2. Forgiveness! Christ taught us to forgive. Many times and in various ways He spoke of forgiveness. When Peter asked him how many times he should forgive his neighbour, "up to seven times?", Jesus replied that he should forgive "up to seventy times seven" (Mt 18:21f). This means, in practice, always: in fact, the number "seventy" times "seven" is symbolic, and means, rather than a determined quantity, an incalculable, infinite quantity. Responding to the question of how one should pray, Christ uttered those magnificent words addressed to the Father: "Our Father who art in heaven"; and among the requests that make up this prayer, the last one speaks of forgiveness: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them" to those who are guilty towards us (= "to our debtors"). Finally, Christ himself confirmed the truth of these words on the Cross, when, turning to the Father, he pleaded: "Forgive them!", "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).
"Forgiveness" is a word uttered from the lips of a man to whom evil has been done. Indeed, it is the word of the human heart. In this word of the heart, each of us strives to overcome the frontier of enmity, which can separate him from the other, seeks to rebuild the inner space of understanding, of contact, of bonding. Christ taught us by the word of the Gospel, and above all by his own example, that this space opens not only before the other man, but at the same time before God himself. The Father, who is God of forgiveness and mercy, desires to act precisely in this space of human forgiveness, desires to forgive those who are reciprocally capable of forgiveness, those who seek to put into practice those words: 'forgive us... as we forgive'.
Forgiveness is a grace, to be thought of with deep humility and gratitude. It is a mystery of the human heart, about which it is difficult to diffuse.
5. Christ taught us to forgive. Forgiveness is also indispensable so that God can pose questions to the human conscience, to which he awaits answers in all inner truth.
At this time, when so many innocent men perish at the hands of other men, it seems to impose a special need to approach each of those who kill, to approach them with forgiveness in our hearts and with the same question that God, the Creator and Lord of human life, put to the first man who had made an attempt on his brother's life and had taken it away from him - had taken away what is the property only of the Creator and Lord of life.
Christ taught us to forgive. He taught Peter to forgive "unto seventy times seven" ( Mt 18:22). God himself forgives when man answers the question addressed to his conscience and heart with all the inner truth of conversion.
Leaving judgement and judgment in its definitive dimension to God himself, we do not cease to ask: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 21 October 1981]
