Mother Siluana Vlad speaks to us
Some childhood wounds were not inflicted by blows, but by insecurity: a home where adults' moods changed without warning, love had to be earned, and the child learned to read every look to protect themselves.
The child grows up, but the alarm remains on. The adult may hear rejection in a delayed response, criticism in an ordinary observation, and abandonment in a simple distance. They fear silence, they check the other's love, and, sometimes, they leave first so as not to be abandoned again.
The old wound can choose for them: it draws them to cold people because coldness is familiar to them, it makes them reject gentleness because they don't know how to trust it, and it convinces them that they must earn every crumb of love.
Healing does not begin with endless condemnation of parents, nor with the denial of evil. Forgiveness does not turn humiliation into a good thing. It means refusing to let the past dictate every present relationship. This path may require prayer, Confession, a spiritual father, and therapy.
Christ does not ask the adult to despise that frightened child within. He calls them to bring it to light. The past can explain fear, but it must not forever retain the right to determine the future.