You Are Very Special: A Tale of Forgiveness

I first heard the story of Steven McDonald in 2008 during the HCPT Trust Mass. He was a New York police officer, shot in the face, throat and body while on duty in 1984. He spent 18 months in hospital. 

He was able to forgive the man who shot him. Steven wrote to him and eventually the man called from prison and apologised. Sadly they never met as 3 days after being released from prison Shavod Jones was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Steven said:

I forgave Shavod because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart. Such an attitude would have extended my injury to my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more. It’s bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury.

Again, I have my ups and downs. Some days, when I am not feeling very well, I can get angry. I get depressed. There have been times when I even felt like killing myself. But I have come to realize that anger is a wasted emotion…

Of course, I didn’t forgive Shavod right away. It took time. Things have evolved over fourteen years. I think about it almost every day. But I can say this: I’ve never regretted forgiving him.

Read more about Steven's life <here>

During the Trust Mass in 2008, Steven read this poem by Peta Crane:

You Are Very Special

In all the world there is nobody like you.

Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like you.

Nobody has your smile, your eyes, your hands, your hair.

Nobody owns your voice, your handwriting, your unique way of communicating with others.

You’re Special.

Nobody can paint like you.

Nobody has your taste for food, music, dance or art.

Nobody in the world sees things as you do.

In all time, there has never been anyone who laughs in exactly your way, and what makes you

laugh or cry or think may have a totally different response in another.

So, You’re Special.

You’re different from any other person who has ever lived in the history of the world.

You are the only one in the whole world who has your particular set of abilities.

There is always someone who is better at one thing or another.

Every person is your superior in at least one way.

But nobody in this world can reach the quality of the combination of your talents, your feelings. Through all eternity, no one will ever love, walk, talk, think or act exactly like you.

Remember, You’re Special.

You’re rare, and in all rarity there is enormous value.

You’re Special, and it is no accident you are.

Please realize that God made you for a special purpose.

God has a job for you to do that nobody else can do as well as you can.

Out of the billions of applicants, only one is qualified.

Only one has the unique and right combination of what it takes, and that one is you.

You Are Very Special!

Poetry text reproduced from HCPT Group 101
Image courtesy of NY Daily News

Charleston: A Tale of Reconcilliation

Charleston Church Reopens <source>

On the evening of June 17, 2015, a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor and state senator, Clementa C. Pinckney. A tenth person was shot and survived.

Police arrested a white suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, in Shelby, North Carolina the morning after the attack. <link>

The shooter wanted to start a race war, dividing the United States. However the way the community reacted has been the complete opposite:

Firstly the victims, the families of those killed, spoke to the killer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWzTU6TLyRs

Then a UK based teacher, asked a friend to document what has been happening in Charleston, with the result being a powerful witness to reconciliation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPLvBM7RKc

Watch the first full sermon from the church where the shooting took place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7T7QQ90Jtk

The community of Charleston singing, "We Shall Overcome" together:

<source>

One For Ten: Against the Death Penalty

"The death penalty was re-instated in the United States in 1976. Since then for every ten people that have been executed, one person has been released from death row after spending an average of ten years in isolation. They have been released because new evidence has proved that they were innocent."    

A new social media campaign has been launched, with the organisers using easily available technology to produce a series of videos:

'One For Ten' is an online series of campaign films that will be produced and broadcast over five weeks in April and May of 2013. During those five weeks, we will travel the width of the US and interview ten individuals who have been freed from death row. Driving from New York to California, we will film with a different person every few days and produce a new short film for release online every Tuesday and Friday.   

 

This is an interesting campaign which will hopefully encourage people to review their opinions on the death penalty.

 

Is the death penalty a barbaric way of dealing with criminals? Is it worth 1 innocent life being lost for every 10 'deservedly' executed? Do you think that this campaign will have any success?

 

Find out more: www.oneforten.com

Frank Skinner's Prayer About The Hell Thing

I'm not sure it's a coincidence that one of my favourite teaching resources, is from one of my favourite books, written by one of my favourite comedians. In Frank Skinner's autobiography as a committed Catholic, he includes a series of prayers. This one always struck me, and continues to do so as I read and re-read it over the years. Increasingly the students I teach are not familiar with Skinner, but the sentiment remains. I do always tell them that he was one of the most famous faces on TV for many years with his chat show ("Yes, like Jonathan Ross, but better...") and is on Absolute Radio ("I only listen to Kiss and Capital..."). However I like to mention that many years ago when he was very famous and performing at the Brentwood Centre, he came to Mass at our very own Brentwood Cathedral. His prayer is a great source of inspiration and reflection when contemplating issues of reconciliation and the big questions about life after death. Here it is, the Hell thing...

"Dear Lord,

I think taboo subjects are bad for a relationship. You know what I’m going to say. We need to talk about the Hell thing. Now, let me get this right. We fail the course and then you have us tortured forever. Not just till we die. We get teased and toasted for all eternity.

When I read about two kids torturing an old-age pensioner for a day and a half in his own home, until he died broken and humiliated I felt like crying. I even thought, ‘This is what happens to society when religion isn’t a big deal anymore.’ Please don’t tell me that this is the your-own-image you made us in. Of course, even as torturers we fall short. We can only keep ‘em alive for a day and a half.

This Hell thing, it’s just not you. You’re better than that. Even cattle get it short and sharp. This is the bad thing about working on your own. If only you’d had a team. When you brought up hell at a meeting, you’d have picked up on the raised eyebrows. You’d have gone away and come up with something better. I suppose purgatory was your compromise, but I think that’s something you put in for the Catholics: ‘Ok, we’ll go to heaven but we insist on some suffering beforehand.’ Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I have a corrupted-by-liberalism view of things that has strayed from the truth. Maybe eternal torture is a good thing, but do me one favour.

Don’t torture anyone for what they did to me. I forgive them. I’m the forgiving type. I wonder where I get that from.

Amen."

"Who had let him down?" - Reconciliation After Violent Attack

As human beings, we need reconciliation. We make mistakes, we fall out with people and upset even those we love.

Having had the privilege of hearing the Mizen family bravely speaking about their experiences and journey towards reconciliation (see blog post <here>), I always look out for their campaign Release The Peace (see <here>).

However I was struck with the power of an article that appeared in the Guardian last week, 32 Tim Smits was very nearly killed last September by a young man on a bus.

I'll leave you to read his story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/05/nearly-died-defending-strangers-experience?mobile-redirect=false

The most powerful part for me was when he said: "I tried to get my head around the actions of the young man too. How could he get to such a point where he felt able to attack another human being? Who had let him down? I spent hours imagining his childhood, trying to understand why he could do that."

However he then goes on to say, after the young man was caught: "Although I'm glad that justice was done, it wasn't a time for celebration. I feel incredibly sad that this young man's life has been thrown away. I wish him no harm."

He also goes on to explain the positives that have come from that near fateful day: "After six months of thinking about nothing but the attack, I decided that something positive must come out of this, otherwise I would just fall into a black hole. I wanted to use my creativity to turn things around for people like that, so have organised Cut-It-Out, a creative, community-based project to support disadvantaged young adults.

It underlines the importance of reconciliation within society and how anger and hate, just breed more anger and more hate. Tim Smits has had a horrific experience but he has tried to find something good and something positive.

Can we try to begin reconciliation with ourselves? With others? With our society? The Catholic Church has the Sacrament of Reconciliation to aid with this process. Is it a useful function? Do we need help to seek out reconciliation?

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14988762