Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions

by Gerald G. May

truly free choices for love must be made over and against something else. There is no authentic freedom if we are consistently drawn to one clearly preferable option; again, who would choose otherwise? The excruciating reality is that truly free, loving choices cannot be easy. In fact, one might timorously propose that the most free and loving choices are those that call forth the relinquishing of what one holds most dear. It is another meaning of the cross. The joy and beauty of freedom and love must be bought with pain. We might wish that God had created things otherwise, so that an easier life could be possible, but a careful look at our own history will prove such a wish empty. It is precisely where we have chosen, most painfully and with greatest personal risk, to say yes to love and freedom that we have found the most richness and joy. Indeed, it is not easy, but we would grow to hate it if it were. Thus, ironically, we must have attachments if we are to be free. We have to turn away before we can come home with dignity. Just as God invites us toward love, we must be pulled away. Just as we crave freedom, we must be seduced into slavery. It is here, perhaps, that temptation begins to make a little sense in the light of love. It is still not an attractive concept; I do not think it was ever meant to be. Our temptations are trials, certainly. And each of our addictions proves how we have responded—not simply from our conscious will, but from the totality of our being. ...