Article June 29, 1992 Issue

A religious article, treating a contemporary topic and showing how spiritual insight can help and heal, is published in each edition of The Christian Science Monitor. From time to time we reprint Monitor religious articles of special interest to Sentinel readers.

Forgiving the past, freeing ourselves

The Christian Science Monitor

A magazine article linked two subjects that to me ordinarily seem unrelated—forgiveness and addiction. "Emotional illness can be said to be caused by the inability to forgive," the author said. "It isn't the trauma that causes the illness; it's the repression of the trauma, the refusal to talk to anyone about it. We keep the pain inside and don't ever look at it—and if we can't even look at our pain we cannot forgive the ones who hurt us."^{John Bradshaw, "Our Families, Ourselves," Lears, March 1989 .}

At first the analysis seemed interesting, though not necessarily connected to spiritual healing, which is my particular interest. But then I read the following, written by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health: "Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under such circumstances, to say that there is no evil is an evil in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie. Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle."

As I thought more about it, the relationship between spiritual healing, prayer, and the honesty needed to confront ills of the past, began to make sense.

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