Dear Pali Pres,
I recently came upon a powerful piece in Plough Magazine on the theme of repairing relationships. Given all that is going on in the world right now, and given how each of us carry within us a least a few regrets, burdens, and unhealed wounds, I found this article to be especially touching in how it articulated the restorative power of personal forgiveness. Within the article were writings on repair and reconciliation from spiritual authors including Teresa of Ávila and Desmond Tutu. However, it was an excerpt from the book Interior Freedom by theologian and priest Jacques Philippe that spoke to me the most. I share it with you now in hopes that Philippe’s words and message will speak to your heart too and help lead you closer to “interior freedom.”
There are times in every life when we find ourselves in situations of trial and difficulty, either affecting us or someone we love. We can do nothing. However much we turn things over and examine them from every angle, there is no solution. The feeling of being helpless and powerless is a painful trial, especially when it concerns someone close to us: to see someone we love in difficulties without being able to help is one of the bitterest sufferings there is.
Many parents experience it. When children are small, there is always a way of intervening, helping them. When children are older and no longer heed advice, it can be terrible for parents to see their sons or daughters turning to drugs or launching destructive love affairs. Much as the parents want to help, they cannot. At such times we should tell ourselves that even if we apparently have no way of intervening, we still, despite everything, can continue to believe, hope, and love. We can believe that God will not abandon our child and our prayer will bear fruit in due course. We can hope in the Lord’s faithfulness and power for everything. We can love by continuing to carry that person in our heart and prayer, forgiving them and forgiving the wrong done to them and expressing love in every way available to us, including trust, self-abandonment, and forgiveness. The more devoid of means our love is, the purer and greater it is. Even when externally there is nothing to be done, we still have inner freedom to continue to love. No circumstance, however tragic, can rob us of that. For us, this should be a liberating and consoling certainty amidst the trial of powerlessness.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Matt