One of my favorite TV shows is Touched By An Angel (don't judge!). I find it to be inspiring, thoughts provoking, and just a regularly "feel good" show to watch. It's spiritual more than religious, which is what I go for. So I was watching an episode since I have them all, and am currently at the end of season four. In this one particular episode, the main angel/character, Monica, hit her head and had amnesia. She forgot who she was, what she was, who God was, what she was supposed to do, etc.
She was in Mississippi and she ran into an angry doctor who wanted to make it to his wife's murderer's death sentence and execution, a cheap skate minister, a non-believing colonel, and a God-loving, praise the Lord lady who worked the stand in the bus station named Effie. At one point the chap skate minister framed Monica and made it look as if she stole Effie's money she was saving to go to the holy land. When the colonel tried to get Monica arrested, Effie chose not to press charges and felt that Monica really needed help and saw she was truly lost, not knowing who she was. Monica asked for forgiveness if she did in fact do something wrong and Effie offered to give her the money and FORGAVE her.
The moment Effie forgave Monica, she remembered EVERYTHING. the power of forgiveness had released her and she found her way back to the light, so to speak. Now as many of you know by now, I am having this personal struggle with forgiveness with one person who used to be in my life and it's been very rough for me for a long time, being that the scar is still open and quite recent. And it seems everywhere I look the topic of forgiveness keeps popping up, even in this TBA episode!
Monica later goes and finds the angry doctor who wants to watch the execution of his wife's murderer. The murderer apologizes to the doctor and asks for forgiveness, the way his wife forgave hi right before she died. Monica appears before the angry doctor and tells him that she was lost and now is found, found her way back after Effie forgave her. The doctor told Monica she was wasting her time and all he wanted was agonizing, crushing, damning-to-hell revenge with no mercy because the murderer does not deserve it.
Then Monica goes on to say "That is why God created mercy. For those who don't deserve it. And that is why God created peace. For those who will never find it. " She assured him she will never find peace with the death of this man. Satisfaction, yes. Evening the score, yes. But peace, never. "Don't excuse him, don't accept him, don't embrace him, just release him. Release him to God and release yourself. Bless the memory of your wife. Forgive him. He knows now what he has done."
Amazing insight. And it seems everywhere I look this need to forgive keeps showing up. Well something else was brought to my attention. The Kung Fu master (sifu) that Lisa and I went to for that Qi Gong Meditation seminar had an altercation with a former training student/colleague who left his school for one reason or another. This student wrote on his Facebook wall a very disrespectful, attacking message that was insulting and hurtful. Sifu had written a response to this student and opened with gratitude and compliments first before addressing each point this person had brought up.
Once again, I am humbled to see the true essence of a master. He brought up each point having great support behind what he was saying, disagreeing respectfully, and yet being instructive as a teacher as well. And the tone was in such a forgiving manner. Unbelievable! It was so wonderful to witness. And he wrote something, that very much has to do with my situation with somebody that I related to right away. Sifu wrote:
I was deeply touched by this statement almost like an epiphany. But even when this student was going out of his way to hurt the master, his response was FORGIVING! The powers that be must be telling me something.
Yours in service,
ANDREW TRENTO
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