An Unexpected Visitor

On Christmas Eve 1937, an old housekeeper answered a knock at the door. It was a man, standing silently. After a while she realised to her amazement who it was before her eyes. It was Alessandro Serenelli, the man who 27 years before had murdered her daughter. He said he had come out of prison that day and had come to ask her forgiveness. He had served 27 years hard labour for his crime. She stood there motionless for a long time and wondered what she would do. She then invited him into the house. The next day, Christmas day, they both went to the altar together to receive Holy Communion. The woman in question was the mother of St. Maria Goretti, the girl who had been murdered and later Canonized, a martyr of purity. Many of the locals were shocked at what she did and grumbled to each other. Her simple answer was, "I looked to Jesus who forgave His murderers from the cross and I simply followed His example".
Maria was just 12 years old when she died. Alessandro had wanted to sleep with her, but she refused saying she would rather die than loose her purity. So he stabbed her several times with a knife. Maria was taken to hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance, it was a slow and painful journey, but it gave her time to talk with her mother. "I forgive him!" She said, "I want him to go to Heaven." She received Holy Communion on her deathbed and kissed a picture of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin before she died.
Alessandro was unrepentant at first and even bragged of his crime, until one day in prison he had a vision. He saw Maria, the girl who he had killed, she called to him and forgave him, and he had a conversion experience. When he was released from prison he joined the Capuchin Friars and led a most holy life. There was one other occasion when Maria's mother and Alessandro were seen together, it was at Maria's Beatification Ceremony. Yes, the victim's mother and her murderer stood side by side in Jesus' love and reconciliation.

The wounds of love

Tom was an orphan and living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. Tom had a great love for his grandmother because she was like a second mother to him. That night Tom was in an upstairs bedroom and could not get down through the flames. His grandmother slept downstairs, she tried frantically to reach Tom to save him from the fire. Sadly she herself lost her own life trying to save Tom. Tom's voice could be heard crying out from the flames. A neighbour who answered Tom's cries, climbed up the red-hot iron drainpipe. Breaking the window, he got to Tom who was now unconscious from smoke inhalation. A very strong man, he carried Tom on his shoulders to safety, somehow clinging to the red-hot drainpipe again as he came down. In the process he suffered very severe burning to his hands, which rendered them useless for the rest of his life.
Later on an inquest was held, and after that, it came to deciding where Tom would live, as he now had no home or living relatives. Tom was well liked and there were four families willing to take him in. Amongst those families was the man who saved Tom's life. It was decided that Tom could meet each of the families and then choose himself which family he would live with. Three of the four families were very wealthy and Tom would have been well looked after by any of them. The fourth, Peter, the man who rescued Tom, and his family were however quite poor. When it came time for their meeting, Peter walked up to Tom and showed him his damaged and disfigured hands. Tom turned down the opportunity to stay with one of the wealthy families, and chose Peter, because he had proved his love for Tom by putting his own life at risk in saving Tom's life. It was the marred hands that had settled the issue; they were a visible sign of Peter's love. And so it is with Jesus, His pierced hands remind us that He has rescued us and saved our lives and this is why we love Him so much.