Traveling on planes always allows ample time for reading. Yesterday as I made my way back to Tennessee was no exception. As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been reading God and Man by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. As I was reading today I was stopped in my tracks by this quote and have been reflecting on it ever since.
Evil always slashes, plunges into human flesh or into the human soul. There is always a person-to-person relationship where there is suffering, hate, greed or cowardice. but the victory is decisive: evil falls into the hands of the good, so to speak, because the moment we become victims, we acquire a right which is properly divine, to forgive. And then, just as Christ said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ so can we in our turn say, as one of our bishops did before his death in the course of the Stalinist purges: ‘ There will come a day when the martyr will be able to stand before the throne of God in defence of his persecutors and say, “Lord, I have forgiven in Thy Name and by Thy example: Thou hast no claim against them any more”‘
