Forgiveness is a choice, but it is necessary
If you are struggling to forgive someone who has hurt you, I encourage you to re-read last month’s blog post written by Healed and Restored founder Elza Spaedy. In it, she tells the incredible story of her aunt, who immediately forgave a drunk driver who hit and killed her husband and their 5-year-old son. How did her aunt do this so quickly? She said, “My Catholic faith demands it.” And it is true that to be a follower of Christ, you must forgive. Yes, it is a choice because God gives us free will, but according to scripture (see Elza’s January post) and Father Richard McAlear in his book Forgiveness, he says, “Forgiveness is the theme woven throughout the entire New Testament. Forgiveness is at the heart of all that is Christian.”
The Big Move
My family made a major life change recently. We downsized from our large family home to a much smaller ranch-style home. If you’ve ever been through a big move, you know how emotional it can be. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of brings up all kinds of memories that can trigger laughter and tears. After having a garage sale and loading the car with boxes of donations, we still had many things we needed to put into temporary storage. What was left were many important things, like our sons’ baby items and memorabilia that can’t be replaced. We rented a storage unit close to our neighborhood, thinking our items would be safe until our oldest son was ready for his own home.
A few months later, a team of thieves broke into six storage lockers, including our unit. They took anything they thought they could sell, but much worse than that – they rifled through our treasured boxes of personal letters from loved ones, baptismal gowns, photo albums, etc., and discarded what they didn’t want in a huge mess on the floor. One box that was stolen contained a gift to my youngest son from my dad, who died in 2019. It was one of his Marine Corps dog tags. My dad was a strong Catholic who prided himself on serving his country in his early 20s. Our hearts were broken.
Heroes take action
We immediately called our local police department and filed a report. Thousands of dollars worth of items were taken, but the one thing we all wanted back was my dad’s Marine dog tag. Detectives went to work trying to track down the criminals, and after an exhaustive search, they made an arrest. One of the thieves gave them the location of where the stolen goods were being stored. The cops raided the house, and mountains of stolen items packed the place from floor to ceiling. The detectives had to step over piles of things just to enter. The head detective on the case knew what our family was hoping to recover, and after about an hour, he called with the good news. My dad’s Marine dog tag was thrown on the floor and buried under a mound of stuff, but it was there! Our miracle!
Forgiveness is my choice
God is amazing and knows just what we need when we need it. The day this all happened, while my husband and son were talking with the police during the raid, I was in my weekly Adoration hour, completely unaware of what was transpiring at home. I asked The Lord what he wanted me to meditate on for an hour that Friday, and he inspired me to pick up Father McAlear’s book “Forgiveness, Experiencing God’s Mercy.” In it, Father McAlear says, “Forgiveness is an essential element of the Gospel message. It is a theme that is woven throughout the entire New Testament, with great emphasis on the importance of forgiveness as a gift that is both received from the Lord and shared with others.” God prepared me for what I would hear and see when I got home that day. Through His grace, I forgave the people who robbed us. I don’t know why they did it or what the circumstances were for what they did, but I know it’s in the loving hands of the Just Judge.
An interesting side note of this story… when the lead detective on the case handed my son the recovered dog tag, he said he noticed it had my dad’s name stamped on it along with the word Catholic. That’s there, so if the soldier dies in action, the Marines know how he would like to be buried. The officer then reached into the front pocket of his tactical uniform and pulled out a Rosary. He said he never begins a shift without it. “God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.”
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