“All the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of a single candle”
These
words appear on the tombstone of a woman who died in a nearby
neighborhood several years ago. She had been born in the neighborhood
to an alcoholic who often forgot to wash and feed her, but was adopted
by a loving family who raised her with their three other daughters.
She had gone off to college and then come back home to earn a living
for herself and to help the children, the homeless and the needy who
lived there. She was a home-grown symbol of success and care in a
world that desperately needs such symbols.
The
woman was then brutally murdered by a crack addict. The addict broke
into her home one night, tied her up, left to buy drugs with the
things he had stolen, and then returned later to rape and strangle
her. There was no dispute about what had been done or who had done it.
He pled guilty to the crime at trial. The prosecutors asked for the
death penalty, and even the murderer thought that he deserved to die
for what he had done.
The
crime shattered the neighborhood and years later you can still feel the
anguish caused by such a loss. For most of us, it doesn’t take too
much imagination to feel the anger and desire for revenge that must
have come with such anguish. There are some acts so revolting that
they seem to define the persons who commit them. They don’t really
even seem like people any more.
Yet,
the woman’s step father, Hector Black, felt something else. During the
sentencing phase of the trial, Hector read a prepared statement to the
court that distinguished between what had been done and who had done
it. Hector finished his statement by turning to look his daughter’s
murderer in the eye and asking God to grant peace to everyone who had
been wounded by the murder – including the murderer.
And
Hector didn’t stop there. He was able to overcome his own hate for the
murderer and began to write to the man in prison. Hector told the man
that he had a reason to live. Hector told him that, even in prison, he
could become a peacemaker -- a light in dark surroundings.
And
the man, remembering the look in Hector’s eyes at the trial, began to
write back and to look for ways to be the peacemaker that Hector
described. As Hector gave up hating the man, the man gave up hating
himself. As Hector found the strength to see the image of God in the
man, the man found the strength to see the image of God in himself.
With Hector’s help, the man found a life within himself.
I
never met Hector, but I sometimes think about him. I don’t know that I
am strong enough to do what he did, but I do know that what he did was
become the instrument for life-giving power. He found the strength
and courage to be the light that the darkness could not put out.
“All the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of a single candle”
~ George M. Maxwell, Jr.
