Making
Whole
“I
feel that sin and evil are the negative parts of you, and I think
it's like a battery: you've got to have the negative and the positive
in order to be a complete person.”
Dolly
Parton
For
the past three weeks, we've been talking about sin and forgiveness in
the Spirituality Group, and I've already written a good bit about
them. You may be tired of reading it, but there are still a few
things left to say. Yesterday, we spoke about “confession” in the
Catholic Church. One woman told of being required to confess to a
priest when she was a teenager. She made things up, since she had to
tell the him something, and would never have admitted her actual
sins! Which, of course, is a sin. She said, however, that confession
has its place in religion, because it allows one an opportunity to be
absolved of sin, and let go of punishing themselves. I agree with
that...we need a confessor, though it need not be a priest. A
counselor, or a good friend, will do.
We've
spoken about sin as missing the mark, or getting off course, and as
harboring ill will and wanting revenge. We see a lot of that today.
Carl Jung wrote, “Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is,
on the whole, less good than he imagines himself to be. Everyone
carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's
conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” Once again,
consciousness is everything. When we know our own demons, we are less
likely to project them onto others, and less likely to condemn others
for their demons. And that brings us to the subject of forgiveness.
One
member of the spirituality group said, “If forgiveness means I
allow the abuse to continue, and do not defend myself against it, I
want nothing to do with it.” I don't blame her. Forgiveness is not
opening yourself up to harm. Everyone has a right to protection, and
sometimes that means never seeing, or speaking to, the abuser again.
Forgiveness is simply letting go of condemnation. It is done for
oneself—to clear the dark vault of resentment that poisons so many
lives. Dolly Parton is quite right. We all have both ends of the
battery. Best to know it, name it, claim it. Awareness of both
positive and negative parts is needed to make a complete person.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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