Amazing Grace, Amazing Forgiveness!

Fainting to the tune of Amazing Grace

Imagine this scene from a recent courtroom trial in South Africa: A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is something over 70 years of age. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers, one of whom, Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found implicated in the murders of both the woman's son and her husband some years before.

It was indeed Mr. Van der Broek, it has now been established, who had come to the woman's home a number of years back, taken her son, shot him at point-blank range and then burned the young man's body on a fire while he and his officers partied nearby.

Several years later, Van der Broek and his cohorts had returned to take away her husband as well. For many months she heard nothing of his whereabouts. Then, almost two years after her husband's disappearance, Van der Broek came back to fetch the woman herself. How vividly she remembers that evening, going to a place beside a river where she was shown her husband, bound and beaten, but still strong in spirit, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them."

And now the woman stands in the courtroom and listens to the confessions offered by Mr. Van der Broek. A member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission turns to her and asks, "So, what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?"

"I want three things," begins the old woman, calmly but confidently. "I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial."

She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me."

"And, finally," she says, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven."

As the court assistants come to lead the elderly woman across the room, Mr. Van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he has just heard, faints. And as he does, those in the courtroom, friends, family, neighbors — all victims of decades of oppression and injustice — begin to sing, softly, but assuredly, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

 

Creating a New World

The Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026

September 6, 2026

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Ezekiel 33:7-9; Psalm 95; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

 

 

The Gospel passage speaks about the necessity and the mystery of reconciliation. Too often, we hear about forgiveness and we think it is a quick, magnanimous action to take. This passage is about so much more. Forgiveness is something I can choose to give to another person. Reconciliation is something two people must build together.

 

Many people have trouble with forgiveness because they have been taught that it is a singular act to be completed in one sitting. That is not so. Forgiveness has many layers and dimensions to it. We also have a notion that forgiveness is all or nothing, and we end up choosing nothing and we cause such great chasms in our relationships. How many of us are estranged from someone important in our lives? We are wrongly taught that forgiveness means to overlook a transgression or to act as though an action has not occurred. That is not true either. When we forgive, we make room for God to transform the wound rather than allowing the wound to transform us. It is our free choice.

 

Forgiveness says, “I release you from my need for revenge.” Reconciliation says, “Let us see whether we can rebuild what was broken.” Christian love says, “Whether or not we are reconciled, I will not stop praying for your good. I still want the best for you.”

 

As we are reflective people, we can ask ourselves, “What does Jesus actually ask of me when someone has hurt me?” It is good to acknowledge the hurt to Jesus in prayer and say, “I will not allow what you did to me to determine the kind of person I want to become.” I can surrender my anger to God and I can stop demanding that the other person suffer because I have suffered. We will face many times when the other person will not apologize or acknowledge their hurtful words or actions. Forgiveness is a gradual process, and I have to move forward.

 

Reconciliation requires the participation of at least two people because it aims to restore a broken relationship. It is hard work and requires some level of truth, acknowledgment, repentance, trust, and a promise of changed behavior. There has to be some glimmer of wanting to rebuild trust. Reconciliation does not return to the past status quo. While forgiveness looks backwards, reconciliation looks forward. We have to decide what might have to change for us to move forward together with the existing wounds. Reconciliation creates something new – a relationship built on a stronger foundation of honesty and a deeper awareness of each other’s vulnerability.  

 

 

God forgives us all the time. God calls us into right relationships that reconcile through mercy. Forgiveness is freely offered by God with an outstretched hand and a desire for us to step forward. Reconciliation happens when we reach back to God. Reconciliation is the courageous work of rebuilding trust, telling the truth, accepting responsibility, and creating a new future together. Reconciliation helps us transcend our human condition and we create something far beyond what we could imagine. What is the type of world in which we want to live? What is the new creation of our dreams? God believes this is possible. What do you believe?

 

 

Guide me, Teach me, Forgive me . . .

 

 

 

Breathe Into Me the Courage to Make Something New

Thank you for all I forget are gifts, not rights.
Forgive me for all the grievances I remember too well.
Save me from the self-pity, the self-seeking,
the fat-heartedness which is true poverty.

Guide me, if I’m willing, (drive me if I’m not),
into the hard ways of sacrifice which are just and loving.
Make me wide-eyed for beauty, and for my neighbor’s need and goodness;
wide-eyed for peace-making,
and for the confronting power with the call to compassion;
wide-hearted for love and for the unloved,
who are the hardest to touch and need it the most.
Dull the envy in me which criticizes and complains life
into a thousand ugly bits.

Keep me honest and tender enough to heal
Tough enough to be healed of my hypocrisies.
Match my appetite for privilege with the stomach for commitment.

Teach me the great cost of paying attention that,
naked to the dazzle of your back as you pass,
I may know I am always on holy ground.

Breathe into me the restlessness and courage
to make something new, something saving, and something true
that I may understand what it is to rejoice.

Author: Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace

Teresa of Calcutta . . .

