An
inmate at a jail in the Bronx had an interesting insight, distilled from his
life experiences:- “When someone wrongs us, we want the maximum amount of punishment. But
when we do wrong, we want the maximum amount of understanding and forgiveness.”
As a teenager he was robbed of his paper round earnings of $27 by 3 older boys.
He got a knife, found them and stabbed all three and this began his own
criminal life. His response or reaction
to the evil inflicted on him took him down that same road.
A
former inmate from Manila city jail that I met recently had a different story.
He was framed by an acquaintance for a multiple murder, a forced confession
under torture was obtained by Police officers eager for promotion and he was
sentenced to death by electric chair. (This was during the Marcos era when the
death sentence was still used). He spent the next 6 years on death row, mostly
in solitary. During that time, through the Prison ministry and a life in the
Spirit seminar, he had a conversion and was able to forgive the people who had
contributed to his woes. He accepted all as coming from the hand of God, whilst
still pleading for his life to the new president. Soon after, his appeal was
referred to the Supreme Court and he was found not-guilty and released. Since
then he travels between jails to reach out to inmates, telling his story and
bringing them what little relief he can, grateful to God and compassionate to
his brother inmates, whose sufferings he understands all too well.
How
we respond to the evil we encounter in life has a profound effect on the
result.
For the Lenten season
this year I was inspired to pray for the people who had caused pain and suffering
in my life, I decided to have Masses offered for the more malevolent and
malicious among them. And as I prayed during these first weeks of lent, I found
many names and faces from the past come up who still had some capacity to
affect me as I relived the incidents and then prayed for them. For example I
thought of a sadistic school teacher, a false friend, an overcritical work colleague,
a bully during my school days. The worse they were, the more I pitied them.
Forgiveness is a must as we need it too, from those we have wronged and of
course from God.
