I do not want to conclude these reflections on the way of healing the soul before I address a subject that I deal with in more detail in retreats. It is the way of healing the subconcious. It can only be shortened in the frame of the meditations, but for the sake of its importance, it should be explained briefly.
The Lord is the Saviour of all man, that is, his healing love is to penetrate us to the last depths of our soul.
In the previous considerations, we have addressed above all what we human beings are aware of. But there is still a wide area in our soul, which is often unconscious or only semi-conscious. It may happen that, despite all our honest efforts to follow God, we do not properly overcome certain problems and they are limiting our freedom.
I am not referring to certain sufferings which the Lord has left to St. Paul, „a sting in the flesh“ ( cf. 2 Cor 12:7), so that he does not overlift himself. I speak about internal paralysis, unconscious bonds, still effective injuries and wounds, which affect our reactions to certain life conditions. In this context, I like to talk about “chains” that still burden us in the unconscious or even bind us.
To say it clearly: I do not mean the usual problems that we have through our fallen nature and the consequences of sins that we try to overcome with God’s grace, but I speak of burdens that still hold us in areas that we are not aware of.
For a better understanding, I describe a simple constructed example and then an experienced example.
Example 1:
A student – let’s call her Anna – comes on her way to school and then always passes a bakery. Every time she buys something sweet. However, her figure is beginning to deform, and even the funds at her disposal are hardly enough. She begins to suffer from this habitude and no longer feels comfortable in the daily enjoyment of the sweets. She is also increasingly noticing her lack freedom.
Since she is a believer, she wants to make a sacrifice to the Lord, at least during Lent, and to renounce her daily enjoyment. She prays fervently for the strength to do so and actually takes a firm decision. She simply avoids this way and she is successful for three days. On the fourth day, however, she wavers in her decision, goes back the old way and promptly ends up in the bakery. She is now unable to follow her original decision and is saddened not to be able to make this sacrifice to the Lord.
Why doesn’t she do it?
In this case, it is not just the habit that needs to be overcome. If we look into her life story, we see that she was often left alone by her parents, especially by her mother. She missed the natural security of the mother’s love. When the mother came home – perhaps even with a bad conscience – she always brought cakes for her daughter as a consolation.
Anna thus experiences the sweetness as a kind of substitute of the love of the mother.
The real problem for Anna is that she has not received enough love and therefore missing an inner emotional security. But she is unaware of this. So she does not realize to avoid the bakery without getting the “love replacement”.
Example 2:
When I was talking to some believers in Latvia (Eastern Eurpe – Baltic Contry) a few years ago, I noticed a great sadness in their eyes. I asked them why they were making such a sad impression. But I didn’t get an answer.
Knowing a bit the history of Latvia, I knew that this country had suffered greatly under both: Soviet communism and Hitler’s National Socialism.
Therefore, I asked the faithful present if they would notice what would still work in their souls from that time. They probably did not ask themselves such a question. But with this request from me came two answers that make you look very deep.
One answer was: We are suspicious.
The other answer was: we feel worthless.
In both examples of Anna and of the experience in Latvia, it is clear that the subconscious is influenced by negative feelings of life that have not yet been overcome. In Anna’s case, it is the lack of maternal love and attachment to a kind of surrogate that limited her freedom to act according to her choices.
In the case of Latvia, it was the consequences of the occupations by the Soviet Communists and National Socialists that set up a system of espionage and treated people as inferior. For Latvia, one can assume that this has affected large parts of the population and still unconsciously influencing the souls and the expression of their life.
What is the way of healing from God?
First of all, it would be good if we could become aware of the wounds, injuries, false information, etc., which are burdening our souls. But this is not always possible. If we become aware, we can carry them to God and ask the Holy Spirit for healing.
With Anna we see that the problem is deep, because the maternal love that she lacked cannot be adequately replaced by other people. She must encounter a greater love that can heal these wounds. This is the divine love. Anna should be gently led with her inner wound on the path of healing and always open her inner deficiency to God. For example, she can do this before the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and let the mild presence of Christ come to her. If she then makes the inner experience of God’s love, feels increasingly secure in it, her inner emptiness is filled by God’s presence, then she will be better able to act according to her free decisions. The inner problem of her is on the path of healing and she can also turn especially to the Mother of the Lord.
In the case of Latvia, there must be a growing confidence that the current situation in the life has changed, that there is not everywhere a spy who betrays and delivers people. The negative feeling of life needs a touch by the Holy Spirit to change.
With regard to the feeling of worthlessness, it is a need for a deep inner insight that our value is to be wanted, loved and redeemed by God.
Even if people treat us differently, we refer our last value to God and not from human beings. Here the conscious internalization of corresponding words of the bible can give healing.
I have chosen this example to make clear what I call the healing of the unconscious, and in my lectures on this subject I notice how many people are touched by it.
In this narrow framework of daily reflections, only the council remains from my side to ask the Lord to descend into the unconscious of us and touch all that still needs healing. Perhaps one or another thing will become clearer to us, then we should consciously lay it down to the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to touch it. Perhaps then the Lord will loosen chains that bind us in the unconscious and give us a freer expression of our redeemed being in Christ.
On this theme I always ask the choir Harpa Dei to sing a certain sacred song. This is also the case today, because it is the song to the Mother of the Lord that we often sing and invite people simply to open their souls to the beauty of the Holy Song.