Christmas is a lesson in forgiving too

Christmas is a lesson in forgiving too
by Chaplain Kathie
Pointman of Winter Park
December 25, 2012

"Tragedy the tragic element of drama, of literature generally, or of life." Greeks know a few things about tragedy as well as trauma. They use "trauma" to explain wounds. There is trauma a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury, but there are also two more that should be discussed when trying to explain what PTSD is.

an emotional upset "not living up to his own expectations"

an agent, force, or mechanism that causes trauma

In churches around the world the story of Christ's birth was retold but there was a part that is usually left out of the sermons.

Matthew 2:16-18
New International Version (NIV)
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Is it because there has been no proof that what Matthew wrote actually happened? No, because if that had been the case then much of what is preached would be left out as well. The reason it is left out is hope always triumphs over the evil that men do.

In October of 2007 when news came out a year following the children murdered in a tiny school house that Amish Forgive School Shooter, Struggle with Grief it was very hard to understand how that was possible after 10 girls were shot and 5 of them died but the families forgave the shooter and tried to comfort the family he left behind.

11 days ago more children were killed by a gunman in school called Sandy Hook. 20 of them died along with 6 of their teachers. The day after the shooting one of the girl's parents forgave the shooter.

Father of "Emilie Parker", Sandy Hook massacre victim, offers forgiveness to shooter's family

Love has more strength than hate. One man decided to kill but families decided to think of others while grieving. One man decided that others must suffer for his own pain but people around the world decided they would show love to people they would never meet and grieve with them for the loss they felt.

Newtown faces its first Christmas since Sandy Hook school shooting
Hundreds attend Christmas Eve services in Newtown, Conn. as visitors and volunteers arrived from out-of-town to support a community in mourning.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2012,

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Newtown observed Christmas amid snow-covered teddy bears, stockings, flowers and candles left in memorial to the 20 children and six educators gunned down at an elementary school just 11 days before the holiday.

The outpouring of support for this community continued through Christmas Eve, with visitors arriving at town hall with offerings of cards, handmade snowflakes and sympathy.

"We know that they'll feel loved. They'll feel that somebody actually cares," said Treyvon Smalls, a 15-year-old from a few towns away who arrived bearing hundreds of cards and paper snowflakes collected from around the state. And on Christmas Day, out-of-town police officers were on duty to give police here a break.

JULIO CORTEZ/AP
Christmas stockings with the names of shooting victims hang from railing near a makeshift memorial near the town Christmas tree in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Conn.

Out of the traumatic tragedies love will prevail as it always has and we learned much from those willing to forgive. Christ asked for God to forgive the hands that nailed Him to the cross as much as He asked for those who abandoned Him to be forgiven. Most of us wonder how people are able to do that. How do you forgive someone that did so much evil on the earth especially to innocent victims? To look at those who do forgive is a lesson we can all learn from. With so much grace within them, maybe, just maybe, we can find grace within ourselves to forgive others for what they did to us and forgive ourselves in the process.

Trauma is not something we are born with. It is something that happens to us that we had no control over. We are wounded but we can heal. We feel pain but we can overcome it.