"This forgiveness from the cross is the image and principle of that forgiveness that Jesus wishes to convey to all humanity through his sacrifice. To merit this forgiveness and, in the concrete, the grace that purifies and confers divine life, Jesus made the heroic offering of himself for all humanity. All men, each in the individuality of his own personal "I," of his good and evil, are therefore potentially and, indeed, one could say, intentionally included in Jesus' prayer to the Father, "Forgive them."

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