Forgiveness Makes You Free

I loved this book! I was hesitant about starting it because the Rwandan genocide was so horrifying but Father Ubald (most of whose family and congregation were killed) is so full of wisdom, love, and forgiveness, just reading the book is an act of healing.

Not only did I love the spiritual wisdom that poured from it, I loved that his balanced view and many eyewitness accounts he shared gave new insight into this tragic event and the healing that has come through the hard work of many Rwandans, including Father Ubald.

This book covers the Rwandan genocide of 1994. I can remember the media coverage at the time and witnessed only a tiny proportion of the horrors perpetrated there. How do you forgive genocidal bloodthirsty maniacs who have slaughtered family, church and population in one of the worst cases of so called ethic cleansing ever? How do you react when God asks you to forgive and help others do the same? You follow the words of Fr. Ubald...

"As I looked up at the face of Jesus, an inner voice said to me, "Ubald, accept your cross also." I breathed deeply, and I made a decision to carry my cross as well. I would carry the cross of genocide, the cross of one who had preached love in a parish that had been destroyed by genocide. It was time to stop weeping and allow God to heal my wounds so that I could help others who needed healing from their wounds. From that moment, it was as though light radiated from within me. Long ago I had made the choice to forgive, knowing that it was necessary for me to move on and do what God wanted me to do with my life."

To read this book and follow Fr. Ubald's story and other eyewitness accounts is to enter into a world which will be alien to so many who haven't really been touched by persecution. It made me feel like I've only really been playing at Christianity. It made me question what I'd do if I'd lived through such brutal times and faced such impossible situations. Read it if you want to know what forgiveness really means, what it takes to forgive those who have slaughtered family and friends and how such forgiveness is the way to personal peace and renewed hope.

Read it to learn of a kind of resistance to evil which turns the world on its head...

"Perhaps for the first time, I understood what it meant to forgive seventy times seven without hesitation or limitations....Of course there would be temptations to deny that decision. But I also knew that evil is real and that we must resist it with forgiveness."

The voices of the blood of martyrs are heard here and every Christian is duty bound to listen. Get a copy and read it and expect to be disturbed, provoked and challenged. I don't shed tears easily but this book changed me. I would like to re-read it but will wait awhile first to process what I've already read. God has given Fr. Ubald a ministry of healing and reconciliation worldwide and back in Rwanda. The church and the world needs to listen and let God heal its wounds also. In years to come I will place this on a small list of books that have changed my life.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ave Marie Press for ARC.

Forgiveness. Seems easier said than done. Most of us have someone to forgive, buy try to forgive someone that has killed your mother or father. Father Rugiranoga had to do that. His father was killed when he was a child, and his mother was killed during the Rwandan Genocide in the mid 1990's. In this book, not only does he talk about his story, but he talks about others who he has help to learn to forgive, including some of the people who were doing the killing during that time.

This book will put your feelings and emotions in check as you read some of the sad and heartwrenching stories that are provided. This was such an inspiring and amazing book.

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.