Farmers are excused 655-year-old debt

A court has wiped out an annual debt that farmers have had to pay the Catholic Church to atone for a crime 655 years ago. The payments had been a tradition since 1357 as compensation for a man’s murder. But farmers no longer have to pay 70 Swiss francs each year, a court ruled.

That’s what I read in the i this morning. How insane is it that those farmers were still paying for something that happened 655 years ago?

This post is in no way an attack on the Catholic Church, in fact, it’s more of a metaphor for life.

Don’t keep paying for something that happened a long time ago, and don’t make people pay for it. 

When something happens in life, it is not right to punish someone for an excessive amount of time. Buddha famously said; “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” I believe we should all keep that in mind.

Of course, some things in life are completely unforgivable, but in those instances we should allow the ones who have done wrong to leave our lives, taking the wrong they have done with them. In doing so, you will no longer be weighted down by the wrongs of others. 

So, learn from the mistakes of those before you, and don’t hall onto the crimes of the past. Allow people to form their own atonement, and in doing so, find inner peace.