Forgiveness Part 6
November 8, 2025
Forgiveness Part 6
None of us alive today personally carried out the great injustices of our history. We did not commit the genocide of Native Americans, enforce Jim Crow laws, or place Japanese Americans in camps. We did not enslave people as property. Yet, we all live in a world that in part, those acts created.
We are, each of us, the living result of our ancestors. Our very DNA proves it. We would not be here without every grandmother and grandfather, and theirs, known and unknown. We grew from the tree of their bodies. That tree is just one of countless other trees stretching back through history, even to prehistoric times.
All that has advanced human life, science, medicine, technology, and the expansion of human rights has been made possible by each generation building upon the next. Layer upon layer of collective sacrifice, creativity, and struggle built our world.
Yet just as we inherit our ancestors’ achievements, we also inherit their failures. Today’s justice systems, economies, and cultural values were born of what came before, both light and shadow. To deny this is to deny our story. We are the collective fruit of both the glory and the wounds of our collective past.
So, a profound question arises: if we gladly claim collective credit for our collective achievements built upon the shoulders of our ancestors, how might collective forgiveness help us heal from our collective wrongs that also were born from each generation of forebears?
Spiritual practice: Explore The Book of Forgiving (2014) by Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho Tutu. They distill the wisdom of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into a four-step path of forgiveness for individuals and communities alike. Journal your thoughts about what collective forgiveness might mean for you.
Self-inquiry: How might collective forgiveness inform our current disputes among our collectives? Do you carry a sense of collective sorrow, regret, or even guilt? If so, how might the steps of forgiveness be beneficial?
Prayer:
Dear God, In a world of growing tension, where old wounds still ache, please help us heal the injustices of the past. Let forgiveness flow through us, so that we may not repeat the crimes of history. Amen.
