Guilt

After the comments that Kathryn made on my article on Ash Wednesday, I thought I should clarify a bit what I was trying to say about exploring guilt.

Guilt is, I still believe a wholesome and good thing, when it’s in its proper place. The proper role of guilt is to alert us when we’ve done something wrong that we have not yet put right. If we have done nothing specific wrong, guilt is not appropriate. If we have made amends or corrected our mistake, guilt is no longer appropriate. So, I believe, Lent is a time for searching our life and examining what we have done, looking to see whether we need to make amends or correct anything. As such, it involves guilt, because we are looking for those things that produce guilt.
However, because Lent is a time for self-examination, it might well be that it is also a time for getting rid of guilt. If we feel guilty for no reason, or generalised guilt for being “not good enough”, or continued guilt for things that have been dealt with, now is the time to deal with this. For realising that, however bad we think we are, God truly loves us – the caring arms of the Creator enfold us, the strong hand of the Sustainer of All Things lifts us up. For understanding that no one is ever “good enough” for God, which is the only standard that really matters, and that God knows this and simply doesn’t care; God made us and cares for us and will help us to become what we should be. For accepting that the past is truly dealt with, that sin is truly forgiven, that hurts should be healed; the Great and True Healer does not hold grudges but mends and heals and helps us to grow.
As Kathryn said, the church is often not good at this second aspect of guilt – of dealing with it. But it should be. Guilt is necessary as a motivating force, but it must be kept in its proper place, which requires that we, as the church, learn how to help each other.
The wilderness is a place where we learn about ourselves and deal with it. Simply finding fault with ourselves is no good. We must use that knowledge to grow closer to God.
This is the purpose of Lent – through self-examination, both to see our faults and to deal with them.
Easter will be soon upon us, the time of resurrection and life, of forgiveness and healing, of endings and of new beginnings.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 10:58am on 14 February 2005
Category: Faith, Musing