COMPASSION AND FORGIVENESS.!!!! BY.. Wavel RAMKALAWAN .. Christians belonging to the two main Churches of our land, the Roman Catholics and Anglicans, are in the season of Lent. This is a time of preparation, penitence and self-examination as a process of self-cleansing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day. It is a fitting time to see how the Christian leaders of our country approach forgiveness and give their fellow humans a second chance in society. In other words how we ask for our own forgiveness as we forgive those who sin against us and society. A week before we entered Lent, the parish church I serve at Bel Ombre, buried one of its parishioners, .... Mr. Maxwell Duval. Mr. Duval was serving a prison sentence. He had been found guilty in doubtful circumstances of being in possession of less than 50 grams of cannabis and was given an 8 year sentence. He died at the age of 57 from cancer. His story, is one that should teach our society a few lessons, the most important being compassion and forgiveness. He had served nearly half of his sentence when he was diagnosed with cancer. It was a violent cancer that attacked him unceasingly and gave him no relief. He was admitted, and the doctors started his treatment. However, in many ways, it was obvious that he was being treated differently. One can easily say that had he not been carrying the label ‘prisoner’, many things could have gone differently. Mention of overseas treat- ment vanished in thin air, and basically it was a matter of ‘we will do whatever we can locally.’ When things started to deteriorate quickly, Mr. Duval and his partner decided that they should accomplish their lifetime desire and they got married in hospital. The parishioners of St. Luke’s, Bel Ombre signed a petition and sent it to the President to seek a presidential pardon for him, so that he could spend his last days at his home. No reply was ever received and unfortunately Mr. Duval passed away as a prisoner. It was heart breaking to listen to his family recount how in his last wish he told them, ‘Anmenn mwan dan lakour.’ (Take me home.).. The story of Mr. Duval shows us how the human heart can be so unwilling to forgive, and yet we all daily do evil deeds that in many cases deserve more than a life sentence. We consider our-selves lords over our fellow human beings and we fail to ask what will be the Master’s intervention when we will appear before him. We expect others to forget and forgive what we do wrong, but at the same time we are so stubborn, with a feeling of righteousness when the time comes to show compassion to others. ‘Don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t desire done to you,’ is quickly forgotten because of our selfish ego. Is this not the root cause of the divisions and evil that continue to per- petrate our society and world??? Lent is a time of forgiveness and compassion. I pray that the way Mr. Maxwell Duval was treated serves as a lesson to our society, especially to its leaders. Without these two virtues, our country will con- tinue in its moral disintegra- tion. We will continue the downward spiralling and de- struction. I ask the Christian leaders in power today to ask them- selves a very simple question when they are faced with is- sues in performing their duties: “What would Jesus do if he was in my place?” Yes, Jesus would have for given Mr. Duval for the of- fence he committed, and would have afforded him the comfort of his bed and the love of his family during his final days on this earth. He would have allowed him to depart this planet a free man. We need new hearts if we are to be agents of change. Let our christianity be not a philosophy, but a way of living...
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 10:12:43 +0000
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