Free-Will is always Free




In the prologue to her book Amen ex-nun Jesme describes the religious institutions as iron curtain. In my opinion it is an unweighed term in every sense. However I don’t wish to discuss the meaning of the word here. Anybody has the right to express his or her feelings. Jesme speaks about her life as a nun, the hardships and abuses she endured for the sake of her vocation to be a nun. It is incomprehensible that an enlightened and a pious woman whose only concern was to follow Christ (her spouse as she fondly calls Him) and who even consulted or better prayed to Him to read a book, to travel or not, and etc., did not ask Jesus whether it was right to satisfy the bodily pleasures of her fellow nun, and a priest. I have an honest and direct question: Jesme, what did Jesus say when one of your community members used you everyday? Did you ever ask Jesus before doing all this? Reading Amen I am convinced that Jesme is remarkably an intelligent person. What intrigues me is the way she writes about religious life. Reading Amen one might let to think that the religious are abusers in general. It is a vocation, a choice as marriage. Reason teaches us that we are free even in most difficult circumstances. If you want to know how far we are free read the accounts of those who suffered in the concentration camps, in prisons, and those who persecuted for their God. We are always free; if someone has compromised her convictions it is in the interest of her own and not for the better glory of Christ. Christ is never glorified when those whom He called and those who chose Him freely abuse and are abused. 

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