The attribution of human conduct is complex. The actor thinks that he acts according to the circumstances of the specific case. The spectators, on the other hand, believe that he acts this way because that is the way he is: - "You always do the same thing. You are... lazy, selfish, arrogant, etc.". Who is right? Even if we save the actor's good faith, the spectators are probably right. We need others to get to know ourselves well, and especially others who look at us with benevolence, capable of putting themselves in our place. In any case, we should be careful before disqualifying others when they do not behave as they should. The external facts are there for all to see, but we do not know what goes on inside their authors. De internis, neque Ecclesia iudicat; not even the Church, expert in attention with sinners and penitents, judges the interior of persons.

St. Ambrose of Milan wonders about the reason that led God to create man after the fall of the angels, and answers that after that experience, God wanted to deal with beings whom he could forgive. Too often we fail to measure up. We fail, and not just through inadvertence or rashness, as we like to believe. So often we are just plain bad: selfish, arrogant, cheating, envious. The classics define sin as the will turned in on itself: the self-centered self that forgets or despises God and others. At the end of this journey we find boredom and despair.

Repentance and forgiveness help us to get out of the jam. Chesterton recounts his conversion: "When people ask me, 'Why did you embrace the Church of Rome,' the basic answer is: 'To get rid of my sins: -To get rid of my sins, for there is no other religion that really offers such forgiveness. When a Catholic goes to confession, he really re-enters the dawn of his own birth. His many years can no longer frighten him. He may be gray-haired and haggard, but he is only five minutes old." In similar terms Evelyn Waugh has Julia speak in her touching farewell to Charles in Return to Brideshead: "I have always been bad. I am likely to be bad again, and I shall be punished again. But the worse I am, the more I need God. I cannot be beyond the reach of his mercy."

Forgiveness means telling the guilty party that, deep down, he is better than his pitiful actions imply, that they do not completely identify him. He is given room for improvement and rectification. We men forgive on occasion, but God always does. He does not want the sinner to die, but to convert and live. To truly erase the past, to make a clean slate and start anew: a joyful experience, which restores joy and gives us wings. In the words of Goethe: "Knowing oneself to be loved gives more strength than knowing oneself to be strong".

Christians see in Jesus of Nazareth God made man, who shows us sample the way to the Father's house, our definitive home. An astonishing mystery. Jesus Christ does not expect us men to come to adore him and pay him homage. He seeks out the lost sheep, one by one. He befriends sinners, but not sin: "I do not condemn you, go and sin no more," he says to the adulterous woman.

To facilitate even more our meeting with him, we have the example and the financial aid of the saints, so different from one another, but equal in their love for God and mankind. St. Josemaría was an expert in the art of forgiveness: "I didn't need to learn to forgive, because God taught me to love. His life was full of difficulties and contradictions - the hallmark of sanctity, for the disciple is not more than his master - and he knew how to face them with a motto that he proposes to all of us: "Be silent, smile, understand, forgive. The film You Will Find Dragons, which opens today, sample in a successful synthesis of cinematic brilliance and psychological depth.