On Getting Past the Past

In the long discussions on the blog on the single life, I have had several comments from people who had to leave religious communities for one reason or another. I must honestly say the pain and suffering of these people moves me and calls for prayer. However, what is clear is that emotional suffering and psychological suffering interfere with our ability to see God clearly and to see what He is doing in our lives clearly. To be able to love demands that we accept Love. We can only love through Christ, in the Trinity, not of ourselves. But, sometimes, this process takes years. We also have to forgive ourselves for mistakes, failures, sin.

For the child who has never known the love of parents, especially a father, this would take Divine Intervention and grace to overcome.

For an abused person, of any age, forgiveness is necessary for healing.

For a person who has been betrayed and abandoned in marriage, the same--forgiveness and healing.

We see through a glass darkly, states St. Paul, not only because of our own sin, but the sin we endure from others. Some of us have experienced great hurt. Some of us forgave and still forgive, as we are forgiven.

As to having bad experiences in religious communities, I can personally state I understand, having been in a lay community for seven years as a young person, and having experienced rejection and selfishness by authorities in my life at the time.And yet, I regret none of my good decisions, which were made for God and did not involve sin.  Forgiveness is the key to healing. God wastes nothing we have experienced.

If one has tried a vocation and for whatever reason this path has ended up in failure, that is a real cross, again, as I know personally. However, those of us who did that made choices and tried to follow a vocation. We are not in the indecisive, non-committing group, which the statistics in several posts of the past week show, and as we see daily in the lives of lost youth. Being open, following a vocation, having that interrupted, is just plain suffering. That, too, can be a sign of dysfunction in our society. God has a plan.

God bless you all.

But, the Cross of Christ always leads to life, always. Golgotha was not the last word. The Resurrection is.

I repeat the rule that no anonymous commenting will be published, and I also do not publish references to the Church or the Pope which I consider rude or blasphemous. If I feel others would not accept or be able to read a comment calmly, or with love, I do not publish those either. I pray for my readers and commentators. God has a plan for all of us. Be hopeful, have courage.