Encountering the Face of Forgiveness

Mary Johnson embracing Oshea Israel

“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.”  -Matthew 18: 21-22

Tuesday’s Gospel from Matthew inspired much fervent and passionate reflection at the monastery during 11am mass.  The topic of forgiveness was poured over as the sisters and present lay members reflected on a recent experience in the community — one Sr. Mary Virginia referred to as “encountering the face of forgiveness.”

Sunday afternoon at St. Jane House, the Visitation Sisters’ lay retreat center and house of hospitality located just blocks from their monastery, held such images of forgiveness, when a “Welcome Home” party was thrown for a young man named Oshea Israel. This was not a party for a returning college student, nor a young man coming back from military service; a backpacker making his way home after a European adventure, nor a returning Peace Corps volunteer. This was a “Welcome Home” of extreme, “Prodigal Son” proportions, when the youthful Oshea returned to his community after serving a seventeen year jail sentence for killing another young man. The thrower of this party was none other than the mother of the murdered son.  On Sunday, March 7, 2010, Mary Johnson received Oshea Israel with open arms at St. Jane House.

The Circle of Restorative Justice convening at St. Jane House

In open-forum-homiletic-reflection fashion, the sisters unpacked Tuesday’s scripture readings, bearing witness to Sunday’s experience. They described the community setting convening not only Mary and Oshea, but his fiance; board members from Mary’s organization: “From Death to Life”*; City Councilman Don Samuels; Peace Foundation President Sondra Samuels; former and current curious gang members; “Circle of Restorative Justice” facilitator, Gwen Chandler-Rhivers; Prayer Center Worker, Jariland Spence; and other family and supportive faith friends. The sisters took turns sharing snapshots from the day’s “Circle” experience. They did as Christ’s original disciples did: bore witness to the miracle of Love in their midst.

As an outsider to Sunday’s experience, I stood in awe. I know Mary’s story of forgiving Oshea first hand, having heard her share this tale on two separate, privileged occasions. It never ceases to amaze me, or boggle my mind with questions:

“What does it mean to forgive your only son’s murderer?
Who does such a thing?
Who is this Mary Johnson?
What exists in her heart?
What does she know?
What kind of faith does she possess?
What has shaped her life and heart and mind?
How does Oshea respond and relate to this kind of Love?”

My questions extend to the nuns in this community; I marvel:

“What is the role of a Visitation Sister in this setting?
What does each one bring to such circumstances?
What keeps them so close?
What calls them further in?”

This story of forgiveness is staggering as it brings forward the gospel in such large proportions, I almost want to back away. In the Gospel according to Matthew, the parable Jesus delivers is one of debt forgiveness. I can wrap my head around this. But in this living room of the Visitation Monastery, on this particular Tuesday where mass is taking place, the story is about forgiving the person who took the life of your child. This seems way beyond forgiving borrowed money; we are talking about murder.  And this truth challenges every cell in my body. Images of people I know are present, looming, revealing this radical notion of love and mercy – alive, and in our midst. The nuns are in close proximity of all this.

As we journey through this Lenten season, as we hone in our own beloved humanity and draw closer to a Loving Creator that teaches us about radical compassion and ultimate forgiveness, I invite all of us to hold such experiences in our hearts; to examine the questions and capacity of our beings to encounter such stories, such “faces of forgiveness.”

What questions is Love placing in your mind?
What are you being called closer toward?
What role are you discerning in your life?
What circumstances of any magnitude are you being invited to witness?
How are you called to be a face of forgiveness?

In peace, prayers, loving contemplation,
Melissa Borgmann Kiemde
Visitation Companion

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Mary Johnson, Founder of "From Death to Life: Two Mothers"

*Mary Johnson is the founder of “From Death to Life: Two Mothers” an organization that utilizes restorative justice practices to forgive and heal the wounds and losses from murder in Minneapolis. Her “Two Mothers” healing groups meet every other Saturday morning at St. Jane House. Mary’s  vision for the groups is to bring mothers of victims together with mothers of perpetrators for the purpose of leading the entire community in healing and reconciliation. To hear her story, or learn more, contact her at twomothers@hotmail.com.

She will  be speaking with Oshea at the Basilica of St. Mary on Sunday March 21 from 6-7:30pm