THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS: How Lives are Changed

Today, in our Gospel reading Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” When you first heard this reading, what was your initial response? Did you recoil, or think: Okay, but not today . . . to forgive is impossible at this time in my life. We have all been hurt by someone. In in small and great ways, alike. For many, the source of pain comes from the actions of someone cared for, trusted, and deeply loved. Some feel as if it is God Himself who hurt them. And if the pain is great enough, it’s tempting to flee or deny its effect on our lives. We find ourselves clinging to hurt feelings with the temptation to seek revenge. Beneath it all is the desire for relief from the pain.

The hurt I speak of may be derived from varying experiences; deceit, infidelity, all manner of abuse, los; even a true enemy in time of war. Yvetter Assael, for example, is no stranger to the causes of deep anguish. Her daughter, Peggy, tells the story of her mother’s courage to forgive the unthinkable.

“When I was a little girl, Peggy relayed, my father took me aside one day and said, ‘I want you to know something very special about your mother. I want you to understand who she is.”

Yvetter Assail, a Greek Jew, survived the Auschwitz concentration camp along with two siblings; their parents were killed in the Nazi death camp. After the war Yvette met James Lennon, an Irish Catholic WWII sergeant, when he was sent to help resettle the Greek Jews after their liberation. Just four years after Yvette’s family was from from their home in Greece she married James Lennon (1947) and converted to Catholicism. Peggy’s mother found life in Greece to be overwhelmingly painful, so her parents moved to London to start a new life.

One day as they were walking out of a bakery in London, Yvette spotted a beggar. Well-aquatinted with the threat of starvation, she approached the hungry man. All at once she stopped. Her face turned pale. “What’s wrong?” her husband asked. But she was rendered speechless as her eyes filled with tears. Finally, with humble resolution, Yvette approached the impoverished man and gave him a piece of bread from her bakery bag.

Yvette walked along side her husband, James, in silence until she spoke, “I recognized that man. He was one of the Nazi’s in Auschiwitz. “I was torn between pity for the agony of his starvation and the evil we all endured from him. I then I realized that if I didn’t forgive him, if I didn’t somehow find the strength to forgive all of them, they would have taken the rest of my life from me.” Peggy’s mother had learned how to forgive what she could never forget. She knew the power of forgiving from the heart—just as Christ commands.

Forgiveness is not easy for those who struggle to forgive unspeakable evil. And yet God commands us to love our enemies and do good to them who’ve hurt us. He wants what is best for us, but we can't get there without Divine Mercy in the midst of our suffering. Fr. Raniero Cantalmessa, the papal teacher, said, “A lack of forgiveness is the single most significant struggling block we can face in reaching the goal of becoming saints and living the life of heaven now.”

If you’ve been deeply hurt and already thinking: But how can I do that after everything that’s happened to me?—take refuge in the nature of God. Love does not ask us to do the impossible without making it possible. We have Divine assistance. A military commander does not send his troops into battle without first preparing them. Our preparation began when we were made in the image and likeness of God. The source of forgiveness—given freely from the heart, is Divine.

I enogucarge you; appeal to the mercy of God. Take your hurt and pain to the Cross and discover that His grace and love is sufficient to see you through the most difficult moments and experiences in your life. This is why Catholic Christians ask for the intercession of saints like Maria Goretti, St. Josephine Bakhita from Sudan, and Pope John Paul II. Two years after his attempted murder, Pope John Paul II say after an intimate conversation with his would-be assassin, “Certainly forgiveness does not come spontaneously or naturally to people. Forgiving from the Heart can sometimes be heroic. Thanks to the healing power of love, even the most wounded heart can experience the liberating encounter with forgiveness.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, true heroes and saints are those live ordinary lives with extraordinary love. You saints who are called to love and forgive. God works daily in you and me—through faith. Perhaps right now He is saying to you: It’s time to let go and let me soften your heart. I will lead you to a place where you can forgive.

May you come to know the true peace and power of forgiveness.