"More than just the passive suffering of an innocent person, the passion of Christ is the agony of a tortured soul and wrecked body offered as a prayer for the forgiveness of the torturers. No doubt, such prayer adds to the agony of the passion. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw clearly, forgiveness itself is a form of suffering . . . ; when I forgive I have not only suffered a violation but also suppressed the rightful claims of strict restitutive justice. Under the foot of the cross we learn, however, that in a world of irreversible deeds and partisan judgments redemption from the passive suffering of victimization cannot happen without the active suffering of forgiveness." (Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 125)

"The active suffering of forgiveness" - I think this is deeply true. How hard it is at times to give up our desires for vengeance, making the other feel pain as we have felt, or even for visible justice, seeing the other punished for wrongs done to us. But there are times when justice here on earth is not possible. This doesn't give us an excuse to pardon injustice, but we must also recognize that our own puny ideas of what justice looks like are not equivalent to God's justice. Is it possible to forgive those who do not even acknowledge they have done wrong, who on the contrary are deeply convinced that they are the victims? I think it is, but it is only possible in Christ.

"When one knows that the torturer will not eternally triumph over the victim . . . , one is free to rediscover that person's humanity and imitate God's love for him [sic]. And when one knows that God's love is greater than all sin, one is free to see oneself in the light of God's justice and so rediscover one's own sinfulness." (124)

That's exactly the point - none of us are fully innocent. Ever. Once again, this does not excuse injustice, but it also should relativize our "righteous indignation." I am never in a position to judge and condemn another, for we are all equal as we fall at the foot of the cross. Handing over my demand for justice to the One who is completely Just, completely Loving -- this is the painful power of forgiveness.