Finding Peace

excerpt from “Left to Tell” page 94 in which author Immaculee Ilibagiza recalls her transformation to compassion for the killers seeking to destroy her.

“You are all my children”

...It was such a simple sentence, but it was the answer to the prayers I’d been lost in for days.

The killers were like children.  Yes, they were barbaric creatures who would have to be punished severely for their actions, but they were still children.  They were cruel, vicious, and dangerous, as kids sometimes can be, but nevertheless, they were children.  They saw, but didn’t understand, the terrible harm they’d inflicted.  They’d blindly hurt others without thinking, they’d hurt their Tutsi brothers and sisters, they’d hurt God - and they didn’t understand how badly they were hurting themselves.  Their minds had been infected with the evil that had spread across the country, but their souls weren’t evil.  Despite their atrocities, they were children of God, and I could forgive a child, although it would not be easy...especially when that child was trying to kill me.

...I held on to my father’s rosary and asked God to help me, and again I heard His voice:  Forgive them; they know not what they do.

I took a crucial step toward forgiving the killers that day.  My anger was draining from me....  For the first time, I pitied the killers.  ...That night I prayed with a clear conscience and a clean heart.  For the first time since I entered the bathroom, I slept in peace.