forgiveness

Prodigal Daughter

by Charlie Mackesy (oil on canvas)

Belgravia Gallery

"Now what we have here is certainly human. But this is a humanity so complete that there is nothing like it on earth. Absence of any resentment, such a pure joy, compassion strong enough to make the Father run, love so constant in spite of a lack of response, these lead us to think that this is more than a human welcome. Extravagance, a characteristic of transcendence, reveals God the totally Other, but his otherness is described as overflowing humanity. The forgiveness of the Other as described in the Gospel allows us to discover that God alone is perfectly human.

When the Gospel speaks of forgiveness, it is with a joy and a lightness of touch which shows that this forgiveness comes from elsewhere. This forgiveness has nothing of our condecension. It humiliates no one. It reveals to every individual their immense value, and shame itself is overcome in the immeasurable joy created by the return of the sinner, the rejoicings of restored communion.

When Isaiah spoke of a God rich in forgiveness, several centuries before Christ, he immediately added: "my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways" (Isa 55:7). God is revealed as the Other, by the quality and immensity of his forgiveness."

- Brother Emile of Taizé on the forgiving father of the prodigal son