Kidnapped Indian Priest Freed After 18 Months

Prayers are heard and grace breaks into the world yet again:

Kidnapped Indian priest Fr Tom Uzhunnalil has been freed from captivity and flown to Oman, the country’s government has said.

Fr Tom was kidnapped when his care home in the Yemeni city of Aden was attacked in March 2016. Four gunmen posing as relatives of one of the residents killed four Indian nuns, two Yemeni staff members, eight elderly residents and a security guard.

In May this year, a video was posted online showing the priest in poor health, calling for help.

“My health condition is deteriorating quickly and I require hospitalisation as early as possible,” he said.

Now the Omani government reports that it has found and freed Fr Tom.

I wonder how changed his captors are after this prolonged exposure to a holy white martyr.

The old saying is that the blood martyrs is the seed of Christians.  This saint did not shed physical blood, but his sufferings have nonetheless not been in vain.  The longer they held him and saw his witness to Christ, the harder it was to kill him.  My money is on their consciences not being able to stand what they were doing to him–to Christ.

Captors and captives form relationships like everybody else.  And once that happens, you start seeing the person and you can’t just kill them.  They get into your heart and you lose the power to blind yourself to the imago Dei in them.  Thus does God’s persistent Grace break into the world.

Well done, good and faithful.