I wish to consider with you something that each of us needs. There is not even one reader who can say, "Count me out, this is not meant for me." I want to look with you at the concept of forgiveness. "How basic, how ordinary, how unexciting," some may be thinking already. Hold everything, you might be one of many people who lacks a full understanding of this wonderful concept.

Back in the fourteenth century, a monk announced to the people of his village that he was going to preach the greatest sermon he had ever preached on the love of God. He begged everyone to come. At the appropriate hour the cathedral was filled with the old and the young. They went through the usual liturgy, and when it was time for the sermon, everyone was breathlessly awaiting the discou…