FORGIVENESS

In his book, The Life God Blesses, Gordon Macdonald describes his encounter with a black South African, a high ranking member of the African National Congress. Being profoundly impressed by the man’s understanding of African history and politics, and his insight into the challenges facing his nation, he asked, “Where did you get your training?”  Expecting to hear the name of some famous university, he was amazed at the reply: “I trained on Robben Island.” (This was the notorious offshore prison where the apartheid regime sent its most troublesome opponents.) “Every few years the government would search for and jail all the young black leaders… dumping them on Robben Island. But this was a good strategy for us because that is where we got our education – from Mandela and the others. You see, all of us who came to Robben Island…were angry; we were ready to kill the white man, any white man.

In prison we lost our names, we were only numbers…and the guards kept their guns pointed at us all the time. The days belonged to the guards, but the nights belonged to us. During the evenings, we who were young sat with the old men. And we listened while they told us their histories, their tribal languages, their dreams for the black person in South Africa. But most important, Mandela taught us that you can never accomplish anything as long as you hate your enemy. Hate his politics; hate the evil behind the politics, hate the policies that put you in prison. But NEVER hate the person. Hate takes your strength away.”

“You stopped hating?” Macdonald asked. “Not right away. It took me almost 5 years to forgive…but when I did forgive I was a different person. I knew I had forgiven when I could go to Holy Communion on Friday and invite the guard to lay down his gun, come and receive the sacrament with me. So that’s the answer to your question. That’s where I got my training.”  (Summarised from “A Dose Of Salts” by Simon Coupland)