On a Saturday afternoon in...
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On a Saturday afternoon in November 1994, a Methodist minister officiated at a wedding in Bridgeport, Connecticut. What made that wedding so extraordinary was that the man getting married, a man named Michael Carlucci, had killed that minister's son. In 1987, Carlucci had gotten into a drunken scuffle with the son and ended up shooting him to death. A jury ruled that it was a case of manslaughter, and Carlucci was sentenced to five years in prison. The minister, Rev. Walter Everett, reported that when he first learned that his son's killer was only going to get five years in prison, he was outraged. Even though he heard Carlucci at the sentencing hearing say how sorry he was, complete and total anger filled him. But later on, Rev. Everett began to see how that anger was destroying him. So while Carlucci was in prison, Rev. Everett wrote to him and offered to forgive him for what he had done. It seems that when Carlucci read the letter, he broke down in tears. He wrote back to the minister, and over the years a friendship developed between them. At the wedding, Rev. Everett told Carlucci and his bride: "Love means knowing that you can say 'I'm sorry,' and that the other person will forgive you." And he added: " 'I'm sorry' and 'I forgive you' are the key words in any relationship." As Jesus said: "Blessed are the merciful" and "blessed are the peacemakers." -- Bowen
