Lk. 6: 27-38
One of the incidents that deeply touched and made me to reflect a lot is about the dimension of forgiveness in my life and it is a well-known anecdote recorded by Simon Wiesenthal in his story titled ‘Sunflower.’ The crux of the story goes thus: During the time of Second World War, Simon who is a Jew was a concentration camp inmate. When he came across the cemetery of soldiers was marveled by the sunflowers that bloomed at the grave of soldiers and was saddened by the thought that he would be burned and piled up with other dead corpses where no sunflower would bloom nor the visit of the butterflies would be made. One day while he was working in the hospital he was called to hear the confession of a young dying German soldier called Karl. He wanted to ask pardon from a Jew for all the cruelties that he had done as a member of Nazi regime against Jews and wanted to die in peace. He was haunted by a particular incident where in two hundred Jews were burned to death, and majority of them were small children and women.
They brought kerosene and sprayed on to the building, and locked all the Jews inside the building. They arranged mission guns against the house, and threw the grenades into the house. Karl was reminded of seeing a man with a small child in his hand and a lady, obviously the mother of the child. The man closed the eyes of the child and jumped down, followed by the mother. Similarly, many burning bodies jumped from the top but Karl and his companions short them to death before they touched the ground.. Oh, My God!… Karl screamed in front of Simon recalling those merciless and vicious moments. The memories of this family followed him everywhere… at the end Karl begged pardon for all his failures from Simon. Unfortunately, He left Karl without uttering a word of forgiveness and consolation. Next day, when Simon came to the Hospital he received the sad news of the death of Karl… This story pause a moral dilemma with regard to forgiveness…I am not intending to judge the act of Karl as well as of Simon…
Is it so difficult to forgive, especially someone who has caused you a great deal of pain? There is no second thinking in this regard. It is difficult because nothing could replace our loss and the intense emotional and physical struggles that we had undergone. At the same, time certain individuals like St. Maria Goretti, John Paul II, the family members of Bl. Rani Maria stormbound us with their unconditional forgiveness. How is it possible? Today’s gospel invites us to be aware of this noble view of life and grow in this virtue of compassion and forgiveness. Jesus exhorts us to love our enemies. It is quite natural that we always tend to think from our own human perspectives. Jesus asks us to walk an extra mile and requests us to think from the perspectives of the other too. Why did he/ she act in such a way? Invariable he/she will have a story to share. Our own family, social, and cultural backgrounds influence all of us. There is a danger in this regard that without our knowledge, these factors can influence us in a negative manner and we can be victims of the same.
Today’s first reading presents to us such a story, the story of King Saul and David. God anointed King Saul as the first king of Israel but his disobedience displeased God and the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and the evil spirit started to torment him. David was aware of this reality. In a matter of time the love, that king Saul had for David changed into revenge and jealousy towards him. But David was so compassionate and forgiving towards King Saul. David got an opportune moments to eliminate Saul and become the would be king but David didn’t want to do that because he realized that he is under the control of the evil spirit. He showed great compassion and forgiveness towards King Saul. At the end, this benevolence of David led Saul to have a conversion experience. If we try to understand the story of the other, it will help us to understand and extend forgiveness to the other. Today’s responsorial Psalm invites us to imitate this divine virtue of forgiveness like God who is full of love and compassion. “Mercy is the divine attitude that embraces, it is God’s self-giving that welcomes, that leans down to forgive” (Pope Francis).