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IF EACH ONE OF US HAD AN OUNCE OF HIS GRACE
Desmond Tutu has got to be one of the most beautiful souls on this planet. He is truly one of the most gracious and inspiring people alive today...he's also quite a funny guy. The Archbishop has many wonderful accomplishments to be proud of but is probably best known for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for opposing apartheid in South Africa. Last year Vanity Fair published a special issue, guest-edited by Bono, in which Brad Pitt interviewed the great Tutu. It was hands-down the most beautiful story of forgiveness that I've ever heard. A 18 year old girl was stabbed to death by several children while on a mission in Africa. When the killers came to be adults and had to be re-tried as adults, the parents of the young woman flew from California to Africa, stood in the trial...and - are you ready for this? Asked for leniency of the court for the children who had brutally taken the life of their baby girl. Not only did they give these children their freedom but the parents stayed in Africa, started a foundation to help reform child soldiers and - again, are you ready for this? They hired the very boys who viciously killed their daughter to run this foundation! Is that the epitome of forgiveness or what?
To me, the story serves as a gentle reminder of what is important in every day life. We all have that person, or people, that we feel wronged us in some way or another - maybe its the sister you don't talk to any more, who ever it is we all have them. Whatever transpired between the two of you, is it really so awful that its worth sacrificing your relationship and your love with that person? If people could forgive the killers of their daughter, boys that they had never met that brutally took the live of their beautiful daughter who was only there out of love and kindness to begin with....surely we could find forgiveness for the people we love - right? It is in forgiving that we release the pain and sorrow and free ourselves.
Granted, it was not Tutu's actions in the story but him sharing the story is reflective of the the values he advocates and what he lives by. Thank you, Tutu for sharing your grace and inspiring me! If we all had an ounce of his grace, this world would be a profoundly more beautiful place and we would live in much greater harmony. ~Namaste
 A few of my favorite Tutu-isms:
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Brad Pitt: What is this concept of Ubuntu I keep reading about?
Desmond Tutu: Ubuntu is the essence of being human. And in our language a person is ubuntu, and ubuntu is a noun to speak about what it means to be human. In essence, it is something that you find especially in the Old Testament, where you’re not quite sure sometimes-when you are reading, say the Psalms-whether the Psalm is speaking, where it says, ‘I,’ only of an individual, or is it speaking in a corporate sense? We say a person is a person through other persons. You can’t be human in isolation. You are human only in relationships.
Brad Pitt: So that speaks to our interconnectedness.
Desmond Tutu: We are interconnected. |
God has such a deep reverence for our freedom that he'd rather let us freely go to Hell than be compelled to go to Heaven.
~Beyers Naudé memorial lecture (15 August 2003)
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