Her story is recorded in Philip Yancy’s Rumours of Another World, where Yancy describes how in a Truth and Reconciliation hearing, a policeman by the name of Van de Broek recounted for the commission how he, together with other officers, had shot at point blank range an 18 year old boy, and then burned the body to destroy the evidence. The policeman went on to describe, how eight years later, he returned to the boy’s home and forced his mother to watch as he bound her husband, poured petrol over him and set him on fire.
Yancy tells us that as Van de Broek spoke the room grew quieter and quieter. And when the story was finished, the judge turned to the woman and asked: ’what do you want from Mr van de Broek?’ She replied, ‘I want him to go to the place my husband was burned, and gather up the dust there so that I can give him a decent burial.’ Van de Broek, head down, nodded in assent. ‘Then,’ she said, ‘Mr Van de Broek took all my family away from me, but I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to my home and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr Van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.”
I cannot imagine what having Van de Broek in her home must have cost this mother, this wife, this woman. I cannot imagine what her neighbours thought of her. But what dignity, and what healing and hope she brought through her love for her enemy, not just to herself, and not just for him, but for all who hear the story.
We don’t love our neighbours because they deserve it. We love them because they are our sisters, and our brothers, and because God, while we were yet sinners, loved us first. And if we want to live with dignity, it is the only thing to do.
(from a sermon by Debbie van de Laar: http://sacredise.com/blog/?p=691#more-691)
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