Sir, - Blasphemy aside (Vincent Browne's dismissal of the Lord's Prayer as `pious gobbledegook" (The Irish Times, January 10th), raises some interesting issues. However, he misses the point. In deliberating over the particular passage which he quotes - "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" - he poses the question:
Why, if the world's starving do not hold him personally accountable as a privileged Westerner for some culpability in the West's denial to them of its surplus food (implicitly forgiving him in the process), is he not, then, obliged to forgive his own personal betrayer and tormentor, the loathsome Jack? He posits: "Because it's different."
Wrong. It's not different. Indeed, it is far easier to grapple theoretically with the indirect sin of wealth in the face of poverty - and the associated guilt - than it is to deal with and confront the more uncomfortable and personal issues that arise in our own immediate relationships. The frightening thing about this particular petition in the Lord's Prayer is what it translates as: "Only forgive us to the extent that we are willing to forgive others": that is what we are beseeching each time we say the words.
Thus, by refusing to forgive, we are actually asking God not to forgive us beyond the reach of our own forgiveness of others. That is the challenge, tough though it is. - Yours etc.,
Mark Rohu, Sydenham Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.