SORRY ABOUT THAT When we express "forgiveness" do we also show "weakness"?
Just last week, when television new crews were at Nickels Mine, Pa. one-room schoolhouse where six small, Amish schoolgirls had been murdered days before, one newsman ask an older Amish gentleman how the people could find in their hearts to "forgive" the criminal. It had been rumored that such would be announced.
The question was neatly put and the old man did not show any visible sign of discomfort. He was looking across a nearby pasture field when the question was posed and he held that point until he glanced quickly upward as if he might be asking for the right words to make a proper reply. The words were on his lips instantly. I do not have the exact word he used.. but I'm certain they are on tape somewhere out there in TV news land. In time they will be heard again. His words were few, I remember, and they conveyed these thoughts to me: "Forgiveness such as this must come of God. God forgives. We forgive. God speaks. We obey."
Now,go with me for a moment back in our mutual memories of how our voices sounded when we parrot-ed off the stated answers to questions in the "Children's
Cathecisms" which we memorized in those days. Our voices really were the way the teachers knew if we had really studied the passages rather just sketched through them. We did not understand them anyway and memorized words took on one which revealed our ignorance. What the old Amish man told the news gatherer was, I felt, good. In spite of the fact that his words were dredged up "on the spur of the moment" the one of his voiced indicated he may still be uncertain.
Isn't one of the guiding principles of goodness based on how well we can hate sin?
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 10-23-06 [c328wds]
