God, of course, is not injured or insulted or threatened by our sin. … All the insult and injury we do in sinning is to ourselves alone, not to God. … God’s forgiveness does not mean any change whatever in God. It just means the change in the sinner that God’s unwavering and eternal love brings about. … It would make no sense to speak of God as refusing to accept our repentence. Our repentence is God’s forgiveness of us. … We do not express our contrition in order to persuade God to grant us his forgiveness. Our contrition is God granting us forgiveness.
All that God asks of us is that we put aside the barriers, the illusions and the timidity that stand in the way of accepting his love. All that he asks is that we relax and let ourselves be filled with his love, which eliminates our sins and makes us channels and bearers of his love and forgiveness to everyone.
Herbert McCabe