October 29, 2007

What should the Gospel, the life and message of Jesus, look like today? I recently read a book that answers this question. Left to Tell, is the autobiography of Immaculee Ilebagiza. This is a life-changing book about an amazing woman. I recently heard Immaculee speak at a college in New Jersey. She is even more beautiful and profound in person.

Immaculee hid in a tiny bathroom, with seven other women, for ninety-one days while the horrible 1994 genocide was taking place in Rwanda. Over one million Tutsis were killed in three months. As she confronted him face-to-face, Immaculee was able to find nothing but forgiveness for the man who had hunted for her and slaughtered her family. How is this possible? It was the power of the Rosary and her Catholic faith. The cry of Jesus from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” has echoed in our world again through Immaculee.

This is what the Gospel, the life and message of Jesus, looks like today. Let us pray for the grace, through our mother Mary, to have the Holy Spirit of Jesus alive in our souls! Nothing else is needed in this dark time of hatred and violence in our history.

Pray, pray, pray

Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR

St. Joseph Friary, New York, NY

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