Forgiveness
One evening, Father O'Malley received a telephone
call. A voice said, "Father, I'm calling from the
local hospital and we have a terminally ill patient
here who is asking to see a priest about the last
rites, can you come quickly?"
The nurse met the priest at the door, and thanked him
for coming. "The person who wants to see you, Father,
is an alcoholic. He is still coherent but is slipping
fast. He's called Tom," she said.
Father went into Tom's room and said to Tom, "I was
just passing through and thought I would visit you
before you sleep."
"Don't give me any of that garbage", Tom replied, "I
asked that nurse to call someone to give me the last
rites because I know my time is done and its my turn
to go. Now get with it."
"Would you like to make a confession?" the pastor
asked. "Absolutely not." Tom answered.
They talked for a long time and occasionally Father
would ask Tom if he was ready for confession. Tom
mentioned that he had done something in his life that
was with him every day and he did not feel that God
would forgive him. Finally, Tom agreed to tell the
pastor his story.
"Thirty-two years ago, two months and eleven days ago,
I was working for the railroad. It was two days before
Christmas and the whole crew was drunk. Someone had to
go out and push the switch for the train to go
northbound. I guess I was more drunk than the rest
because I pushed the switch in the wrong direction.
The train slammed into a passenger car at the end of
the next crossing and killed a young man, his wife,
and their two daughters. I have had to live with that
all of my life."
There was a moment of silence as Tom's confession of
this tragedy hung in the air. After what seemed like
an eternity, Fr. O'Malley gently put his hand on Tom's
shoulder and said very quietly. "If I can forgive you,
God can too because in that car were my father, my
mother and two sisters."
Do we still find it difficult to forgive anyone?