 September 5 ~   Feast of Saint Teresa of Calcutta

 

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

[Reportedly inscribed on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, and attributed to her. However, an article in the New York Times reported (March 8, 2002) that the original version of this poem was written by Dr. Kent Keith]

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·       “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” (Mother Teresa)

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·   Advice to a Novice - “The story is told of what she said to a novice gingerly cleaning an ugly wound in a woman's neck, as if repelled by what she saw. Mother Teresa told her that was not how to do the task. She took over a scalpel and quickly excised the nasty ulcer.

  ‘You must understand,’ she said, ‘that this is Jesus. We are cleaning the wounds   of the Lord.’ She then turned to a reporter witnessing this encounter: ‘If we didn't  believe this -- that this is the body of Christ -- we could never do it. No money  could make us do it. I wouldn't ask these fine young women to take on a life like   this. We are not social workers. We are seeing and touching the heart of Christ -- twenty-four hours a day.’" –Mother Teresa

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·       “I will never forget one day when I met a lady who was dying of cancer and I could see the way she was struggling with that terrible pain. And I said to her, I said, ‘You know this is but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close to Him on the cross that He can kiss you.’ And she joined her hands together and said, 'Mother Teresa, please tell Jesus to stop kissing me.” –Mother Teresa

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·       “One night a man came to our house and told me, ‘There is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days.’ I took some food and I went. When I finally came to the family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She divided it in two, and went out, carrying half the rice with her. When she came back, I asked her, ‘Where did you go?’ She gave me this simple answer, ‘To my neighbors-they are hungry also.’

I was not surprised that she gave–because poor people are generous. But I was surprised that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on ourselves we have no time for others.” –Mother Teresa

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·    A successful businessman traveled to India to spend a month working in one of Mother Teresa's shelters. He longed to meet the tiny nun, but Mother Teresa was traveling, and it wasn't until the day before his departure that he received an audience. When he was finally in her presence, much to his surprise, he burst into tears. All the times when he'd been self-centered, busy or focused on his own gain flashed before his eyes, and he felt an enormous sadness that he had missed so many opportunities in his life to give of himself and his resources. Without a word, Mother Teresa walked over to where he was seated, put her hands on his shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. "Don't you know," she said, "that God knows you are doing the best that you can." (Story from Chicken Soup for the Soul At Work by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte, Tim Clauss

 (Image from 1997)

  19 years after her death, Pope Francis officially declared the Albanian  Mother Teresa a saint as many remember when she visited The Bronx. 

On one of those occasions, Saint Teresa of Kolkata, as she is now known, was visited by her friend, Princess Diana of Wales who flew in from DC just to meet up with her at the Missionaries of Charity’s order on 145th Street in Mott Haven—the first in North America of the order which she founded in 1950. 

Little would anyone guess that 6 weeks later, both friends would pass away just days apart from each other.

Remembering . . .

 

HEATH SATOW SCULPTURE     9/11 MEMORIAL

Stainless steel sculpture made up of almost 3,000 elements, incorporating an I-beam risen from the ashes of the World Trade Center. Each stylized bird silhouette represents a person lost in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the U.S. in 2001. Located at city hall in Rosemead, CA.

All these years since 9/11 –
what is worth remembering?
How fragile we are.
How deeply we need each other.
How little our differences matter.
That in our vulnerability
we are most human.
That we can always respond to violence
with violence or with peace.
That violence begets violence.
That in danger, chaos and trauma
we can choose to come together.
That you always have a choice
to contribute to the world’s hurt
or its healing.
That we are one.
That entering into the world’s suffering
is divine.
That the world is not ending yet.
How beautiful it is
when we care for each other.
(Source: Steve Garnaas-Holmes, Unfolding Light)

 

 

Autumn Prayer . . .

 

Autumn Prayer

O God of Creation,                                                                             you have blessed us with the changing of the seasons. 

As we embrace these autumn months,
May the earlier setting of the sun
Remind us to take time to rest. 

May the crunch of the leaves beneath our feet
Remind us of the brevity of this earthly life. 

May the steam of our breath in the cool air remind us that it is you who give us your breath of life. 

May the scurrying of the squirrels and the migration of the birds
Remind us that you call us to follow your dream for us. 
We praise you for your goodness forever and ever.

 - Author Unknown

A Sacred Season . . .

 Poem by Edward Hays in the book Earth Prayers.

O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher,
for I wish to  learn the virtue of contentment.
As I gaze upon your full-colored beauty,
I sense all about you
an at-homeness with your amber riches.

You are the season of retirement,
of full barns and harvested fields.
The cycle of growth has ceased,
and the busy work of giving life
is now completed.
I sense in you no regrets:
you’ve lived a full life.

I live in a society that is ever-restless,
always eager for more mountains to climb,
seeking happiness through more and more possessions.
As a child of my culture,
I am seldom truly at peace with what I have.
Teach me to take stock of what I have given and received,
may I know that it’s enough,
that my striving can cease
in the abundance of Life’s grace.
May I know the contentment
that allows the totality of my energies
to come to full flower.
May I know that like you I am rich beyond measure.

As you, O Autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty,
let me also take delight
in the abundance of the simple things in life
which are the true source of joy.
With the golden glow of peaceful contentment
may I truly appreciate this autumn day.