A Dark and Deadly Belief
GUILT
& SHAME
Habiliments of the dead
“I have grasped
you by the hand;
I formed you,
and set you
as a covenant
of the people,
a light for
the nations,
to open the
eyes of the
blind, to bring
out prisoners
from confinement,
and from the
dungeon, those
who live in
darkness.” (Isaiah
42.6-7)
Blessed
words!
Hope beyond measure! Listen ...
“to
bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who
live in darkness.”
How many of us live in the tomb
from which Christ called Lazarus!
Bound by our fears, our shame, all
the sins that we have spun around
us like winding cloths upon the
dead, binding us to the point of
paralysis, throttling our voices,
covering our eyes, smothering us
to life — we are as the living
dead.
The mess we have made
of our lives! The sins of which
we are guilty! The shame that burns
on our faces! We dare not approach
the exit from the tomb, dare not
venture out into the light, but
like leprous dead we tie the cords
around us more tightly with every
passing year ...
Prisoners of our Guilt and Shame
Is there a fate worse than this?
A greater mutilation? A death more
terrible? To die before we die?
To imprison ourselves in our
guilt when God Himself calls us
out? The light, we fear, will
do more than blind us who are so
accustomed to darkness and death
— it will reveal us —
uncover
all our shame, our guilt, our lies,
our deceit, our sin!
Only
this long-held
and deadly belief is worse than
the living death we have chosen!
It is
this pain, this mistaken
anticipation of greater
pain still, that keeps the rock
across the exit of our tombs!
But what has God told us?
“Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be made as white as snow.”
God has seen your sorrow!
You are forgiven!
Forgiven! It is past, done,
forgotten, erased. They are no
more!
...
“Behold, I make all things new!”
(Apocalypse
21.5)
We who live in the dungeons that we have
carved out of the guilt and sin
in our lives; we who dwell in a darkness
that knows no light because it knows
no forgiveness — must begin
to understand that the Light has
come! It is Christ Himself! And
He bids us come forth! He
calls us to leave the death we have
chosen, to sunder the cables of
sin that stake our hearts to an
unforgiveness that is only our
own ... not Christ’s! To
throw off the habiliments
... habiliments of the dead that
have no place upon the living.
Yes, you were once dead in sin
— but no more! If the Son of Man
sets you free, you are free indeed!
If He forgives, who can condemn?
If He remembers no more, who will
recall what
is no more?
Do not look at men! Do not look
at those surrounding the valley
of death in which you have set
your tomb — fix your eyes upon
Him Who stands in the midst of it — at
the very gate of your tomb ... and
Who calls you out! He sets you free! When you emerge, all the burial
clothes that you have wound so tightly
around yourself will fall to your
feet ... and you will step out,
and know Life — for Christ Himself
calls you forth from the dead!
There are two deaths.
One is holy and one is not
There are those who, for the sake
of God, die to themselves for the
Kingdom, while yet alive, and
live... these are the holy.
And there are those who, for the
sake of men, die before they die,
never knowing life, and while yet
alive are dead. This is
the ugliness of sin that mutilates
us and brings corruption even to living flesh!
Christ calls you! ... both from
that death before you die ...
and to that death before you
die.
He calls you to be free from
all fear, for indeed:
“If
therefore the Son shall make you
free, you shall be free indeed.”
(St. John 8.36)
Do not worry, then, if you are found naked
when the shroud falls to the ground:
you will be clothed ... in
glory; the glory of Jesus Christ Himself.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Comments?
Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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