Wendell Berry's poem on forgiveness

This Sunday, Jesus continues the teaching we heard last week: what do to if a brother or sister in Christ sins against us. Peter asks, how many times should I forgive, and Jesus tells a parable about how radically important it is "to forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

A forgiving life is a better life. And farmer and author Wendell Berry describes the freedom forgiveness brings in this poem. Berry died at 92 just over a week ago, on September 1, 2026.

Enemies

By Wendell Berry

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.