Florida Catholic | Post-Abortion Healing And The Penitent Woman

Post–abortion healing and the penitent woman

One in an occasional series of columns about Project Rachel post-abortion ministry in Florida.

BARBARA GROEBER | SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA CATHOLIC

Published: 07.31.08

For more than 20 years, the Archdiocese of Miami has offered the Project Rachel program for those who have been involved with abortion, the second victims. Those of us who have been privileged to work in this ministry have been touched in a most profound way by the mothers and fathers of the aborted babies.

There were three special-interest groups that were close to the heart of Jesus: the poor, children and sinners. Even though we are all sinners, most of us tend to separate ourselves from the group of serious sinners.

Jesus addresses this in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee, a man who saw himself as a decent and upstanding person, not a serious sinner. The Pharisee neglects to show respect to Jesus by performing the customary washing of feet. However, a sinful woman approaches Jesus and begins bathing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Jesus goes on to teach us why the behavior of these two people is totally different.

When the woman encountered Jesus, she became painfully aware of her sins and sense of hopelessness. Jesus not only offers her forgiveness, but also brings her back into full communion with him. Because her sins were many, when forgiven her response was that of great love. Imagine how heaven rejoiced!

This penitent woman who encounters Jesus is the face of the second victim of abortion. When a woman contacts a Project Rachel counselor, the presence of God is always evident. I remember a young woman just showing up at our door one day, saying, “I don’t know how I got here.” Moments later the tears were flowing as she began talking about her abortion and the overwhelming problems she was now encountering in her life. The second victim is usually amazed that someone understands her pain and sorrow. She begins to experience the possibility of hope for a way out of this mess! Finally there is light at the end of this very black tunnel she has been in – a way back home to Jesus!

What these second victims of abortion will never understand is the profound effect they have on the lives of Project Rachel counselors by allowing us to see the face of the penitent woman. Because of the graveness of the offense, they have no trouble admitting how seriously they have sinned and keenly recognize their hope for salvation as a pure gift from God, totally undeserved.

The counselor is forced to look upon her own sinfulness and becomes more acutely aware of the seriousness of all sin. At times, God gives the counselor a great gift, a glance of seeing what God sees as he looks down upon this penitent woman. You can actually see her glow!

The pro-death movement is terrified of these second victims because they recognize the power they have to expose the horror of abortion through their firsthand experiences. But they should also fear the zeal of those who are now forgiven and are in relationship with God and their aborted children. These people will never lose the passion of fighting for the rights of the unborn.

We know that abortion changes a person, and ultimately the whole of society, in a devastating way. But we also need to realize that when a sinner repents, through the love and mercy of God the sinner is transformed, and ultimately the whole of society, but this time in an amazingly beautiful way. Many of these second victims will be transformed into the great saints of our day! n

Groeber is the education coordinator and Project Rachel coordinator for the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Miami. Contact her at 305-653-2966 or bgroeber@bellsouth.net.

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