The famed psychiatrist  Dr. Karl Menninger once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day. 

Amazing but true! But why? Is it because we do not believe that we are loved, that someone could love us enough to freely and totally forgive us. As we falsely feel we need to earn love, so we falsely feel we have to make up for our misdeeds before we accept forgiveness. This is the lie that the Evil One sows in our hearts. God's forgiveness of us is not because of us, but because of who God is. He is love and he chooses out of love and mercy to forgive us. When we forgive others, we are responding to our call to love. The gift we have received is to be be given as a gift. As God forgives us when we do not deserve mercy, so we are to forgive others, even though in our eyes they do not deserve it. Forgiveness is not a matter of justice but mercy. It enables us to remain true to our self.