There was a heavy air throughout America over the weekend as mourners attended hundreds of gatherings to honor Charlie Kirk. On Sunday his wife, Erika Kirk, delivered a speech so unbelievable, one had to see it to believe it. On stage, Erika spoke to a packed State Farm Stadium of over 70,000 people where she not only embodied grace and class, but she did but millions may never have had the strength to do; she forgave her husband’s murderer.

“He wanted to save young men. Just like the one who took his life,” she said, speaking behind the presidential seal on stage. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And what Charlie would do.”

“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us,” Erika continued.

The stadium could not fit all the mourners inside, and set up an additional venue outside, with an estimated 200,000 who turned out in total. Even those watching from TVs could be seen breaking down in tears at Erika’s words.

“God bless all of you for coming here from all over the world to honor and celebrate my Charlie” she thanked them. “When you say ‘here I am, lord, use me,’ God will take you up on that. And he did with Charlie.”

“Eleven days ago, God accepted that total surrender from my husband and then called him to his side,” she continued. “On the afternoon of Sept. 10, I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable: To look directly at my husband’s murdered body. I saw the wound that ended his life, I felt everything you would expect to feel. I felt shock, I felt horror and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed,” she said mournfully.

“But there was something else, too. Even in death I could see the man that I love. I could see the single gray hair on the side of his head, which I never told him about — now he knows, sorry baby.”

She said she saw on his lips “the faintest smile,” which she said “revealed a great mercy from God in this tragedy,” and said at that moment she realized he hadn’t suffered.

In a stunning moment, Erika proclaimed that her activist husband “was ready to die” — and explained what she meant.

Continuing from the podium on stage, Erika said, “I want all of you to know, while Charlie died far too early, he was also ready to die. There was nothing he was putting off. There was nothing that was too hard, or too painful.”

“He named his organization well. He knew things were not right with America, especially with young people, and that they needed a new direction,” she said referring to Turning Point USA.

“Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the lost boys of the West. The young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith and no reason to live. The men wasting their lives on distractions and the men consumed with anger and hate,” she said.

“When he went onto campus, he was looking to show them a better path and a better life that was right there for the taking … My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life.”

Then she spoke directly of her husband’s accused murderer, 22 year-old Tyler Robinson:

“That young man. That young man. On the cross our savior said, ‘father forgive them for they know not what they do’ — that man, that young man, I forgive him,” she said as the audience delivered a roaring standing ovation while cameras panned across a tearful crowd.

“He did 100% of what he could do every day. But I want you all to know something. Charlie died with incomplete work, but not with unfinished business.”

“I will miss him so much because our marriage and our family were beautiful, and still are. The greatest cause in Charlie’s life was trying to revive the American family.”

“When he spoke to young people he was always eager to tell them about God’s vision to marriage, and how if they could just dare to live it out it would enrich every part of their live in the same way it enriched ours.”