I’m curious who might/might not forgive the person and company that messed up the best picture announcement at the Academy Awards a couple of weeks ago.

It shouldn’t be one of those situations where it is hugely hard to forgive. Odds are that the film industry could, like every other industry, write its own version of Murphy’s Law, where whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

It’d be great if they would give the guy who got distracted and handed off the best actress envelope in place of the best picture one a chance to apologize in person to the makers of “La La Land,” the film mistakenly announced. Those filmmakers are the ones who likely suffered the most that night. Meeting and apologizing might provide some healing for all.

And how fun would it be if next year’s awards show included bloopers from each of the best picture nominees? Acknowledging how incredibly easy it is to make mistakes is a great way to give the spirit of forgiveness a boost.

But that potential for recovery will be lost without it.

What constitutes forgiveness? Lately I keep hearing a premise that the reason to forgive is for victims to feel better and even heal from their injuries.

But Jesus did not forgive His killers and tormentors in order to feel good or to heal from their evil. To quote Him in Luke’s Gospel: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

St. Stephen, the first martyr, responded to his own imminent death in the same way: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Theirs is the model to follow. Jesus and St. Stephen express a love that asks that the injustices done to them will not jeopardize the perpetrators’ salvation, or even add to their time in purgatory.

Such genuine forgiveness is made with love that may or may not be felt in the victim’s heart. It was within their great physical, and probably emotional and mental pain, that Jesus and Stephen chose to forgive. Such expressions of Godly love don’t hinge on feelings or circumstances. It is a love that desires that the goodness of God will prevail over evil.

Before reaching such a point, most of us will have to struggle against a desire for revenge, which is the typical human reaction to injury. Hopefully our faith takes care of any vengeful thoughts when we are lightly harmed by a stupid mistake, such as happened at the Academy Awards.

The struggle to let go of the temptation of vengeance will be more challenging when an injustice appears to have been thought out and deliberately inflicted.

Additional challenges to forgiveness come in situations where we must continue to rub elbows with one who continues to be a threat. After we’ve checked and double-checked with reality to assure our perceptions are not exaggerated (because that can happen), we might begin to pray for those who threaten our wellbeing. Praying through clenched teeth at first, it will come more easily as time goes on and we realize how much they need prayer. Those prayers will help us forgive once we are ready to give it a try.

Feeling better may be a side effect of forgiveness or perhaps a separate process of detaching from past injuries. Either way, letting go of evils done to us will make us feel better, and we’ll gain some power over ourselves and our reactions to boot.

It may help to remember that people who commit selfish or evil acts against us probably have a whole slew of things that will come back to haunt them once they stand before God. What we do in imitation of Jesus is to say that we want no part of increasing the suffering that will come to them or add to the overall volume of sadness and evil in our fallen world.

Such a level of forgiveness will not come swiftly or easily to us unless we have reached some high heights of holiness and are sure that we are safe in God. Most of us have to take our time and work at growing in the necessary virtues and in faith.

But we can choose to forgive — through and with determined prayer and with God’s gracious help.