Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

We are a society that wants instant gratification.
Everything around us speaks to it from music to advertisements, we are told
this or that will make us happy, but the truth is, it does not, or at least not in the long term, because true happiness only
comes from union with God. Because of our desire for instant gratification, it
is hard for us to be patient even when it comes to trusting God with our
healing and believing in His love for us.

 We have somehow lost the concept of patient waiting, instead
looking to our “feelings” to gage reality, when in fact our feelings are often
very far from what is truth

In healing from abortion many women and men want it,”right
here, right now”. They are looking for that instant gratification unable to
separate the forgiveness of God from the consequence we may have as a result of
our decision. Because you may face pain does not mean you have not been
forgiven if you have confessed. There are often consequences to the damage we
have done to ourselves that need to be worked through. All the suffering will
not disappear in an “instant”, in fact, it is this suffering that is often the catalyst
that draws us closer to God, heals us deeply, and teaches us how to love with
true love.

 Although anything is possible with God, healing does not
come in a weekend. I always cringe when I hear this promise made. Healing comes
in God’s time not ours because He knows better that we do what we need. The
promise of instant gratification sets people up to believe God loves others and
not them(a fulfillment of the stinking thinking of those post abortive…”My sin
is unforgivable”) instead of trusting He is working in their lives, even when they
may be in pain.  Like the people in
today’s gospel who asked for a sign, we are always asking God to prove His love
for us in a way that is accepting to us. In spite of the poor choices we
may have made in life, we still feel we know better than He does!

As we struggle with the pain of our abortions, may each of
us trust in God enough to know He is healing us even when we do not “feel” it.
May we seek always His will, instead of our own, knowing that is where our
healing takes place.

"He is bringing
me to understand deeply how everything depends on His will,
and how He allows certain difficulties precisely for our merit …"
— Diary of St. Faustina, 1409