Living the Gospel: Mending a broken friendship

At the restaurant
“Following an argument with an old friend, he, feeling offended, decided to end our friendship. I wrote him a letter asking for forgiveness, saying that perhaps, quite unintentionally, I had hurt his feelings. I didn’t get an answer back. Through some mutual friends, I came to know that he was adamant in keeping his distance: a wall had gone up between us. I started being afraid of meeting him, and sometimes on the street, I would change my direction if I saw him coming from afar. Until one Saturday evening. My wife and I decided to have dinner in a restaurant. We had already ordered our meal when, at the door, I saw precisely that person together with his wife. As soon as he too became aware of my presence, he hesitated, as if he wanted to leave. My wife and I looked at each other for a moment: we immediately understood one another. We went towards them with a smile and invited them to sit at our table. He accepted, at first he was quite perplexed, but then he was clearly happy of the invitation. The evening passed peacefully. It took so little for our relationship to go back to what it was before, as if nothing ever happened.” .R. S. – France

Miracle?
“During a written exam one of my classmates, considered by all as the worst in the class, asked me insistently to allow him to copy the assignment. I did not think it was right so I didn’t pass my work to him. After the class he wanted to take his revenge on me so my friends suggested that we inform the teacher about it. But instead, I had another tactic. I went to him and I asked him: ‘What would you have gained by fooling the professors? If you want, we can study together starting from the very beginning.’ He accepted. Now he is quite diligent in his studies. Everyone told me that I had worked a miracle… but I know that these are just the effects of love.” E. – Cameroun

The terrorist
“I’m a primary school teacher and I’m often sent to teach in the mountain villages, where communist terrorists usually hide. I had already experienced an encounter with a group of them, but I was able to hide among the rocks. But once, they kidnapped me and took me to their camp. I remember the endless days during which I underwent long interrogations. Despite my fear, I tried to answer them with much respect. To one of them who had tried for hours to indoctrinate me on the socialist ideology, I objected saying that first of all we must change ourselves if we want to change the structures of power that seem to be unjust: ‘What can change us is the love we have for one another.’ Maybe my words touched him. The fact is, after the interrogation, he set me free.  From that day onwards I always continued to pray for him. Recently I recognized him in a news broadcast on television which showed a terrorist who had given up his weapons to the military, leaving his group.” N. – Philippines