“Love without action is irrelevant, but action without love is meaningless.” – Deepak Chopra

I read an article some time ago, about a young mother who lost her son to gang violence. He had been out enjoying an evening with friends, when a simple disagreement escalated to the point of no return.

Oshea Isreal was just 16-years-old at the time, when he raised his weapon to ‘silence’ the words of Mary Johnson’s only child.

“At the trial I hated Oshea,” she recounts with tears in her eyes.  “I thought he was an animal and he deserved to be caged. I was so angry when the judge charged him with second-degree murder, instead of first degree. I became a recluse and couldn’t look at my son’s photos.”

It would have been easy – perhaps, even expected – for Mary to continue to hate the young man who murdered her son. Though, at the sentencing hearing she instead told Oshea that she forgave him.

“I really didn’t know what forgiveness was,” Mary said, explaining that it took some time for those words to really ring true. But, she needed to know that she could someday forgive her son’s killer.

After many repeated attempts, Oshea finally agreed to meet with the bereaved mother.

“I believe the first thing she said to me was, ‘Look, you don’t know me. I don’t know you. Let’s just start with right now,'” Oshea says.

Mary explained that she wanted to know if Oshea was the same heartless, emotionless monster she remembered from court. “But, you were not that 16-year-old. You were a grown man. And, I shared with you about my son.”

“And,” as Oshea recalls, “He became human to me.”

By the end of their first meeting at the prison, Mary was overcome by emotion – knowing that the pain, the anger, the bitterness of the past 12 years had been lifted.

“Unforgiveness is like cancer,” she says. “It will eat you from the inside out. It’s not about that other person, me forgiving him does not diminish what he’s done. Yes, he murdered my son – but the forgiveness is for me.”

To that end, Mary established From Death to Life, a support group for mothers who have lost their children to violence.

And, today? The two live literally side by side – with Oshea finally knowing the love a Mother’s heart can bring. “It motivates me to make sure that I stay on the right path,” he says. “You still believe in me. And the fact that you can do it, despite how much pain I caused you — it’s amazing.”

Indeed, isn’t it amazing the changes forgiveness brings?

There is great power in the action of forgiveness, but only when predicated on the energy of love.

From one simple conversation, two strangers destined to hate – together, forged a path that would help countless others to heal.