- Feb 5, 2002
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These voices truly touched by tragedy show what the heart is capable of with the grace of God.
A recent act of forgiveness in the face of tragedy made national headlines. Erika Kirk’s bold witness in publicly forgiving her husband Charlie’s assassin prompted people to consider, “What does forgiveness actually mean and entail?”
In the face of tragedy, how can people forgive those who caused it? How do we as Catholics respond? How can people who have endured tragedy forgive those responsible?
Ask Jennifer Hubbard, who has faced the worst. She and husband Matthew’s 6-year-old daughter, Catherine, died in 2012 in the Sandy Hook School mass shooting.
“Forgiveness, I believe, is a process,” she told the Register. “There’s no single act or rule book as to what forgiveness looks like to everybody. It’s a process that a person goes through with a lot of thoughtful prayer, reflection and reliance on the grace of God, and an understanding of humanity, and a willingness to allow God to move in our lives in the broken places of our hearts. And that takes courage.”
When that happens, and we can live in that state of forgiveness, of peace, “We realize that God has better things for us, where our focus is on him and not on an egregious act or those hurts and the wounds that resulted because of it,” she said. “That’s not where our focus is meant to be, or where our focus is intended to be.”
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
A recent act of forgiveness in the face of tragedy made national headlines. Erika Kirk’s bold witness in publicly forgiving her husband Charlie’s assassin prompted people to consider, “What does forgiveness actually mean and entail?”
In the face of tragedy, how can people forgive those who caused it? How do we as Catholics respond? How can people who have endured tragedy forgive those responsible?
Ask Jennifer Hubbard, who has faced the worst. She and husband Matthew’s 6-year-old daughter, Catherine, died in 2012 in the Sandy Hook School mass shooting.
“Forgiveness, I believe, is a process,” she told the Register. “There’s no single act or rule book as to what forgiveness looks like to everybody. It’s a process that a person goes through with a lot of thoughtful prayer, reflection and reliance on the grace of God, and an understanding of humanity, and a willingness to allow God to move in our lives in the broken places of our hearts. And that takes courage.”
Giving It to God
Hubbard explained that to come to a place of forgiveness for her “was to understand where I was broken and what the offense of losing Catherine in such a horrific manner brought up in myself: the hurt, the pain, the vulnerabilities, the anger, the disappointment and the doubt — all of those internal questions. They bubble up. I think that in the face of tragedy, we’re called to wrestle with them, but not alone — to wrestle with them with Our Lord. When we can work through them with his grace and his guidance, then we can see where his love and his mercy are and allow his healing. I’ve allowed his healing to just touch me in places and in ways that I didn’t think possible.”When that happens, and we can live in that state of forgiveness, of peace, “We realize that God has better things for us, where our focus is on him and not on an egregious act or those hurts and the wounds that resulted because of it,” she said. “That’s not where our focus is meant to be, or where our focus is intended to be.”
Continued below.
What Is Christian Forgiveness?
These voices truly touched by tragedy show what the heart is capable of with the grace of God.
