Unforgiveness is like cancer. It will eat you from the inside out. -Mary Johnson

This is a wonderful story of forgiveness that reminds me a lot of Assunta Goretti, the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who forgave the man who attempted to rape and mortally wounded her the young saint:

h/t Deacon Greg

Of course justice should be sought and served, but always tempered with mercy and in accordance with the dignity of the human person. We are all called to forgive and to love our enemies – a hard task, but it’s not impossible. Love is not a feeling, it is a decision – an act of the will, not of emotion. A priest in our diocese, reflecting on Christ’s call to forgive your neighbor “seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:22), once said that, it’s not always the case that someone will repeatedly offend you, but you may have to repeatedly forgive someone in your heart for the same offense as the hurt does not easily – if ever – go away completely.

We don’t have to feel good about our enemies or even like them, per se, but we should always will them good – if not for their own sake, than at least to free our own souls from the “cancer” of unforgiveness.

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