"It happened a long time ago, and ought to be forgotten by now." (Juan Rulfo, Tell Them Not to Kill Me!)

"Guadalupe Terreros was my father.  When i grew up and looked for him they told me he was dead . . . As time goes by you seem to forget this.  You try to forget it.  What you can't forget is finding out that the one who did it is still alive, feeding his rotten with the illusion of eternal life.  I couldn't forgive that man even though I don't know him; but the fact that I know where he is makes me want to finish him off.  I can't forgive his still living.  He should never have been born." 

REVENGE.  No forgiveness here.  It comes seeping through these words of son who lost his father.  Instantly, as I read this, my mind wandered off to this famous line from "The Princess Bride"...

Alright, let's all be honest here, we LOVE Inigo Montoya and are thrilled for him when he finally does kill the six- fingered man!  But as I stopped and thought about this concept of vengeance I found myself asking if that was right. God says, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." (Romans 12:19) But at the same time, I realized that I didn't feel very sorry for Juvencio when his face was shot to pieces.  :/  I didn't feel like he needed to be forgiven for what he did, and didn't deserve mercy, that this justice was fair.  But then I felt incredibly guilty, like I was the most un-Christlike human being on the planet.  I thought back on this video that I saw in seminary several years ago, because it deals with forgiveness and serving justice.

"I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to give all men."  (D&C 64:10) Juvencio and Inigo Montoya may be fictional characters, but they represent the struggle that resides within all of us to forgive and forget.  Why is this so diffcult?