Kirsten Eve Beachy rightly reminds us that sexual abuse continues to wound individuals and communities and that churches must not hide or forget these failures (“Repair of Harm Should Be Visible,” July). Memorials such as the proposed National Healing Garden can help preserve memory, honor survivors and call the church to accountability. At the same time, we are called to forgive. Remembering is not the opposite of forgiving. We do not forget the harm, excuse the offender or abandon the pursuit of justice. But neither do we relinquish Jesus’ command to forgive. So central was forgiveness to his teaching that he included it in the Lord’s Prayer and emphasized its necessity in the verses that follow (Matthew 6:14-15). When the woman caught in adultery was brought before him (John 8), Jesus refused both condemnation and vengeance. Then he said, “Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” Grace did not deny sin, but neither did sin have the final word. Forgiveness is not forgetting. It does not erase accountability. Rather, it is the difficult but essential way of Christ, who calls us, sinners all, to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Leonard Gross, Goshen, Ind.