How often do we bring yesterday into today? We carry old hurts, regrets, judgments, and stories about ourselves and others, sometimes without realizing how heavily they weigh upon us.

Today's lesson offers a remarkable invitation: The past is over. It can touch me not.

Forgiveness does not ask us to deny what happened or erase the love we have known. It invites us to release the meanings we have attached to our experiences and discover that this moment is free to be seen anew.

What was truly loving remains with us. What arose from fear need not determine how we see ourselves or one another today.

And there is joy in this freedom!

We can meet our brothers and sisters without yesterday standing between us. We can smile, open our hearts, and welcome the possibility of seeing through Christ's vision.

The holy instant is not something we must earn or reach through effort. It is available here, in our willingness to let the past rest.

Perhaps forgiveness is not only the quiet release of what has burdened us. Perhaps it is also the unexpected joy of discovering how much love has been here all along.

The past is over. Only Love remains.