Out of Darkness ~ What Jesus Needs

As a Protestant I was taught that Jesus didn't need anything from us. In a way that is true. The Blessed Trinity existed outside of time and space before anything was created, including mankind, and the Trinity needed nothing created in order to be complete. But God is love, as we know, and while love needs an object, love is fulfilled when the object of love, loves in return. God gifted man with free will so that he can either choose to respond to God's love with love or with rejection.



Mere moments before He gave up His Spirit, Jesus said "I thirst." St. Therese, Doctor of the Church, said that He not only had a physical thirst, but also thirsted for the souls of mankind. He thirsted for our love freely given in response to His laying down of His life for us. After all, after being arrested the night before, beaten for hours on end, mocked and scourged and made to stand before one magistrate after another, don't you suppose he had gotten thirsty long before this? And since there were so few words spoken by Christ from the cross, I would imagine that each and every one of them were packed with significance. So was He just thirsty for water, or thirsty for the fruit of His Passion - the love of His creatures in response to His great love for us?

So, what does this have to do with the rest of the Out of Darkness series? What does it have to do with healing from sexual abuse in particular? Just this: That most victims of sexual abuse by a spiritual authority initially run from God or from religion in an attempt to find relief. But God, in His Holy love for us, continues to pursue us in an attempt to heal us and to help us understand that while the wolf that hurt us was disguised as His emissary, His love for us is completely unselfish. That far from taking from us, He is willing to prove His love for us by giving us His very last drop of blood.

So where was all this love while we were being violated? Where was He when my father violated my body and soul? He was hanging naked on the cross beaten and abused because what was going to happen to me 2000 years later was so vile and ugly that only His Passion could atone for it. The cross was so ugly because the sin committed against you and me was so ugly. He was so violently rejected by those He loved because those He loved would someday violate you so horribly that only such suffering could heal us. By His wounds we are healed . . .

Stop running my friend. Turn and see the One who loves you in all Holiness and chastity. See the one Who longs to heal your heart and soul and Who thirsts to receive the love you give Him by an act of your free will in response to His self sacrifice. No one else can make the pain go away. No amount of human love, no amount of pleasure, no amount of pain-numbing substance or experience can eradicate the silent suffering. His love alone heals the wound and leaves no scar.

Go contemplate the nearest crucifix and open yourself to the healing love of Jesus Christ. Know in your heart that He does understand how much it hurt. Know that He understands what it is like to not be believed, to be told He is a fool or a liar or crazy. He knows and He understands and He cares so deeply that He is willing to endure the worst kind of death to prove that His love is pure and He is worthy of our love in return. Crawl inside His wounds, let Him hide you from the nightmare and sooth the pain. He can make your whole. He can give you back what has been taken. He can set you free.