In a sense, it is a social therapy as it accepts the offender and rebuilds broken relationship.
One who does not care for forgiveness and wishes evil and downfall of the wrongdoer suffers from a troubled mind, e.g. a dying German soldier asked forgiveness for wrong done by him to the Jewish prisoner. The Jewish prisoner did not forgive. The German soldier died and the Jewish prisoner survived the war but the incident haunted his conscience all his life. “Unforgiveness is a heavy load to bear.”
There are different types of forgiveness: fake, frank and self-forgiveness.
Here is an example of fake forgiveness: “A man on a dying bed did not want to die with unforgiveness in his heart, so, he called Johnson, the man who had hurt him many times. The dying man forgave Johnson but as Johnson headed for the door, the dying man said, “Remember one thing Johnson; if I am cured from my sickness and I survive, I withdraw my forgiveness.” Here forgiveness has not occurred as it is not internal (I mean emotional) and it is not external (I mean behavioural).
I have also read about frank forgiveness: Mahatma K Gandhi forgave his assassin even as he was dying. The late Pope Paul II went to prison to offer forgiveness to Agca who had attempted to assassinate him in Vatican Square.
Sometimes, it is easy to forgive others than to forgive self for taking an ugly turn on the road of life. We must repent and if possible, we have to make amends for it. But persistent guilt feelings or self-criticism may lead some people to contemplate suicide with the feeling that they do not deserve to live. Persisting guilt feeling or self-criticism is healthy up to a point. But when it is cruel, one should get out of such feelings by taking it to the Lord in prayer; and make an attempt for self-acceptance and develop self-worth. “If God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting us up as a higher tribunal than Him,” said, CS Lewis.
Many people say that those who do not repent do not deserve forgiveness; for if such a person is forgiven, it would be like “giving him a second chance to commit the same thing over again.”
When we forgive, we experience a peace that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away from us. It works as a miracle medicine to enable spiritual healing of inner wounds. Forgiveness is a jewel worn by noble souls. I close in the words of Browning: “Good to forgive; best to forget.”
