Forgiveness

On my way to South Bend this morning I heard a reflection on NPR by an elderly man, who spoke of how his adult daughter returned home a few years ago to find an intruder hiding in one of her closets. When she opened the door, the man lurched at her, knocking her back on the floor. He proceeded to tie her hands behind her back and then asked her for sex. She replied that he would have to kill her first. He did.

When the father heard the news of his daughter's gruesome death, he was enraged at the heinous crime. Although he had never favored the death penalty, he said that he now wanted this man to suffer as his daughter had.

As the DA began its investigation, the father started one of his own. Looking into the background of this killer, he discovered that he had been born in a mental institution. His mother, when he was twelve years old, had taken him, his brother, and his sister to a public swimming pool, where she informed the three that she was going to kill them. While the killer and his brother escaped, they were forced to watch their mother kill their little sister.

The father of the murdered woman, upon discovering this, told the DA that he did not want to pursue the death penalty. The DA protested, attempting to persuade the man that the killer deserved to die. But the father was steadfast, and on the day of sentencing told the perpetrator that he did not hate him, but only what he had done to his daughter. The killer, moved to tears, repented for his actions and asked forgiveness for the pain he had caused.

The father of the slain woman left the court room that day, still suffering his daughter's loss, but also relieved: he had forgiven this man. And while he did not say it, it is clear to me that his ability to forgive wrought a measure of redemption in the killer himself.

Praise God for such signs of his grace and peace in the midst of our world. The upside-down Kingdom of God is indeed already, if not yet.