My Course Reflection
A few months ago I started my freshman year here at St. John’s University. Although many of the other core classes I took proved to be useful and educational, I found myself extremely bored and unmotivated to go to almost all of my other classes (although I did).
I thought Theology would be just as long and tedious as the rest of my classes. Not really knowing what to expect, I figured, I would have to memorize some Scriptures, write a few papers, and listen to lectures. To my surprise, I walked into something totally different. Class became an interactive plethora of creative learning where everything I a majority of what I learned is actually applicable and helpful in my own life. I learned that like most of the rest of the world, I am far too concerned with materials things, and am extremely self-centered. I feel as though I benefited most from the group sharing project. When the day came to take the money to the covanent house, I was actually angry that I volunteered to be the one to take it because I didn't feel like going out to the city to take the money. But actually physically being at a place where homeless teenagers go when they come out of basically nothing made me realize that I have too much, I complain entirely too much, and I need to appreciate the most simple things that I have.
I learned about different components of Christian beliefs, about loving others, giving back to the community, caring for others, prestige and society's obsession with status and money, and much more. But I think the component that stuck with me the most is forgiveness. This is because forgiveness has been something I have always struggled with. I have always been the type to hold a grudge when someone does me wrong, or tries to harm me. I got into a confrontation with someone who lives in my residence hall, and I honestly had never been so angry in my life. I held a grudge against her for almost an entire month, but I have learned that forgiveness is freedom.
What is Forgiveness?
Forgiveness is the mental, emotional and/or spiritual process of ceasing to feel resentment, indignation or anger against another person for a perceived offense, difference or mistake.
Scripture
Matthew 5: 44
But I say to you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and despitefully use you
Luke 6: 28
"bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you..."
What forgiveness now means to me
Forgiveness is a healing journey for a person's body and soul. Forgiveness is the freedom of letting go. It is an act that changes us from prisoners of the past to liberated people at peace with our memories. Non-forgiveness keeps you in the struggle, especially when there is no future in the past. To forgive means to give up and let go. If you think about it, you can never live in the present and create a new exciting future yourself if you always remain stuck in the past. When we forgive, we are willing to give up resentment and revenge. Forgiveness is the key to our own happiness.
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
