A deeply painful essay to read, The New Scar On My Soul begins:
My soul carries a new scar. The pain is fresh and keen, and I know that while time might see the pain fade, I will never fully recover from what I’ve seen, and done. For I have failed, intentionally and knowingly, in the first duty of a parent: protecting the lives of two of my children.
How he fails is the deeply painful, indeed searing, part. I’m not sure of the spiritual propriety of this, but I am unspeakably grateful that this is one sin I don’t have on my conscience — though the Christian knows that at the Judgment he may hear “No, granted, you didn’t do that, but you did do this and that and the other thing, and you did them over and over,” and he may find himself miles and miles behind this man in the entry line for the heavenly gates if not on the boat to Purgatory.
But in this life, anyway, I’m not sure I could bear it or show the courage in facing it the writer does. Most of you will feel the same, I think. It’s one of those things that make you long for the grace of God, because some sins you’ll never, ever, be able to talk yourself into accepting. We need more than the hope of balancing the scales of justice the writer mentions at the end.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
