If you feel any sort of resentment or hate towards another human being, if you are saddened or angered by something that in a few years would seem banal, this is the article for you.
This is the story of a family that was struck with the most horrible of crimes but still found it in its heart to forgive the assailant.
Do you remember Myriam Ashkar?
She was in her early twenties when she was slain by a murderer working as a janitor at the Bakloush Monastery in Sahel Alma.
She had her rosary in one hand and her faith in the other when she walked towards her death.
How dreadful are those hours of pain that Myriam endured? She walked on Jesus' path; she bled like him and was stabbed like him. She was in pain until the last minute of her life, just like he was.
Her death, a young lady with so much faith in god and so much love in her heart, struck her family and all those who knew her.
"We forgave the killer, all of us, nothing is impossible when it comes to God," Myriam's older brother Tony said, adding that their forgiveness was transcended to the whole town, whose members, in turn were able to forgive the man who took their little girl's life.
Is it possible to forgive someone who took someone we love from us and in such a brutal way? Ashkar told MTV Website that the Holy Spirit gave his family the will to accept what happened, noting that the family drew its strength from Jesus.
"We believe that God always has a greater plan and that someday we might understand why all this had to happen," Tony said, noting that his sister is always present in the midst of everything they do and is mostly remembered during Easter because she endured so much pain that it reminds them of that endured by Jesus on the Cross.
With all humility, Ashkar says his mother's pain reminds him of that of the Holy Virgin, who lost her son and felt the deepest pain imaginable.
What about the wound that this trauma has left them with? Tony says that his family will always miss my sister, but acknowledges that death is part of life and part of Christian teachings. “He who has Jesus can never be beaten and all hardships will be made easy for him,” Tony said.
He finally revealed that his sister’s story changed his life and sent him back to prayers he had maybe neglected before.
After Myriam’s murder, the area surrounding the Bakloush Monastery was named “Myriam al-Ashkar Reserve” in her memory, and roses can constantly be found scattered all over “Heaven’s path” where she was killed.
Adapted from an Article Originally Written in Arabic by Jessica Habchy
