2. Forgiveness! Christ taught us to forgive. He spoke of forgiveness many times and in various ways. 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" for "seven" is symbolic and means, rather than a specific quantity, an incalculable, infinite quantity. Responding to the question of how we 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 those who trespass against us" (= "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 spoken by the lips of a man who has been wronged. Indeed, it is the word of the human heart. In this word of the heart, each of us strives to overcome the barrier of enmity that can separate us from others, seeking to rebuild the inner space of understanding, contact and bond. Christ taught us with the words of the Gospel, and above all with his own example, that this space opens up not only before other people, but at the same time before God himself. The Father, who is a God of forgiveness and mercy, desires to act precisely in this space of human forgiveness. He desires to forgive those who are capable of forgiving one another, those who seek to put into practice those words: "Forgive us... as we forgive".
Forgiveness is a grace that must be considered with deep humility and gratitude. It is a mystery of the human heart that is difficult to explain.
5. Christ taught us to forgive. Forgiveness is also indispensable so that God can pose questions to the human conscience, questions to which He awaits an answer in all inner truth.
In this time, when so many innocent people are dying at the hands of other people, there seems to be 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, Creator and Lord of human life, asked of the first man who had attempted to take the life of his brother and had taken it from him — had taken what belongs only to the Creator and Lord of life.
Christ taught us to forgive. He taught Peter to forgive 'seventy times seven times' (Mt 18:22). God himself forgives when man responds to the question addressed to his conscience and to his heart with all the inner truth of conversion.
Leaving to God himself the judgement and sentence in its definitive dimension, we do not cease to ask: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors".
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 21 October 1981]
