Should We Forgive Hamas?

We are told we must if we are to be forgiven ourselves.

Jesus crying

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve spent the past year reading and reviewing the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” with the “Catechism in a Year” podcast, with Fr. Mike Schmitz.

As of this writing, we are two episodes away from completing the entire book. The last section has been on the life of prayer, and the very last part of that is a review of the Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father” taught by Christ himself to his disciples. An aspect of the prayer that struck me was “the catch” about our asking forgiveness for our sins—we must also forgive those who have harmed us.

Let’s review an extremely hard scenario right off the bat. Imagine being a family member of a victim of Hamas’ recent horrors. As has actually happened to many families, imagine your daughter was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and then brutally murdered. The hatred in your heart, understandably, would be humanly insurmountable to overcome. Even so, it’s hard to imagine why we would need to forgive such monsters, especially since Hamas is not even asking for forgiveness. In fact, they are quite proud of what they did.

Ismail Haniyeh screaming with rage

Yet, that’s exactly what God asks us to do, if we want our own transgressions to be forgiven. According to the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Let’s take a far less difficult case, my own. I’m probably like many who never had enemies on the level of Hamas terrorists, but I’ve had certain individuals in my past who’ve caused me some harm.

One example I can think of was a particularly awful man who employed me for a little under a year. He was horrible to work for, being mercurial in temperament and a textbook micro-manager (all of which he somehow managed to hide from me in the job interview process).

people bowing before a giant idol of a man in a business suit

He ran the office much like a cult, expecting all who worked for him to “check in” with him at least once every day. He breezed in about 10 a.m., made known by the receptionist’s continual blaring summons over the building’s intercom system for people to report to his office. He fired people regularly and often reduced women to tears after angrily dismissing them from his presence. Often being on the receiving end of his malice myself, I was in a state of agony for most of the time I worked there, and yet, I felt like I had to stay for the sake of paying the family bills.

When he finally fired me too, I was stunned and angry for a few moments, but then a great feeling of relief actually came over me. Come what may, this particular agony in my life was over. Over time, I have forgiven him, even though he never asked for it. I did so for the sake of “The Lord’s Prayer” but also because I did not want to harbor my resentment at the man in my heart. This did me no good to do that.

As the Catechism states:

“Love, like the body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother and sister we can see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.”

And yet, the experience has lingered with me. It comes out like PTSD when I’m under heavy job stress. My forgiving the man did not make it all better, but I am given the occasion to renew my forgiveness. It also reminds me that I myself have caused harm to people I knew at other times of my life. I am often ashamed to think of how I treated certain people in my youth. I cannot go back and make it all better; I can only pray for those I hurt, and hope that they forgive me for my trespasses.

So, like most of us, I’ve been a victim of trespasses against me, but also the one in need of forgiveness for my trespasses against others. I forgive my enemies just as I hope those I harmed may forgive me.

Back to the victims of Hamas. It is not humanly possible to forgive such evil, and I could not manage to do it by myself. However, as the Catechism instructs: “…with God all things are possible.”

We need to take God at his word. Forgive and we will be forgiven.

Jesus smiling as people walk into heaven

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Editor’s Note: Alec and I come from different Christian traditions — he Catholic and I Protestant — and while we enjoy debating our theological differences, I strongly agree with him here and have planned to write on this same theme too myself. Expect a reflection on these ideas soon from me too. Thank you

Alec Joseph Ott

for reminding us of this important spiritual truth as we prepare for the new year - DS