As Paul writes, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

The right to be right is enjoying its moment—and perhaps understandably so. In a world reckoning with centuries of injustice—racial, gendered, colonial, religious—being right has become a kind of moral currency. We demand apologies from prime ministers and popes, from cardinals and authors, not just for personal wrongs but for collective wounds that have festered through generations. In this climate, forgiveness becomes even more radical—not as a denial of justice, but as a surrender to God. It calls us not to forget the past, but to yield our need to win. True forgiveness, like Christ’s own, costs us something. It’s not cheap grace. We lay down our right to be right to make room for mercy, which heals. It’s the mercy in the face of pain that heals.