Posted on 08/04/2008 11:35:18 AM PDT by tcg
After six years in captivity Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian hostage, was rescued by Colombian special forces. Her first action was to arrange to go to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris. In an interview earlier this month she spoke to Pèlerin magazine about her faith and how it saw her through her ordeal.
Mrs Betancourt's first gesture on being rescued was the sign of the cross. "Why? Because without Him at my side I would never have managed to survive the pain," she said.
She went on to say that "being a hostage places you in a situation of constant humiliation ... Faced with this you can take one of two possible paths. Either you allow yourself to become ugly and bitter, filled with hate and vindictiveness, or you follow the other path, that is shown by Jesus." She said this insight was what preserved her from being consumed by hate for her captors and anger at her predicament.
"He [Jesus] said 'bless your enemies'. Each time I read the Bible I felt those words were directed at me as though Jesus were standing in front of me, He knew what to say to me," she said. "Of course I realised that when your enemy is awful it is hard to live out those words faithfully and therefore I felt like saying the exact opposite. When I said these words, however, it was like magic. I felt a kind of relief. The hatred simply vanished... I feel that a transformation took place within me and I owe that change to being able to listen to what God wanted for me. It was a constant dialogue with the gospels."
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
I have to say I am really touched.
Awesome post. Indeed, Jesus always keeps HIS word.
Sorry, but I’ve already had my fill of St. Ingrid of Betancourt.
If I understand correctly, she never even properly thanked the Columbian army and President Uribe and swanned off to Paree to commence her self-beatification as a human-rights apostle of the glamour-left.
But.. but...
Didn’t He say “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes unto the Father except by Me”
and yet didn’t mean to be “exclusive” about Christianity?
/sarc
Sorry, sore point for me with psuedo-Christians.
I went there for a Sunday Mass in 2004.
It is quite an impressive building - deeply hated by leftists who continually mock its architecture. There are historical reasons for this.
Sadly, at Mass (which was in French) there was prayer offered in English: "May world leaders decide to bring an end to the scourge of war."
The prayer was a political provocation that stuck out like a sore thumb - clearly leveled at any Americans, British or Australians in the congregation.
Careful. She also thinks Jacques Chirac kept his promise to rescue her by reaching out to Hugo Chavez. She critized the Columbian government!
Not true. She thanked Uribe, defended his actions in Ecuador, and she attacked the Ecuadorian president. For which she was in turn attacked.
She has never been a knee-jerk leftist. If she has accept the lord, I would say even less now.
I just read “blessed are the peacemakers” this morning.
It occurred to me that the Bible was referring to peace MAKERS, not peace FAKERS (appeasers).
Peace has to be MADE, and often the means to do so requires resisting ungodly forces.
Well I'm not sure what you mean by "properly" but she publicly thanked and praised the army and president of Colombia. She even broke with her party, enraging the leadership by endorsing Uribe for a third term.
Interestingly I have been reading an historical account of the peace negotiations between de Gaulle and the Algerian National Liberation Front.
Very instructive.
You (the captors) meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Genesis 50:20
And if she would have been killed would it have meant Jesus didn't keep his word?
Evidence points to the fact that those with deep religious faith generally survive captivity, and reintegrate much better than those without it.
Interesting, since the MSM (and BHO himself) generally considers deep faith to a sign of Red State weak-mindedness.
Mrs Betancourt, you are an inspiration.
Jesus blessed peacemakers, not peacekeepers.
I don’t think it is a problem to ask world leaders to end war. That’s what GWB is trying to do - end the war AQ, OBL et al started. This is that part that BHO, WJC and their ilk don’t get - negotiating with or running away from the terrorists only prolongs war and makes the next battle that much bloodier.
Like Jeremiah (God’s prophet, not BHO’s pastor) said, the false prophets cry peace, peace where there is no peace.
Amen!
you might enjoy this:
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=28799
I originally read her book shortly before she was kidnapped.
Betancourt has always been a typical left-idealist, but not a typical leftist, although probably most of her followers were. She was threatened with death a couple of times for going after Colombia’s political mafia, so she’s always had courage. But her imprisonment by FARC has evidently had a greater effect on her than expected.
I always thought she was a future president. She may yet be, or perhaps there is something more ahead for her.
Thank you so much for the link, dear brother in Christ!
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