"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.
Jesus' prayer requires you to practice forgiveness.
But this is more than just a tit for tat kind of forgiveness. And it is not a "Get Out of Jail Free" brushing it all off kind of forgiveness. And it's certainly not a self-sacrificing "it's always all my fault" kind of forgiveness either. It is something much more than that.
Mrs. Eddy's spiritual sense of this verse is "Love is reflected in love." That gives you a strong sense that something much deeper is going on when true forgiveness really happens. There is a divine law at work. The law that Love, God, is always reflected in love - in love expressed, in love made manifest, in love that has an impact, in love that awakens.
OK so maybe you're asking if God, good, is the source of all being, then what is it that needs forgiveness? What is it that needs redemption? What is it that needs correction? Certainly not God's creation! but our view of it - and hence our experience of it - does.
Doesn't the belief in duality, the dream of life in matter (matter as limitation, separation, personal "ego", sin, sickness, death) constantly suggest that there are evil people? evil circumstances? fatal errors? terminal mistakes? lost hopes? horrible tragedies? a world full of evil and hatefulness needing to be corrected, redeemed, forgiven?
Yes.
And the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is asking you to experience does not ignore evil. But it does ask you to raise up your point of view. It does ask you to look at the world with a holier perspective. It does ask you to see the way Love, God, sees.
Mrs. Eddy expressed it this way:
The kingdom of God is intact? universal? and man is pure and holy? Huh?
Not to your limited human way of seeing things. But consider this: Suppose you are asleep and you have a dream. And in this dream a friend does something wrong, maybe even evil, to you. In the dream you might get upset, angry, maybe even try to get even.
But then your alarm goes off and you wake up.
Do you then start praying to forgive this dream of wrong-doing? No. You of course realize that it was just a dream. Your friend was completely innocent. And nothing had ever actually happened to offend or hurt you. You see the entire experience for what it is: a dream, an illusion, a misconception. You would never hold a grudge against your friend because of what happened in a dream. By waking up, you realize not only that you are safe, but also that your friend is innocent.
This hints at the healing way Jesus saw those around him. Where you may see a debtor, a tresspasser - an enemy, Jesus beheld in Science (in the spiritual Truth of Being) - what?
God's own likeness.
Right where you see someone (or maybe even yourself) needing to be forgiven, right there - in spiritual truth - is God's own likeness, God's own activity, God's own reality.
And in God's own reality, there is nothing to forgive.
This may seem at first to be counter-intuitive. It may seem like you're just trying to mask over the evil in the world, the hurtfulness others to do you - and that you do to yourself and to others. And yes, the world is constantly parading a showcase of evil being done everywhere in the world.
And here in his prayer, Jesus is asking you to forgive. Why?
Jesus saw all creation as God sees it: perfect. But he never shied away from calling a spade a spade - of denouncing evil whenever and wherever it showed it's hideous malicious face. What Jesus never did however was make evil a reality that could overpower him, that could manipulate him, that could cause him to act in turn like evil. He never strayed from acting like God's Likeness, like God's Son, like Christ.
And though in spiritual reality there is nothing to forgive, Jesus knew that for those deep in the human dream of good-and-evil, there is an enormous power in forgiveness. He knew that forgiveness is a spiritual alarm clock. It wakes you up. It stirs you to reconsider things. To ponder who it is that actually needs forgiveness. It prompts you to start loving the way God loves, unconditionally. And most importantly, it alerts you that you are dreaming. Dreaming of personal egos. Dreaming of multiple minds. Dreaming, instead of adoring the one infinite God, good, and His perfect spiritual creation.
And by just yielding to the idea of forgiveness you are forced to reconsider everything. Maybe you need as much forgiveness as the one you think is in the wrong! Maybe you begin to understand the value of the way Jesus beheld everyone. Maybe you become a little bit more like him. Begin to see the value of looking with new eyes. To open yourself to that intuitive sense that there is actually something more going on. That Love, God, is expecting to be reflected in the love you express.
There is an awakening spiritual Truth right where the dream of wrong seems to be. There is something Good right where evil seems to be. There is God's own likeness right where "sinning mortal man" seems to be. God's own likeness is actually all that's really there. And Jesus proved beyond any doubt that his correct view actually forgives - corrects, redeems, heals - you and anyone from any seemingly evil experience. God and God's likeness are Love and love expressed - nothing to forgive, but everything to rejoice in.
Jesus knew that God's creation is perfect, whole, healthy, holy. And he did more than just know it philosophically or intellectually. He knew it practically. He healed every instance of sin, sickness, and death that he encountered. His "correct view" is God's view - and the healing impact his view had on the world is still shaking and awakening and redeeming - claiming for God what is His. And that is all of creation.
Your part in this is to follow him, to shake up your own perspective, to wake up! and to forgive.
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive those we think are in debt to us." Love is always reflected in love because all is Love and its infinte manifestation, for Love is All-in-all.
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