As soon as we are insulted, slighted or hurt by another, we must immediately renounce, in Jesus’ name and His Most Precious Blood, the spirit of pride and spirit of revenge, and surrender our wounded heart over to Him, so He can heal us and fill us with mercy and compassion. This is a difficult thing, for both pride and revenge come so naturally to us when we are even the least bit slighted.
How many times can I count the moments when even a minor hurtful comment from another caused me to burn with anger and be filled with thoughts of revenge and how I would like to say or do this or that to let them know how wrong they were–even rehearsing in my mind how the conversation may go, how best to make them understand what they did or said was wrong. Then, I would bring others into my misery and speak badly to them of this person who hurt me.
Our hearts were made pure and sensitive to love gently and kindly, as our Lord does. In truth, we can barely stand the pain of our wounds. So in our brokenness, our pride wells up and we turn our focus outward toward the one who hurt us. We either lash out or silently contemplate our revenge, and sometimes the pain fills our heart with feelings of sadness and thoughts of self-condemnation. If we stay in this state of wounded pride, it keeps us from healing.
This is not the Lord’s will for us. The Lord desires for us to turn to Him in every moment. He knows how sensitive our hearts are, because he made them. And what He wants us to know is that only He can heal our wounded hearts. So the moment our wounded pride takes over, we must pray for the grace to turn back to Him to keep from furthering our pain and suffering. This is not the way of the world, and is not our natural inclination, so even praying for the grace to turn immediately to our Lord when we are hurt is an act of mercy by Jesus. It is a continual prayer we must make. And Praise Be to God, He will do the work for us, if we only turn to Him. If only we look to Him, and renounce, in His name, our self-love and pride, and surrender ourselves and woundedness over to Him, He will take over and heal us.
During meditation one day, after reflecting on how a slight from another hurt my heart and how the rest of my day was spent ruminating on what happened, plotting my response, venting to others on the audacity of the hurtful words, I realized how much in misery I still was. Even after pushing it aside and believing I had moved on, there was still a tinge of pain each time I thought about it.
The Lord revealed to me how my misery could of have been lessened, would I have immediately surrendered my wounded heart to Him instead of giving in to my pride. So in that moment, I did just that. I renounced, in the name of Jesus and His Most Precious Blood and His Most Sacred Heart, the spirit of pride and the spirit of revenge and surrendered my wounded heart to Him. I felt His pure love pour into the cracks of my heart created by the wound. He then showed me the one who hurt me and why that person said what they said and what they were feeling at the time. I was filled with compassion and understanding. He embraced me with His loving arms as He did this. He looked at me with kindness, filled me with the joy He had because I had turned to Him and let Him heal my wound.
May we always come to Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May God grant us the grace to desire to grow in holiness and the grace to desire mercy over revenge.
English