Recently I wrote about loving your enemies. I spoke on this topic in church last Sunday and had some comments after from parishioners. Like I said, this is a hard topic for us to deal with as Christians. I mean of all the scriptural things that we have to deal with, this has to be the biggest one.
This past week we saw play out on TV the shooting of the girls at the Amish school in Pensylvania. I cannot imagine what that must have been like for the girls or for their families. To see the way the community came together and prayed was an amazing thing. Part of the Amish belief is this intense sense of forgiveness. It was reported in the news that the families have already forgiven the man who took the lives of their daughters. That is forgiveness. Try that one on for size. I also just heard on the news that one of the girls volunteered to be shot first. Such courage in one so young. Such faith in people that we know very little about.
Another act of forgiveness came to my attention this week. Sister Leonella Sgobarti a Roman Catholic Nun of the Consolata Missionaries was murdered in Somalia in September. It has been reported that as Sister lay on the ground dying she was heard whispering that she forgives the people who did this to her. WOW that is big.
Here are two examples of what I can only imagine are many. We find it hard to forgive someone who cuts us off in traffic and these people forgave people who killed. Such faith.
Actually, someone told me that the Amish community has set up a fund to support the widow of the dead gunman. Talk about forgiveness! How amazing is that?
On another note, about 40 AMish people went to the funeral for the man who did this to them. That’s amazing.
While he is not my enemy, the pastor of the former church I was a member of will be retiring soon, at the encouragement of his congregation. More info would be gossip.
Nonetheless, I shall that the church is a shadow of its former self in attendance numbers (550 down to 200) and budgetarily. I have not held the man in high esteem.
Sunday evening I had the opportunity to speak with him. Actually he sought me out as he met my priest at a funeral for a friend. My priest said, “Oh hi! Your former church member is a now a member of my parish!” Former pastor’s response was nil. But Sunday evening he shared the story with me.
By God’s grace, I felt peace while speaking with him. No anger. No rancor. Only the deepest of sadness for the pickle he is in, of his own accord. We had a long chat, the longest ever that I remember. It concluded with my saying to him, “When you find your Sunday’s free, why don’t you visit us at Holy Trinity? We’d love to have you. And you will experience the fullness of the Gospel in worship.”
I am grateful to God for healing me of my deep anger towards this man, so that I might pray for God’s mercy and strength on him.
Anger will eat away your soul.