Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

"We ask for the grace of
shame, the shame that comes from a continuous conversation of mercy with him,
the shame that makes us blush before Jesus Christ." Pope
Francis

On the recent feast of St. Ignatius, Pope Francis, speaking to about 200
Jesuits, prayed that they would receive
"the grace of shame," and the “humility to recognize that whatever good
they accomplish is really done by the Lord.” 

Those who live or have lived in shame for years because of abortion may
be thinking… shame? That is what I have been trying to get away from for years!

So, is shame a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it depends upon how we
look at it and ultimately, what we do with it.

Shame is defined as a “painful feeling of humiliation or
distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.” So, in
thinking of abortion, it seems shame would be an appropriate response. A
response that allows us to see what we have done is wrong. Imagine if we could
comit wrongful acts and not feel shame. Our hearts would need to be deadened,
and any act, no matter how wrong or evil would seem as if it were nothing.

The problem of course, comes in being stuck in the pain of
shame, of living with it day in and day out without knowing how to move out of it. It can seem as though we are unable to heal, unable to repent of the wrong we have done, and unable to forgive ourselves and accept
ourselves as humans. We are keeping the focus on ourselves, instead of seeing
ourselves in truth and looking to the only one who can heal us through His
mercy, Jesus Christ.

The solution to this shame is humility, an admittance of what we have heard over and over again in the scriptures. A deep
acknowledgment, that without God, we are all capable of any sin, and that it is
Him and His love and mercy alone, who brings us out of the darkness of shame. By ourselves we are nothing, but through Him all good things come.

Below is one of my favorites prayers by St. Ignatius that has been put into song. It speaks of a surrendering to God, a desire to freely give Him our freedom which so often leads us into sin, and requests His grace and His love as the only things we desire in this life.

In his talk to the Jesuits, Pope Francis goes on to say, "The sense of shame leads to the
virtue of humility, and a recognition that each Christian
"carries a great treasure in fragile, inadequate, insufficient earthen
vessels."

May this grace of shame bring us to a place of humility, so that each of us may always allow Christ to carry us so we can experience His peace and healing.