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One of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories begins with this scene. Madrid is full of boys named Paco, diminutive of the name Francisco. A father came to Madrid and inserted an advertisement in the personal columns of El Liberal which said: PACO MEET ME AT HOTEL MONTANA NOON TUESDAY ALL IS FORGIVEN PAPA. A squadron of Guardia Civil had to be called out to disperse the 800 young men who answered the ad. Forgiveness is a central and prominent theme of the teaching of Jesus. And as Ernest Hemingway’s story illustrates, it’s also a ubiquitous human preoccupation, and often a haunting aspect of our relationships; a seemingly unreachable goal for many of us as we make our way through life. The Bradford science teacher Vincent Uzomah, who is still recovering from being stabbed by one of his 14 year old pupils said to the waiting press outside court this week “As a Christian, I have forgiven this boy; I feel for him – that’s what he knew – violence”. Something which is remarkable, given too that the boy’s boasting of his crime on social media received 69 “likes” from his circle of acquaintances. Mr Uzomah has said he doesn’t know if he will ever be able to return to teaching. But for me, by speaking in the way that he has, he has simply been the teacher that he is – for all of us listening to him and wondering if we could do the same. Over the years, Christian teaching about forgiveness has sometimes been twisted into a teaching of submission – that the abused must forgive their abusers, the beaten must forgive those who continue to beat them. This has been hugely damaging and is a distortion of what forgiveness means. To forgive, in the Christian tradition, does not mean being a punchbag. To be forgiving is a life-long enterprise. And there is deep wisdom in the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus linked our own sense of being forgiven by God with the prayer that we might be able to forgive others, because it demands of us that we take seriously our own need for forgiveness ourselves. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Mr Uzomah’s attitude towards the boy that caused him and his family such trauma is inspirational in the face of an act of extreme violence. For the rest of us, the events of this day, as every day, will bring with them a host of opportunities to practise our own courage, and present us with decisions to forgive or not as we choose. Because the truth is too, that the strength it takes to forgive other people is rooted in part in our willingness to forgive ourselves. Note: Ernest Hemingway “The Capital of the World” The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway New York Charles Scribner’s Sons 1987 p 29.