Saturday, March 3, 2012

But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father  

Matthew 5:44

     Immaculee Ilibagiza is a woman who survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide.  She, along with seven other women, were hidden in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor's home.  For 91 days, they sat in silence.  Rather than allowing anger and resentment  to destroy her, and her faith, while in that room, Immaculee turned to prayer.  She prayed upon her awakening in the morning and until she slept at night.  It was through prayer that she received peace and the ability to survive her situation.  It was through prayer that she understood the imperative Jesus gave to love her enemies and pray for those who persecuted her;  for that's what she did, she prayed for her tormentors and for those who murdered her family.  So powerful was this practice and so profound the grace that God poured upon her, she was actually able to sit across from the man who murdered her mother and brother and say the words "I forgive you."

     Most of us will never need to deal with such horror.  Each and everyone of us, however, will deal with people who hurt us in some way.  It does not matter the degree to which we are harmed, we are still commanded by Jesus to love and pray.  The person who cuts us off at the freeway, the coworker who spreads false gossip that leads to our reprimand, the church leader that oppresses us because of their own fears, the person that steals our innocence through abuse....all these people we are instructed to love.  This is not an easy task - that's where prayer comes in to play.

     It is through prayer, that we will be given the grace to forgive and love.  When we carry anger and resentment instead of love, we become weighed down.  We become so burdened that we are unable to move forward on our spiritual journey.  These burdens begin to affect all of our relationships and even our physical selves.  God wants us to be free from these burdens.  Through communion with God, we will discover the way to let go and love.  It may come as an epiphany, it may come through another person, but we will always receive the power to forgive.  It may not come quickly, it may take weeks, but if we are persistent in our prayer, we will receive the grace needed.  William Young in his book The Shack states it this way:  "You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely.  And then one day you will pray for his wholeness."

     Today, let us search our hearts for those people who have hurt us that we have been unable to forgive and love.  Let us turn to God in prayer and seek the courage and grace needed to let the resentment go and move forward unburdened.

Prayer:  God of love and forgiveness, you continually deal with us in pure love.  You have promised us forgiveness and reconciliation.  Help us today us to treat those who have hurt us with the same love so that we may be a witness to the world of the bountiful gifts of your grace and love.