On Life 241 – Not a Silence… – October, 12, 2018

   I said, “Indeed God is a just Giver, He gives everyone the talents he needs to achieve great achievements. But, He has to make them grow and invest in them through working and toiling which are the secrets of the achievement of great people. As for those whom we think they were deprived from some matters in life, their lives will go on as long they realize what God gifted them. Maybe a person who owns an amputated or injured limb can discover a capability that God gifted him with to help achieve great achievements that rarely achieved by healthy people themselves!

   He said, “What do you think about those who face injustice through their life, not for the mistakes they made, but for the situations or circumstances that surround them and cause them to receive great injustices which drive them to lose the meaning of life. I went silent for a little then answered, “I am speaking about the Divine Justice not the human one that is full of flaws and sometimes we can’t see it at all. Hence, I recalled a story of crime that occurred in 1975, but its incidents came back to life little years ago in 2014, which caused the invalidation of the sentences that were issued back then

   The story recounts that a person was accused with others for murdering a banker in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America; the accusation was based on the testimony of a little boy. So the accused received a life sentence while he was not over 17, but after forty years he spent in person, the proof of his innocence has appeared to light. The case was reopened, and the evidence of his innocence has emerged after the revelation of some facts about the case that necessitated reinvestigation. Hence, life smiled to him and he was released at the age of fifty seven. On ninth of December, 2014, during the exoneration hearing in which the judge asked, “Richard Baker” from “Kwami Ajamo” to ask for what he sees as a suitable punitive claim for the decades he spent in prison while he was guiltless. He had no request, but to reconsider the laws that caused in his unjust arrest and to adjust the criminal justice system lest someone else suffer injustice like he did. It is worth mentioning that there were immediate decisions that were issued including forming a committee to reconsider the laws regarding such case.

   It is possibly that this is a dim image of human justice, but God’s justice is totally different and it enters into one’s life at the right time. There is a strange thing that drew my attention about this case; the case was reopened, after several years of forgetting the whole issue, because of a magazine article written by Kyle Swenson that proved the innocence of the accused. Divine justice will never be dimmed and will never let any person alone without offering a record for all his deeds and be rewarded for what he done for himself and others. Some think that God is silent toward the incidents we go through, but it is not a silence but a chance He offered to each person who leaves the right path to discover his mistakes and correct them. As for God, He, through this time, works everything for good and will reveal the truth at the right time.

General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center