Guilt is Still Very Popular!

I notice a number of people clicking through my post of June 15, 2007, to access the link I recommended: “Guilt and Remorse.” It’s written by Jacob Needleman and puts guilt in its rightful place (“outa here!”) Remorse, on the other hand, is an honest, sorrowful look at self that can actually lead us to a better place.  

Why are we as Catholics so preoccupied with guilt? (Hubert, the fella who hangs out at the neighborhood hardware store, actually had a response to that; don’t ask me how we got on the subject. Said Hubert, “That’s akin to asking why do pigs like mud? They just go together. But I think the pigs enjoy the mud a sight more; they just look like they’re stuck. But that guilt stuff will put you in a full-body-sucking-quagmire!”)

O-K. That’s a legitimate observation. Maybe the trick is to recognize when this guilt-driven “woulda, coulda, shoulda” self loathing and paralysis kicks in? Instead, bring the situation to God in prayerful humility, acknowledging that we cannot do it alone.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis, through his characters, talks about incessant noise being an aid to the devil’s work. Silence, on the other hand, is dangerous to such diabolical maneuverings; it allows us to listen to God.

I need to be remorseful before God, sorry, humbly honest about my human condition, and attentive to God’s direction. But I do not need to sink into the false humility and self condemnation that guilt provides so readily, because God is about reconciliation: reconciliation with God, self, and others.  

 Peace.

~Mr Ed Catholic