E.

I see your problem with the other side of grace. It is fine for petty crimes and misdemeanors. Yet, when we encounter high crimes and personal loss, there is no repentance for such crimes. The deeper the crime against us, the more real and vivid, to the canonical Christian mind, hell must be. There has to be punishment for the vilest of them.

 

I have not been tested in this way. The most that has been done to me, I still remember, and the canker of hate has not receded, especially in my dark moments. I can only trust the light. I can only look at the received wisdom of the ages. I knew from watching those horrid Hollywood films of the eighties that vengeance is only mildly cathartic and does not truly deal with grief in any real way. The great command to forgive is not a lifeline to the crime or the criminal. It is the light caring more about you than the darkness it is actively ridding the world of forever.