question of the power of the keys, by which clergy are delegated by Christ to withhold forgiveness, and hence deny access to the Kingdom of Heaven, if there is proper warrant.
If forgiveness is seen as a means toward community-building among Jesus’ followers, it is accelerated and broadened by the theological understanding of his death. Forgiveness is not rendered without penalty. St. Paul finds redemption through Jesus’ blood sacrifice (Eph-esians 1:7; Col 1:14), a propitiatory act, and the author of the letter to the Hebrews concurs (Hebrews 9:22), noting that this sacrifice is done once for all (Hebrews 10:12-18).
Gradually the fathers of the church began to formulate rituals for the forgiveness of sins and linked this to public penances. Monastic rules contributed to these displays, which sought to cultivate holy lives. By late antiquity, auricular confession was standard practice. Church councils elaborated both the theory and method of forgiveness and the scholastic theologians articulated its logic. The casuist tradition in Christian moral theology looked for ways in which forgiveness might be obtained by penitents. Reformers in the sixteenth century decried the Catholic doctrine of indulgences, the temporal remission of punishment for sins already forgiven by God. For the first time, the Council of Trent (1551) not only enshrined the practice of confession as a sacrament for the universal Church, but also directed that all the faithful who had reached the age of reason perform it once yearly.
Today forgiveness has ecumenical and social import. The mutual lifting of anathemas between Catholics and the Orthodox is one step toward ecclesial unity. One particularly rich ceremony of the Jubilee—an international coalition movement in over forty countries calling for cancellation of unpayable third world debt by the year 2000—dubbed the “Day of Forgiveness,” came on March 12, 2000, during the penitential season of Lent. There Pope John Paul II begged forgiveness from God for the sins committed by members of the church, and particularly sins committed in the name of the church. As recently as May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI echoed his predecessor in this regard. The wave of forgiveness launched in various ways by the churches has spilled over into the social realm, where its pastoral efficacy is seen in such organizations as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, among other similar programs. As a means of promoting peace, forgiveness heals those wounds created by civil strife through remorse of the guilty, the public acknowledgment of their crimes, and final confrontation and healing by victims.
