Without sacrifice, there is no forgiveness (see Hebrews 9/22). And without forgiveness there can be no peace.  

I grew up on Lalemont Road in University Heights, Ohio, and went to Gesu School across the street from John Carroll University. The Jesuits were a dominant presence in our neighborhood. (The street we lived on was named for Jerome Lalemont, SJ, a companion of St. Isaac Jogues.) Because our parish was staffed by Jesuit priests, we frequently heard stories of Jesuit saints—Ignatius, Francis Xavier and especially the North American martyrs. Tales of heroism involving intense personal sacrifice in the face of painful torture and a bloody death were fascinating to us children.

I remember attending a “vocations talk” by our pastor, Father Francis T. Dietz, SJ, that painted the priesthood as a life filled with challenge and difficulty requiring courage and bravery. Father Dietz appealed to our imaginations by stressing not the “soft” life of a parish priest but the arduous life of a missionary in a hostile environment filled with danger, hardships and suffering.

Of course, this is the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, which every disciple of Jesus is called to follow. Pope Francis, true to his Jesuit roots, reminds us constantly that we are called to get off our cozy couches and move outside our comfort zones--to the unknown, often dangerous "peripheries." No one who recalls the stories of the Jesuit martyrs can forget their sacrifices. The sheer brutality of the massacres they were subjected to defies belief. The horrors are unimaginable. Yet they endured them peacefully—with absolute confidence in God’s saving power.

The key to understanding this phenomenon is forgiveness. The North American martyrs, like Jesus himself, would have been totally justified hating their enemies and seeking revenge. Instead, they asked God to forgive them. The result was a profound peace.

Scripture says that without sacrifice (often bloody), there is no forgiveness. And without forgiveness, there can be no peace. Why? Because hatred, vengeance and retribution can never satisfy us. We always want more bloodshed.

This is why the death penalty never satisfies society's need for justice. In the rarest of cases, it might be necessary to protect innocent life (in the same way that killing someone in self defense may be necessary), but it can never be the best option or the right solution to society's problems. Killing begets killing. Violence feeds on itself and multiplies beyond control. To achieve lasting peace, we must learn to forgive even our bitterest enemies.

Not all of the North American saints were martyrs, but all made tremendous sacrifices as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. And all were required to forgive others and "let go" of the hardships and injustices they were forced to endure.