May this Lenten season “prepare our hearts” to receive God’s forgiveness and to forgive others as God forgives, that is, by forgetting our neighbours’ faults. Pope Francis said this during the Mass he celebrated at Casa Santa Marta today, focusing his remarks on the way God forgives as opposed to how we forgive. “When God forgives, His forgiveness is so great that it is as if He forgets”, he explained, “which is the opposite of what we do, with our gossiping: ‘But this person has done this, has done that…’, we know the old, ancient, medieval and contemporary history of many people, and we do not forget. Why? Because we do not have a merciful heart”. “In the Our Father, we pray: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’”, Pope Francis recalled. “It is an equation in which the two parts go together. If you are not able to forgive, how can God forgive you? He wants to forgive you, but He will not be able to if your heart is closed, because mercy cannot enter. ‘But Father, I forgive, but I cannot forget that nasty turn that that person did me…’. Well, ask the Lord to help you to forget’: but this is another matter. We can forgive, but we cannot always forget. However, we should never ‘forgive’ and then ‘retaliate’, never! We should forgive as God forgives: to the utmost. With a mercy that “forgets”, with compassion and forgiveness, the Pope stressed, adding that “that heartfelt forgiveness which we receive from God is always mercy”. “May Lent prepare our hearts to receive God’s forgiveness; let us receive it and give it to others: let us forgive heartily!”, Pope Francis exclaimed. “Perhaps you never greet me, but in my heart, I have already forgiven you. In this way, we get closer to that thing so great which is God’s mercy”. “Forgiveness opens our hearts so that God’s mercy may enter and forgive us”, Pope Francis concluded. “All of us need forgiveness, and need to ask for forgiveness, all of us! Let us forgive, and we shall be forgiven! Let us be merciful with others, and we shall feel that mercy of God, who forgives and also forgets”.