Of course we should forgive others, even if they have committed atrocities. To say so is not simply to repeat a religious platitude. Health professionals will be the first to stress the connection between forgiveness and sanity (cfr. Helping Clients Forgive, by Richard Fitzgibbons M.D. and Robert Enright, Ph.D., APA Press).
The perplexing question is how can you do this? You realize how difficult it is when you come up against the anger of the families of victims crying out for vengeance.
The Sermon on the Mount that culminates with the command to love our enemies is full of the new and seemingly impossible logic of Jesus: turn the other cheek, if he asks for your coat, give him your shirt as well, etc. Only God's grace enables us to love those who persecute us, following the example of Jesus, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." The saints also show us the way.
We need to pray for supernatural strength to follow the way of forgiveness. And this is not unimportant in today’s world where so many crises (both family and international) have no solution if we don’t learn to forgive.
A particularly moving example of forgiveness is Thomas More, ex-Chancellor of England, unjustly condemned to death in 1535 by a court made up of men who, unlike himself, are terrified of standing up to King Henry VIII. He is to undergo a particularly gruesome execution (later commuted by the king to beheading) and he is asked if he has anything to say to the court. This is the transcript of his words, from the "Story of Thomas More" by John Farrow:
"More have I not to say, my Lords but that like as the Blessed Apostle St. Paul, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was present and consented to the death of St. Stephen, and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet be they now both twain holy saints in heaven and shall continue there friends together forever, so I verily trust, and shall therefore heartily pray, that, though your Lordships have been on earth my Judges to my condemnation, we may hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to our everlasting salvation. And thus I desire Almighty God preserve and defend the King's Majesty and to send him good Counsel."
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