For Reading and Meditation:
John 8:21-36
We saw yesterday that the phenomenon of catharsis comes about not simply through telling someone else our troubles, but when that other person is a warm, accepting and understanding individual. Psychologists believe the explanation for this to be the fact that the warm, accepting manner of the helper is so directly opposite to the harsh, judgmental attitudes of those who caused the hurts that repressed feelings easily surface and are released. What has this law of the personality to do with the subject now under discussion? A great deal, I believe. In Jesus Christ we find Someone who not only yearns for our trust, but is worthy of our trust. To sit in His presence is to hear words similar to those He spoke to the woman caught in adultery: "Neither do I condemn you ' go now, and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). Such acceptance, such compassion, such concern, cannot fail to produce within every heart a willingness to open up those hurts and fears which have been so deeply repressed. As I said yesterday, I have witnessed on countless occasions this strange and mysterious phenomenon of catharsis take place as, in the presence of love and acceptance, repressed hurts and ideas are discharged from the personality. But beautiful and wondrous as this natural phenomenon is, it is as nothing compared to the glory and radiance that a person shows when they stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Wonderful Counsellor, and experience a catharsis that reaches, not merely into the outer regions of the heart, but to its greatest depths. To have such an experience is not just to be free - it is to be free indeed.
My Father and my God, slowly things are coming into focus. I am beginning to understand what You mean when You say: "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Purge me to the depths of my being. In Jesus' Name. Amen.