Jesus preached forgiveness from the cross. Those closest to him had betrayed him, denied him or run. Some who he had healed, help put him there. This last prayer was a selfless act. To reach this place cost him everything. Not everyone agreed with him then, and many today find this a difficult message.
In recent times the acts of national leaders to demonstrate this message of forgiveness has made a powerful impact on their country. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Anyone who felt that he or she was a victim of its violence was invited to come forward and be heard. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that it had been an incredible privilege for those who had served the Commission to preside over the process of healing a traumatized and wounded people. He used Henri Nouwen’s phrase ‘wounded healers’, a symbol perhaps of Jesus on the cross. Not everybody in South Africa shared this conviction.
On February 13th, 2008, Aboriginal people all across Australia were deeply moved and in tears: The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, had finally apologised to the Stolen Generations and said ‘sorry’. Many felt this was the start of a healing process that would heal their nation. Others were opposed to this message
saying that they were not responsible for the work of previous governments.
Everyday there are expressions of forgiveness from individuals that often astound the world around them. How do you forgive someone for murdering your son or daughter? How do you forgive a spouse for unfaithfulness? Or a business partner for making off with all your money? Yet people do forgive these things.
Many people worldwide, and especially in Northern Ireland, remember Gordon Wilson, the father of Marie Wilson, one of 12 victims of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day Bombing by the Provisional IRA in 1987.
The BBC News interviewed Gordon Wilson still bruised and bloody after being pulled from the rubble. He told the stunned audience that he would bear no ill will or grudge against the people who did this act.
Hours earlier, his daughter Marie had told him while both were buried under a collapsed wall: “Daddy, I love you very much.” It was her last words to him. She died clutching his hand.
Queen Elizabeth praised “the depth of his forgiveness.” Historian Jonathan Bardon recounted, “No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact.”
Although Gordon Wilson was a Northern Ireland protestant, he was made a senator in the Irish Republic. He went on to be a peace campaigner trying to bring reconciliation between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Philip Yancey, in his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace”, offers many moving testimonies about acts of kindness that are against the odds as people and nations act out of a heart of forgiveness. Many great writers have tried to capture the essence of forgiveness over thousands of years.
Can this world move forward without such acts? It seems that politics and science, even great works of theology cannot provide the answers to the world’s problems. Albert Einstein famously said, “that nothing happens until something moves”.
It seems that great steps forward only happen when something moves the human heart to break, then to take action.