Forgiveness

Dear Crusaders,

This month, we are going to remember a very important week.  Because it is so important to us, we call it the Holy Week.  It was during that week that Jesus suffered His Passion and died on the cross. During that week, we will follow Jesus on the way of the Cross, up to the top of Mount Calvary.  It is amazing how much Jesus suffered during His Passion.  How could a man suffer that much?  Not only Jesus suffered a lot, but he remained silent.  This is a lesson for us, who complain so easily when we don’t feel well. 

Now, the reason why Jesus suffered was to pay the price for all our sins, and to grant us forgiveness.  As He was just about to die, He uttered these words: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.”  This is the great teaching we got from the Passion of Christ: forgiveness.

There is no doubt that, as God forgives our sins, we have to follow that example, and forgive others from the bottom of our hearts. 

Let me give you a story of a man who had a very special occasion to practice forgiveness.  At the time of the French Revolution, there was a good peasant from the Vendée region.  I guess you heard that the people from the Vendée were very good Catholics, and that they fought courageously to defend their good priests against the Revolution that was enemy of God.  When the soldiers of the Revolution came to the village of that man, they burned his house and killed all the members of his family: only his sister managed to escape.  One day, someone knocked at the door of the shack where he was living: “for the love of God, open the door. I am lost!”  There our good peasant was facing the man who was the murderer of his family, but now he was crying: “People from the village are chasing me: they recognized me as the murderer: I am lost!”  It took only a brief moment to our good peasant to say: “Come on in, Christ forgave to His executioners.  Me too, I forgive you.  Tomorrow morning, at dawn, you will go, but don’t forget to make penance for your crimes.”  Until his old age that peasant was proud to tell that story.  

What a wonderful example for all Crusaders!

Father Dominique Boulet

On Sunday January 20 th, I said Mass for the intentions of the Eucharistic Crusade.
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