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.
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Comments?
Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
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