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The following is taken from a personal blog posting dated March 21, 2008

It’s kind of hard to describe what has transpired within the past 24 hours without getting overly emotional. I imagine that others may be going through similar tough times in this brutal economy. I was a sociology major in college, so I should have foreseen that difficult financial times often result in an increase in street violence.

Yesterday morning my father-in-law was attacked on his way to work in Greenwich Village. He works as a property manager and maintenance worker for a residential brownstone on Bleecker Street. He usually arrives at work very early in the morning, around 5 a.m. He took the subway as usual around 4:30, exited, and on his walk to work noticed 2 men walking on both sides of him on 11th street, between Bleecker and West 4th. One man punched him in his jaw, and the other man fled. My father-in-law, in his shock and while still on the ground, cried to the man that struck him, “why did you do that?” The man, apparently realizing my father was not who he thought he was, apologized and helped him up from the ground. He did not take his wallet or threaten him in any way. My father-in-law, in his perpetual peace-loving and forgiving nature, offered to pray with his attacker. The attacker conceded, still profusely apologizing. After a short prayer, the man hugged my father, still apologizing, and assured him he was going straight home.

My father-in-law suffered a broken jaw as a result. He was treated at St. Vincent’s yesterday and is scheduled for surgery next week.

I really don’t even know how to digest the whole chain of events. My husband, understandably, was ready to go on a vigilante rampage and find his father’s attackers. I was (and still am) in awe of his reaction to the whole situation. When I spoke with him at the hospital yesterday, he described the story to me and afterward concluded, “maybe I’ll see that man in heaven.”

At that moment I broke into tears. How on earth can my father-in-law say this, jaw still swollen from being attacked, sitting in one of the busiest and most depressing emergency rooms in Manhattan, and barely able to really speak?

The irony of the whole story is that it took place a day before Good Friday, a day observed for our Savior’s sacrifice of himself for our sins. I always understood the philosophy of this act, but yesterday’s occurrence made that sacrifice all the more real. As Christian people (and I’m preaching to myself here) we should be more than willing to be just as forgiving for even the tiniest of infractions. Yet for me personally, I am so quick to blame others for almost everything. I blame the idiot driver for cutting me off on the highway and nearly causing an accident — I blame banking executives at Bear Stearns for being greedy and causing massive layoffs as a result — I blame our President for lives lost in the Iraq war and for this country going down the toilet. I blame every person in power for everything that is wrong with our society. And I think these are all legitimate gripes.

Yet my father-in-law prays for and hugs a man who just attacked him.

Lord, forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who transgress against us, especially on this Good Friday. I’ll admit I need a lot of help in this department.