unlikely heroes

Today in A Year with the Church Fathers, we hear from Septitius Severus. Cool name, right? And it kind of reminds some people of the guy in the picture above. Severus Snape.

Which is fortuitous, because today we're talking about bad guys who turn into good guys. Now, I'm not going to give any spoilers about the Harry Potter books and what might happen with certain potions teachers. But I am going to say that sometimes a character that seems evil in a book turns out to be a good guy after all. Or at least a misunderstood guy. And sometimes he saves the day. Look, if you haven't read Harry Potter by now, you're probably not gonna, so don't get mad if I gave anything away. :)

But in the story that Septitius Severus tells us, we hear about a robber. The robber kidnaps our hero, St Martin, and asks him why he doesn't seem afraid. St Martin says that he feels perfectly safe because God is taking care of him, but he feels sorry for the robber who is leading such a desperate life. The robber is touched, becomes a Christian (eventually), and then becomes a religious. Pretty cool story.

The take home? The villains in your life are people. They're not "bad guys" in black hats. They have feelings and hopes and dreams, like you do. If we learn to love them (not have loving feelings, but treat them with kindness and respect), we might help convert them into the heroes that they were meant to be.

God, help us see the good guys in the bad guys' faces.