Evil will make its mark without forgiveness

Evil will make its mark without forgiveness

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7)

One of my Christmas presents this year was a beautiful ceramic carving of the Prayer of Jabez, something that has become very popular with many Christians of late. A small children's devotional that I purchased recently refers to the short, but powerful prayer found in the Hebrew Scriptures as "the little ancient prayer about living big for God."

The prayer reads: "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil that I would not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested." ( 1Chronicles 4:10).

What always intrigued me most about the prayer was not its success in enlarging Jabez's territory but rather Jabez's request of God to keep him from evil so HE would not cause pain. Now that was something to reflect on.

Well, this morning, when I dropped my son off for school, I witnessed something that made me very sad and reminded me that evil comes to us in little, unsuspected ways, not always in what we do but very often in what we fail to do -- most often when we fail to love.

In the car behind me a mom and her daughter had stopped as well. The youngster, a girl of about 12, leaned over to give her mom a kiss on the cheek and the mom turned her head away.

The look on the child's face was heartbreaking and it became obvious as I watched them both for the next few minutes that something had most likely transpired between them that morning that had raised some anger in the mom.

I actually felt my throat tighten and tears begin to form in my eyes as I watched the daughter get out of the car and walk to the school building with her head hung low. I wanted to run to her and give her a hug and tell her that her mom still loved her. I wanted to explain how fear is usually at the root of anger and, for parents, our imperfect human love is usually the reason we harbor some fears for our children. I wanted to tell her that I understand fully how she felt because I, too, have had a loved one turn their face away from me and I know how the pain of that can bore through your heart. In the brief gesture, a moment that child will most likely remember for most of her life, an evil triumphed over love. But that doesn't have to be the end of the story. You see, as a parent, as a friend, as a child, I discovered another powerful little prayer to which evil can never stand up:

"Forgive me."

____________________________________

Mary Morrell is the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers from Loyola Press; Things My Father Taught Me, a bi-weekly column that appears in several Catholic newspapers, I'll Walk With God, a monthly newsletter published by the Metuchen Diocesan Office of Religious Education, and Mary is a writer for Real Faith TV, produced by the Diocese of Trenton, Office of Communication.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Morrell - associate director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562-1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.rog

Keywords

forgiveness

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