Tag Archives: forgiveness

Face Transplant Update

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Update Successful Face Transplant

From AP, Cleveland, Yahoo News Canada reports

1st U.S. face transplant patient says she forgives man who shot her

In December 2008, Connie Culp had 80 % of her face replaced with facial skin, and bond, muscles and nerves from a woman who had dies. The operation, by a team of doctors, was carried out at Cleveland Clinic where Culp appeared for a news conference this week.

Culp came forward this week for a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where doctors in December replaced 80 per cent of her face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a woman who had died.

“The woman who had the first face transplant in the United States says it was the smell of soap that made her realize her new face was working.”

Our Lady of Kibeho – Continued

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In a recent post, I wrote about the vengeance of Jesus.  He took Satan and Sin to task on the Cross with the shedding of His Blood, not the blood of others.  The God-Man suffered the punishment due our sins. All sin leads to lies, betrayal, murder, and war.  Sin percolates and then escalates. It is as though the force of our sins hides beneath the surface of our daily existence and when its ready to show its ugly face, it appears as a  slum, a dysfunctional society, a dysfunctional family or a war.  Sin with its pride, lust, sloth, greed,envy and the like, ultimately brings havoc in its wake. However, it can be stopped. We know and have the remedy.  Like the discovery of a vaccine or cure, it only has to be made known and available, applied and administered. There’s  the rub.  We are an  important part of the remedy.  The Good News of Jesus is here and at hand! Where are the penitents?

Monsignor recently gave a sermon in which he spoke of a conversation between a repentant prostitute and St. Francis De Sales.  The Saint heard the confession of the woman.  It was heartfelt and thorough, leaving out nothing of her past life.  Afterwards she asked the Saint, “Now that you have heard my confession, what do you call me?  Without hesitation, St. Francis de Sales said, “I call you a saint.” He went on to say that no matter how others saw her or what they called her, God saw her as she now was; as if her past sins never happened.  The woman told the story again and again throughout her life.  The Saint’s response of the mercy, love and pardon of God came back to her again and again, and strengthened her whenever she was tempted to return to her past way of life.

I tell that story because Rwanda is a nation soaked in the blood of its own people.  Finding a way into a future full of hope rests on the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Mother Mary as Our Lady of Kibeho predicted the catastrophes that would befall their nation.  She also showed them the way back to unity and wholeness. In her numerous apparitions, she showed them that the Mother of God lived with them, cared for them and prayed for them. Her healing presence among them was  constant and intimate. Her message is always the same, “Jesus.”

Jesus have mercy on me a sinner.

That’s Not Forgiveness – That’s Revenge

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“That’s not forgiveness; that’s revenge.”  Father, whose on the older side of old and on the happy side of holy, can speak those hard to hear words because the day to day battle’s of life have yielded a humble, gentle man. His words have the haunting power of the Holy Ghost.

It is true that there is a certain perverse pleasure in holding-on to a grudge.  Sulking off and licking the wound can become a ritual of sorts.  Forgiving does break into my world of remembered, if not treasured, trove of offenses.  What price the bounty for your absoultion? The very idea of Scott-free seems unfair.  So what cost forgiveness?

Will a litany of the pain I’ve suffered suffice? That doesn’t really touch-on just how bad you are for hurting me (real or imagined.) Do I get a chance to tell you?  Still, that doesn’t even come to tit-for-tat.  If I do my generous deed, can I still take the memory out and feel self-justified?  Or will my good angels shake a finger at me?  Letting you off my hook  would be easier if I could see you squirm a bit.

When I was kinder and gentler, I would have asked, “What would Jesus do?  My day to day seems to have hardened  my heart.  A pound of flesh, that’s the price I put on my forgiveness.  Hmmm………Father is right.  That’s not forgiveness.  That’s revenge!

Lent “Forgiving the Living”

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“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

“Remember, O man, that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return”

A Lenten reflection on “Forgiving the Living” a phrase used by Immaculee Ilibagiza in her own story:

Left To Tell, Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

Most of us struggle to forgive, finding it difficult to put aside our bumps and bruises.  We savor our wounds as though they give us pleasure. We are a strange lot.

Imagine, if you can, living with the memory of genocide.  Not a genocide across the world from you, but surrounding you; a genocide that includes your mother and father, your brothers, friends and all your neighbors in one way or another.  Imagine a genocide you can smell and touch and that touches you, that calls your name, hunts you and haunts you.

For thousands in the world today, that is the reality.  For one particular soul, Immaculee Ilabigiza, the author of  Left to Tell, this reality has sprouted wings.  She flies high above her small village in Rwanda living forgiveness, not as a half-hearted effort, but as a mission.  A dream, that she believes was given her by God, opened her heart to the world.  Her touch is one of grace and healing.  Immaculee was left behind to let us know that in order to truly be alive to Life, we can and must forgive by the living grace of God.

Lenten alms and charity