Free Bird

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  “. . . A light broke in upon my brain,—  It was the carol of a bird;  It ceased, and then it came again,  The sweetest song ear ever heard,  And mine was thankful till my eyes  Ran over with the glad surprise,  And they that moment could not see  I was the mate of misery.  But then by dull degrees came back  My senses to their wonted track;  I saw the dungeon walls and floor  Close slowly round me as before,  I saw the glimmer of the sun  Creeping as it before had done,  But through the crevice where it came  That bird was perched, as fond and tame,  And tamer than upon the tree;  A lovely bird, with azure wings,  And song that said a thousand things,  And seemed to say them all for me!  I never saw its like before,  I ne’er shall see its likeness more;  It seemed like me to want a mate,  But was not half so desolate,  And it was come to love me when  None ...

The One Who Forgives is the One Who Suffers

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“[A]n Irish friend of mine borrowed a sum of money from me. He had been gambling and was in danger of losing his job. He agreed to pay me back weekly installments, but never did. I felt annoyed whit the fellow for a couple of years. Finally I decided to forgive him. But who suffered? The debtor or the creditor? The sinner or the sinned against? Obviously the sinned against. I could have taken him to court, in the which case he have suffered. How much would he have suffered? The amount that he owed me! Instead I forgave him, and so I suffered; and I suffered the amount that he owed me, that I had forgiven him. Thus I learned a second principle of forgiveness---the one who forgives is the one who suffers.

Such reflections made the Cross more real to me. It was necessary for someone to suffer, for someone had to pay. But the one who forgives is the one who suffers, so it was necessary for Christ to suffer. Moses could hot have suffered the Cross, not Jeremiah, nor Peter, nor Paul. It had to be God, the only One who could forgive. And Christ Jesus was God made manifest in the flesh.”

J. Edwin Orr, Chapter 2, “Forgiveness of Sins” Full Surrender

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