Peaceful witness..

On Clark's blog I ran across a story I missed yesterday on NPR, the Witness to peace of Br. Christian de Cherge, a Trappist Monk. His bio is found on the Bruderhof communities website. I strongly suggest reading it.

The thing I was struck by was his reaction when a friend died in his place. Many of us would have just gone on with our lives, however Br. Christian was (like the grateful leper) so moved that he entered a Trappist Monastery and devoted the rest of his life to serving God and serving the people God gave to him. This path eventually ended in his death by terroists in 1996. In a letter written to his family two years before he dies, he says this:

I should like, when the time comes, to have a clear space which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of all my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.

Now THAT is a Christian, both in name and in deed!

Fidelium animae † per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace
May the souls † of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace