In the Christian calendar, Good Friday remains the most pious day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," beseeched dying Jesus (Luke 23:24) even as he writhed in agonizing pain with his hands and legs nailed on the cross. With this sublime gesture of forgiveness, Jesus the teacher practiced what he preached: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." (Mathew 5: 38-39)
Many have been baffled by the calm and peaceful reaction of the Christian community to diabolic physical attacks let alone vicious tirades demonising the community. The silence of the lambs to the brutalities can be decoded with the prism of forgiveness that Jesus mandated for his followers. When Graham Stuart Stains and two his sons Philip and Timothy aged 8 and 10 were burnt alive in a van in Manoharpur village of Odisha on January 22rd night in 1999, Gladys Stains did not call for 'badla' (revenge). Instead the distraught widow just forgave the perpetrators of the barbaric act. The response of 74-year old nun who was brutally gangraped in the convent at Ranaghat in West Bengal during wee hours of March 14 was no different. The elderly nun too practiced what Jesus taught.
Samandhar Singh stabbed to death 41-year-old Sister Rani Maria over 50 times in front of 60 bus passengers at Nachanbhor jungle, 70 km from Indore in February 1995. Samandhar was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 2002 Rakshabandan day, Sister Selmy — younger sibling of the slain nun — visited Indore jail and tied Rakhi on the hands that had brutally stabbed her elder sister. "That gave me a new birth," Samandhar recalled 20 years later. The conduct of the parents of the slain nun in Kerala had been no different. The elderly parents had signed the declaration along with church officials to help Samandhar walk out of jail in 2006.