Father Ángel Espinosa de los Monteros offers us a powerful and necessary meditation: an inner look at our actions from the heart of one of the most moving phrases of Jesus crucified: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Christ, in his agony, not only forgives: he excuses. “They know not what they do” is not just a phrase directed at the Romans who nailed him to the cross or the Pharisees who condemned him. It is also a sentence that speaks to us today, in the 21st century.

Two readings of this expression:

🔹  Literal ignorance: Those standing there, the Roman soldiers, didn’t know who they were crucifying. For them, God was a mythological figure among many. Even the Pharisees, although they knew the promise of the Messiah, expected him as a political leader, not as a lamb who gave himself up out of love.

🔹  Spiritual ignorance: That which still affects us. Because many of us, when we sin seriously, also don’t know what we’re doing.  We don’t understand the profound harm we cause to others, to ourselves, and, above all, to God.

Not knowing what you’re doing is no excuse. Rather, it’s a warning. Do we know what it means to watch pornography, use “light” drugs, speak ill of others, abandon a family, or commit adultery? Father Ángel insists: “If we knew the consequences of our actions, we would never commit them.” But evil disguises itself as harmless; the devil covers it with the appearance of pleasure, freedom, or “nothing’s wrong.”

Jesus asks the Father to forgive because they “do not know.” But this “not knowing” cannot continue to be comfortable. It’s time to wake up. To take responsibility. Because when we criticize unfairly, when we judge in silence, when we cause harm intentionally or indifferently, even if it seems like no one notices…  God sees it.

The message is not one of condemnation, but of conversion:

✨ Avoid serious evil.

✨ Do not justify our serious faults as simple mistakes.

✨ Recognize that real damage is often invisible… until it’s irreversible.

✨ And above all, learn to live with the awareness that every action has consequences.

As he himself concludes:

“I can’t tell you that you’ll never do anything wrong again… but I can tell you: don’t seriously offend God or your brothers and sisters again. That can be avoided.”

A clear and hopeful call: let us do all the good we can, avoiding the evil that is in our power to prevent.

Share this message. May more people hear this reminder of love, awareness, and conversion.

Let us do all the good we can.