Presented to River Street Cafe, 27 October 2017
and 614WM am service, 22 Ocotber 2017
Read
Matthew 6:7-15
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.
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