IMPOSSIBLE FORGIVENESS

St.Devasahayam Pillai, The first lay saint of India (15 May 2022)

May 15, 2022, Sunday is a special day for the Catholic Church when Pope Francis is canonizing 5 saints one of whom is Devasehayam Pillai, a Tamilian, who is the first lay saint in India. He was born in 1712 at Nattalam (a village in Kanya Kumari District, Tamil Nadu) and grew up into a robust and promising young man with a plump career in the royal court of Travancore’s Maharaja Marthanda Varma. He came to accept Christ as his savior in 1745 and got christened Lazarus. He witnessed Christ by his living out the Gospel values unabashedly. He acclaimed the equality of all. He preached universal brotherhood and fought against every caste discrimination. He was hated by his own native people on account of his faith and the values he stood for. He drew the ire of the King and he was imprisoned in 1749 under false charges of treason and espionage. He underwent horrible torture in the prison. He was bound with chains like a hardcore criminal and he was killed in the deep forest of Aralvaimozhi in 1752. Just after seven years of witnessing for Christ, following the footsteps of St. Stephen, Devasahayam Pillai breathed his last, forgiving his own kith and kin who hated him for his faith. Imagine a lay person who came to believe in Jesus against the wishes of the powers that be and dared to live a witnessing life, voicing out his protest against caste discrimination. He witnessed Christ in his life as well as in his death!

There are many ways one can witness Christ but Forgiveness is the best way of witnessing to love and freedom that Jesus manifested on the cross when He died. True Love manifests itself in accepting, respecting, giving, and forgiving the other. Jesus asked us to forgive as many times as there is an occasion to forgive. Forgive, not only when you have a grudge against the other, but even when the other has a grudge against you. Not only when someone asks for forgiveness, but also unasked for, you should forgive, even taking the initiative yourselves. Having forgiven the other wholeheartedly, resume the relationship as if the offense never took place. Forgiving may be easy, but Forgetting the hurt seems to be impossible. But that is what Jesus showed us and He wants us to be like him. To give and keep giving till it hurts, forgiving tirelessly, persistently, and magnanimously.

A prayer note found years later, in the Ravensbruck concentration camp where Nazis exterminated nearly 50 000 women, caught the world’s attention! It said: "Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill but also those of ill will. But do not remember the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember the fruits we brought, thanks to the suffering – our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of the heart which has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.”

Reflecting on this prayer, an author, Winn Collier goes on to observe the following:

“I cannot imagine the fear and pain inflicted on the terrorized woman who wrote this prayer. I cannot imagine what kind of inexplicable grace these words required of her. She did the unthinkable. She sought God’s forgiveness for her oppressors while she was in the midst of them.

Doesn’t this note echo Jesus’ own prayer on the Cross? After being wrongly accused, mocked, beaten, and humiliated before the people, he was crucified along with two criminals. Hanging with the mutilated body and gasping for breath from a rough-hewn cross, I would expect Jesus to pronounce the judgment on his tormentors, to seek retribution or divine justice.” Yes, Jesus was jeered at and even challenged to prove his credential as the Messiah by being saved by God. However, Jesus uttered a prayer contradicting every human impulse. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). The same forgiveness, Jesus offers to us in His divine grace - the impossible forgiveness spills free for all, for you and me.

He goes on to exhort us saying “I have shown you a model, Do what I have done and am doing”. We have no choice, but to forgive. If we don’t, we are also excluding ourselves from God’s forgiveness. In fact, every act of forgiveness is a sharing in Jesus’ death, as we have to die to ourselves (by forgetting the hurt) and think of the others before forgiving them.

St. Devashayam, Pray for us, the forgiven sinners that we may forgive our transgressors and forget our hurts!