My daughter received a book by Immaculee Ilibagiza for Christmas. Immaculee Ilibagiza says, “Forgiveness is possible in every situation”; she says, “God is always right; whatever our Lord tells us to do is right. And God tells us to forgive.” Immaculee is a Rwandan and she is a Tutsi. Remember the Rwandan genocide? The Hutus slaughtered about 1 million Tutsi’s in 90 days – mostly by machete.
Immaculee remembers her family was able to hide her in a home of a Hutu pastor. No one else in the family could hide. They were murdered. One day a death squad came to search the house where see was hiding. A chain of people surrounded the house so that if there were any Tutsi in the house they couldn't escape. Then then searchers came in the house. They searched even suitcases in case someone might be trying to hide a small child there. They were looking for Tutsis and if they found one, even a child, they would kill her.
She remembers when searchers were close to their hiding place, a part of her wanted to run out and defy them and a part of her wanted to remain hidden. She is Catholic and she prayed, "God, if You are who You are, please don't let them look in this room" and then she fainted. When she came to, the evangelical Hutu pastor who was harbouring them said that they were by the door when one searcher said, ‘Mr. So-and-So, you are a good man, you wouldn't have anyone in your house’ and they left. God saved them.
When God answered her prayer and the searchers did not come in her room she knew God was real more than she ever knew before and so she would pray her Rosary prayers all the more. One of the prayers on the Rosary is the Lord's Prayer. She would pray it regularly but then she would get to the part that says please forgive our trespasses (our sins) as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us and stop. Surely God didn't mean me? How can I forgive the sins of what has been done to me? How can I forgive my enemies – when they killed my mother, my father, my brothers, and my family? She got to the point where because she knows God is real and knows everything, she wouldn't even say those words in the Lord's Prayer – forgive us our sins as we forgive others - she would skip them over because she didn’t want to forgive them but then, of course, all-knowing God knows she is skipping those words. She came to realize this and so she opened her Bible to find some relief from this conviction to forgive her enemies. She opened her Bible and it said:
- Pray for your enemies, so she closed it and opened it again,
- Pray for those who persecute you, close,
- Forgive your enemies!
And then she remembered God. Jesus on Cross: do you remember what some his last recorded words are - about those who have put him up on that cross to die? Jesus said, "Father forgive them" and then Jesus said "for they do not know what they do". Jesus forgave his enemies. Jesus says, "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Jesus himself told us to forgive others as we want to be forgiven.
Immaculee says, “Forgiveness is possible in every situation and God is always right; whatever our Lord tells us to do is right. God tells us to forgive.”
And if Jesus forgives those who put him on a Cross to kill him and if Immaculee can forgive those who killed her family and extended family and the people she loves then surely we can forgive those who hurt us.
For a longer read on this theme click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/10/matthew-612-as-we-forgive-those-who.html
For a longer read on this theme click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/10/matthew-612-as-we-forgive-those-who.html
Presented to River Street Cafe, 27 October 2017 and 614WM am service, 22 October 2017
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