Testament of Dom Christian De Cherge, OCSO - Essay Example

Fr. Christian, when he wrote his letter forecasting his death at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, has been very careful in his letter not to have the least amount of hatred towards his opponents even when he felt sure that he would be murdered by them (Christian). Mr.Ives, a character in the novel, ‘The story of Mr.Ives’, is also depicted as rediscovering the real spiritual significance of Christmas as one of love and forgiveness. He is characterized as finding out, through his efforts to rehabilitate the man who murdered his son for 10 dollars into a humane realm, the strength and purity of forgiveness (Hijuelos).

It is this unfathomable forgiveness that creates a similarity between this protagonist’s mental transformation and the sublime and divine mercy exhibited by the priest, Dom Christian De Cherge, towards his future murderers, who later killed him in Algeria. Fr.Christian’s deep sense of forgiveness has arisen from the realization that he, as a human being, has a “share in the evil which (…) (exists) (…) in the world” (Christian). This is why he says, “I should like, when the time comes, to have a space of lucidity which would enable me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.

”  To explain the real basis of forgiveness further, Fr. Christian has gone ahead in his letter to say that as he loved all his fellow human beings, it would be one among those of his loved ones, who will eventually kill him. He is pained and sad to know that one of his loved ones would strike him down (Christian). Fr. Christian is able, with his all-forgiving heart to shift his view point to that of his killer. He says that the killer might think that he was acting “in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam” (Christian).

He is aware that in the given socio-political context of Algeria, many people could get carried away into believing that terrorism was equal to idealism, prompted by the fundamentalist propaganda (Christian). By understanding this context, it is easier for Fr. Christian not to put the total blame of his future killing on any individual alone, but mostly on a socio-political context. This kind of realization makes the killer deserving of forgiveness. Fr. Christian has said: For me, Algeria and Islam is something different (to what terrorists say).

It is a body and a soul. I have proclaimed it often enough, I think, in view of and in the knowledge of what I have received from it, finding there so often that true strand of the Gospel learned at my mother’s knee, my very first Church, precisely in Algeria, and already respecting believing Muslims.  Fr. Christian, in this manner, has revealed that all religions profess the same virtues and values, thereby ridding Islam also of the responsibility of the actions of Islamic terrorists. To conclude, Fr.

Christian has called his killer as his “last minute friend.” Fr. Christian has here repeated that his future killer would be acting without knowing what he was doing and even do not forget to thank him. In the case of Mr. Ives, the novel presents him in its beginning, as a man unable to forgive the murderer of his son (Hijuelos, 8-9). The killing of his son is depicted in the following lines in the novel: His murderer, his face scowling, came walking down the street just as his son and a friend were standing around talking.

Pop, pop, pop, three shots in the belly because his son had simply turned his head to watch his murderer’s exaggerated and comic gait as he went by. A fourteen year old kid, who’d reeled around asking, “What chew looking at?” his gun out before an answer (Hijuelos, 8). Thus, the son of Mr. Ives died. The absurdity and meaninglessness of the entire situation is enhancing the intensity of the bitterness that the father, Mr. Ives, suffer from. There were relatives and friends of Mr.Ives who talked to him of revenge and prompted him to take that path but Ives realizes that his hatred towards Daniel Gomez, the killer, was poisoning his mind (Hijuelos, 176).

Ives had been accompanying the grand mother of the killer to group grief counseling sessions and helping her in small ways (Hijuelos, 172). As the next step of tackling his hatred, he had begun to send letters and packages to Gomez who was in jail (Hijuelos, 172). In the climax of the novel, Mr. Ives meets his son’s killer in person (Hijuelos, 242). When Mr. Ives puts “his arms around” him, the killer breaks down crying (Hijuelos, 242). Unlike, Fr. Christian, Mr. Ives has his moments of doubts and hesitation, but he is able to arrive at the magnificent realm of forgiveness through his trust in God (Hijuelos). Fr. Christian has the support of his age old learning and practicing of a theologically driven life but Mr.

Ives is an ordinary man. Hence, fro Mr. Ives, forgiveness is a far too difficult task, yet which accomplishes in all its perfection. Mr. Ives has the time to deal with an talk with his enemy so that he can save his soul but Fr. Christian has only the time to forgive his murderer beforehand without knowing him. The two situations are thus different also in many ways. Yet, Fr. Christian and Mr. Ives find ultimate vision forgiveness by giving their entire life, one by dying and the other by living every moment of the life dedicated to the concept of forgiveness.

Both are motivated by the Christian faith that every human being has a potential for love, kindness and salvation. Works Cited Christian de Cherge’, Dom, “Testament of Dom Christian de Cherge’, OCSO”, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, Bullettin 55, May 1966.web. 10 July 2012. http://monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=497 Hijuelos, Oscar, Mr. Ives’ Christmas, London: Bloomsburry Publishing, 1996. Print.