<\/div>\n
There\u2019s a great story about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque\u00a0who, when she first started recieving visions of our Lord Jesus, did the very sensible Catholic thing and consulted her confessor about them. The confessor \u2013 a private-revelation-is-stupid kind of man \u2013 assumed that the visions were from the devil. He gave her a series of questions to ask Him, in order to prove He was who He said He was. The vision answered all the questions truthfully, but the confessor was not convinced. He told St. Margaret\u00a0to go back and ask the vision, \u201cWhat sins did I confess yesterday?\u201dShe did, and returned to him confused. \u201cWhat did he say?\u201d the confessor asked. \u201cHe told me he did not know,\u201d she responded simply. \u201cHe has forgotten.\u201d And from that point on the confessor believed her, for only God forgets our sins \u2013 the devil uses them against us.<\/p>\n
Think about that. Our Lord doesn\u2019t merely forgive our sins. He forgets them. This raises an obvious paradox, or perhaps just an obvious problem: How can an all-knowing God forget? Does that not contradict his very nature? The answer \u2013 I think \u2013 is that sin is the only thing our God must forget, for sin is the only thing not of God. In God, there is no distinction between forgiving and forgetting. If God and man are reconciled, how can an infinite being \u201cremember\u201d that which is not of Him and \u2013 because of reconciliation \u2013 is no longer a part of his beloved creation? The sin, quite simply, does not exist.<\/p>\n
Of course, this leaves us humans in a unique situation for \u2013 being fallen \u2013 sin is very much a part of us, as human as a glass of beer and American as cherry pie. It has been said that sin is the only thing we can really be proud of, for all else is the grace of God. Which is beautiful \u2013 really \u2013 because it\u2019s also the one thing we should never be proud of. But regardless, we remember where God forgets. God pulls out the arrows we shoot ourselves with, but wounds remain; we call them guilt.<\/p>\n
The common view of the matter is that guilt is a Very Bad Thing. What is modernism but an attempt to erase guilt? What is our culture of moral relativism, our pro-choice, co-habitating, be-true-to-yourself, find-your-own-right-and-wrong world than a massive attempt to cover up our wounds; a bad attempt at soothing our aching souls; an evasion of sin by the evasion of the confessional? And even within Christianity, there is a mentality of \u201cbe free\u201d that equates guilt with sin; just the result of an evil act that should be avoided like the act itself. There is truth to this, but I\u2019d like to flip it upside-down, with a few reservations.<\/p>\n
Guilt is a gift. God forgets our sins, but he allows us to remember. Guilt is the reminder that sin is not part of our nature \u2013 it is the rebellion of the soul, as the body rebels against a foreign disease. Like so much in Catholicism, guilt meets us at the very human, very flesh and bone area of our lives \u2013 it is not vague, not some state of sorrow reached by thoughtful meditation \u2013 it is guilt, and it follows sin. Because we don\u2019t like guilt, it makes it easier to avoid the sins we do like, as one might avoid chocolate for fear of the inevitable calories, or liquor for the fear of a hangover. Hey, that\u2019s good: Guilt is a hangover. Now, if we were good and shiny-souled Catholics, the mere fact that sin is wrong would be enough to lend us haloes and turn us into immaculate beings. But \u2013 and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever mentioned this before \u2013 we suck at our religion, and God is very aware of it. So we have the gift of a hangover, the gift of guilt to meet us in a very real and inevitable way, to help us stop sinning.
\n
\n<\/span><\/span>But all things in moderation, my friends \u2014 guilt included. If it shows us the error in our ways and helps us overcome sin, then it is good, but if it leads to despair, to not believing we are \u2014 or can be \u2014 forgiven, then the guilt is garbage, a lie whispered into our ears about our own inadequacy. Let guilt do it\u2019s job, feel sorrow for your sin, but wear it lightly and joyfully, for it is not pulling us down, put pushing us a little closer to holiness.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a great story about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque\u00a0who, when she first started recieving visions of our Lord Jesus, did the very sensible Catholic thing and consulted her confessor about them. The confessor \u2013 a private-revelation-is-stupid kind of man \u2013 assumed that the visions were from the devil. He gave her a series of questions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[26,8],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-another-look","tag-sainthood","tag-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n
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