This struck me from my morning reading of Jesus of Nazareth, and I thought I’d share it here.
The point is this: guilt must not be allowed to fester in the silence of the soul, poisoning it from within. It needs to be confessed. Through confession, we bring it into the light, we place it within Christ’s purifying love (cf. Jn 3:20-21). In confession, the Lord washes our soiled feet over and over again and prepares us for table fellowship with him.
Every time I hear someone complain about “Catholic guilt,” I want to throw something. The “Catholic guilt” I experience is what Pope Benedict describes–it’s wiped away by the sacrament of Confession.
The guilt I had before I was Catholic, though…that was the kind of guilt that ate me up, that ruined my mind, that made me miserable. The thing about “Catholic guilt” is that you can do something about it, as often as you want.
If you have “Catholic guilt,” just look beside you. There’s Jesus, arms wide open. Will you walk into his arms or continue to pursue the burden of your guilt?
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Will you be? If you can’t afford to support financially, may I ask for your prayers?
