I think it was Simone Weil who said that one of the things that separates human beings from the physical laws of the universe is our capacity to forgive, because, when it works, it moves back up the machinery of cause and effect, which nothing else in the universe can do. I think this is a very important hope/belief/truth -- that human beings can break causality from time to time (you could similarly argue that that is what links us to God, who -- depending on your theology -- is always beyond causality). This is one central aspect of Zen practice -- love, like awakening, is the smashing of the predictable.
yours, Peter T.