Unconditional forgiveness in today's world is very rare. Besides the difficulties in forgiving our relatives and friends, we face even higher barriers forgiving our enemies.

Our pride is so that someone's smallest mistake is enough to make us furious.

Instead of understanding someone's moral weakness and trying to give him support for the painful remorse, we prefer to throw our rocks. Rocks of contempt, indifference, without measuring the consequences of such attitude.

Writer John Lageman tells us a story. It happened with a former prisoner, whose soul suffered the lack of understanding and abandonment from his relatives during all the time he was in prison.

All his relatives isolated him completely. No one ever wrote him a line. No one ever paid him a visit in prison.

It all happened when the man left prison under parole for good behavior and took a train home.

For a coincidence that only God can explain, the prison director sat next to him in the train.

As he was a sensitive person, he identified the preoccupation and anguish on the face of the person sitting next to him and politely said:

You seem very anxious! Would you like to chat a bit? Maybe it could ease your anxiety.

The former prisoner took a deep breath and embarrassed said: I am indeed very tense. I am going back home. I wrote to my family and asked them to put a white tape in an apple tree in the whereabouts of the train station in case they have forgiven me for my shameful acts.

 If they did not want me back, they should do nothing, in which case I will remain in the train and will travel to an unknown place.

His new friend realized how much that man was suffering. He suffered a double penalty: from society that put him in jail and from his family's abandonment.

He offered to look for the apple tree through the window, the tree that would decide his future.

Ten minutes later, he put his arm around the former prisoner and whispered:

There it is.

And in even lower voice:

I do not see one white tape in it.

After a pause, that seemed like an eternity, he went on to say:

... The apple tree is completely covered by white ribbons.

Forgiveness dissipated in that very moment all the bitterness that had poisoned this man for such a long time.

The poor man let all his tears pour down his face as to wash all the anguish that was in him until that moment.

*  *  *

The symbol of the white tapes as the unconditional forgiveness should be engraved in our minds. It should always remind us of Jesus' words:

Let he who is free of sin throw the first rock.

Who does not need forgiveness? Who never made a mistake, misjudged, or failed?

Reincarnation is itself a sign of God's unconditional forgiveness, offering us a new chance to rescue our debts and follow the right path of endless learning.

Spiritist Moment team based on story published
in the magazine Presença espírita, number 155.
February 09.2009.