Forgive Me

It is equally if not more difficult to accept forgiveness than it is to forgive. That is because it involves a self-reckoning of one's trespass, and that of the virtue of the pardoner, who for what is worth has on other occasions lapsed in his own honour but at present stands trustily. It is even more difficult when he has not, or is kind and just, or both. The uncloaking of one's fallen nature to face the stainless hope of redemption therefore requires nothing less than a miracle of the heart and will. As Herbert Prochnow rightly counter-quoted, "To err may be human, but to admit it isn't." Humility, it seems, is humanity's rarest and most precious trait.