Not that easy to say.

The other day I saw a quote that said, "Forgiveness was too easy." That quote has been troubling me for several days. My suspicion is that whoever said that had never tried it. In fact, my suspicion is that the speaker had probably never said "I'm sorry" either. Because while we try to believe that "sticks and stones may break our bones, and word can never harm us." Sticks and stones are a lot easier to take than to say or hearing certain words. The human interaction between saying "I am sorry" and "I forgive you" is probably the hardest human transaction.

Two powerful examples of the difficulty have been shown in recent movies. There was a movie, The Flash of Genius, about the man who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. He was so excited about his idea and he showed the big three auto industry. They smiled, stole his idea, and refused to do business with him. He fought in court for years, and the night before the jury would decide the companies offer him thirty million dollars to drop the suit. He refused. He said all he ever had wanted was for them to acknowledge that it was his idea, that they had stolen his idea, and they were sorry. They had refused. The jury found in his favor and he got twelve million dollars. But the auto industry never admitted the thief or apologized.

The current movie, Food, Inc, has the story of a woman who is advocating better food inspection and more health restriction on the food industry because her son Kevin died of ecoli bacteria. She and many others have been pushing a Kevin Law in congress. She said all she wants is for the food industry to admit that some of their food has problems and to say they are sorry. They have been fighting that law for years. It still has not passed.

But the same refusal to say "I'm sorry" and for the other to say "I forgive you" is seen in most divorce cases. The same refusal to apologize and to say "I'm sorry" and to forgive is seen in most parent-teenager estrangement. The same refusal to say "I'm sorry" is seen in the refusal of countries to ask forgiveness for starting wars or for invasions. Only recently has the Japanese government apologized for their part in World War II.

That the whole transaction of confession and forgiveness is not easy is part of the message of the Christian faith. If it had been easy to achieve, there would have been no need for a Cross.