| | FEELING GUILTY
A Sermon by the Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
"I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him,
`Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no
longer worthy to be called your son....'" (Lu. 15: 18f)
Among the pains of life that trouble us are guilt feelings.
We have all had these. Yet many students of behavior today
question the value of a guilt feeling. We face the question: Is
it right or wrong to feel guilty? When is it right and when is
it wrong?
The answers to these questions will help us form a healthy
attitude about ourselves--about both our spiritual progress and
our natural way of life.
It is sometimes necessary to feel the anguish and concern of
guilt; sometimes it is not necessary. We should be able to
distinguish between a genuine sense of guilt and a false one.
The one is most useful in awakening us to the spiritual dangers
which threaten our eternal life, but the other merely saps our
spiritual vitality and reduces our usefulness. In this sermon we
will look at the question of guilt and its use in our life.
We believe in guilt because we believe in Divine law. Guilt
exists when the law is knowingly broken. Some fail to recognize
any absolute laws of human behavior. Therefore they seen no need
for a man to be burdened with a sense of guilt for what he thinks
or does. According to this philosophy, what the man does is
merely the normal reaction of any man who might have had this
kind of background and upbringing.
For example, should we expect a child who has been raised to
lie and steal to behave in any other way? And would it not be
wrong for us to burden this child with a sense of guilt for doing
the things he has been brought up to do? He is not responsible
for his training and should not feel guilty for his deeds. Are
not we, rather, the guilty ones for failing to provide this child
with benefits of care and training that would have led him to
more socially acceptable behavior?
This viewpoint has appeal because there is a half truth in
it. It is true that people may break laws innocently and may be
in disorders for which they themselves are not responsible. They
should not feel guilty for this. But this does not mean that
there are no laws.
Where there is a belief in God a belief in Divine law must
be accepted as a natural consequence. And where there is order
according to law there exists also the possibility of disorder.
We can see the truth of this on the natural plane of life and it
is just as true on the spiritual plane.
Take, for example, our physical health. It is maintained by
a balanced life. If we eat too much, stay up too late, or over-
exert ourselves, we create strains on the body that may result in
disorders or complete physical breakdown. When we begin to
break the laws of health the body lets us know. It hurts, or we
feel sick. There is a corresponding mechanism on the spiritual
plane of life. Here, too, the intended order of the Lord's
creation may be broken; here too, there is a warning signal
enabling us to correct the disorder and return to normal. This
is the function of a sense of guilt. It warns us of spiritual
transgressions that could lead to our spiritual death. It is
like a pain, but an internal one. So a guilty feeling sometimes
is referred to as "a pain of conscience." Guilt is a danger
signal.
Of course, no one enjoys pain. Neither does anyone enjoy
feeling guilty. Yet these sensations have a use. Without a
sense of guilt we will not notice the evils of spiritual life and
consequently will suffer from their effects.
On the other hand, just as there are those who are super-
sensitive to bodily pain, who think and complain about it
constantly, so there are spiritual hypochondriacs who worry
constantly about guilt feelings and immerse themselves in futile
recriminations and needless self-condemnation.
Think of the sense of guilt as a merciful provision for the
sake of our happiness. The Lord derives no pleasure from man's
guilt feelings. So it is that those in hell never suffer from a
sense of guilt. They are guilty of evil, and are punished for
evils they dare to commit, but the Lord does not make them suffer
from a now useless feeling of guilt. The case is similar even in
this life. So we are told in the Arcana:
"If...when a man betakes himself to evils, he feels any
anxiety when he reflects upon his having done what is evil, it is
a sign...that he will afterward suffer himself to be reformed;
but if, when he reflects upon his having done what is evil, he
has no anxious feeling, it is a sign...that he will not afterward
suffer himself to be reformed" (AC 5470).
There is a use in a sense of guilt. Yet we must realize
that not all the guilt feelings we have contribute to this use.
Some can be ignored or eliminated--some because of false
standards that we have adopted; some because of extenuating
circumstances. To feel guilty when we are not justly guilty is
to suffer needlessly. In addition, such guilt may well affect
our usefulness to others, causing us to withdraw from healthy
relationships, activities and uses.
How can we distinguish a genuine feeling of guilt from a
spurious one? First, we know that true guilt comes only from
transgressions of true law. Society and self-appointed moralists
often have set up laws of behavior that are artificial. Recall
how the Lord rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for requiring
burdensome obedience to customs and traditions of the people
while forgetting the essence of the law.
If we know from the Word the truly important things of life
we will not overly concern ourselves with feeling guilty about
inconsequential social blunders or moral mishaps. Not that we
should ignore accepted external forms of behavior and
deliberately flaunt customs and traditions, but our concern about
them should be relative to their importance in life.
Divine laws of order are established to promote uses. The
extent of true guilt in any matter is measured by the degree that
a use is harmed or destroyed by what we do. Our knowledge of
Divine laws of order and a perception of uses of life, which
comes only from regular study of the Word, are the important
means by which we may eliminate false standards from our concern
and thus free ourselves from false or imagined feelings of guilt.
One of our greatest worries, at least when we reflect upon
our spiritual life, is our inherited evil. We all are inclined
to certain hereditary tendencies toward evil and a disposition to
put self before the neighbor. We should know that the Heavenly
Doctrine is quite clear about our hereditary inclinations. We
all have them and we all, no doubt, have a sense of guilt about
them. It is important to remember, therefore, that what we have
inherited is an inclination and not a guilt.
We are not condemned for Adam's sin or our father's or
grandfather's sins. "The soul who sins shall die," declared the
prophet Ezekiel. "The son shall not bear the guilt of the
father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezek. 18: 20).
We are not guilty for our inheritance but for what we make
our own by our free and rational choice. Our heredity has a
powerful influence upon us. Our will is formed from it.
Sometimes we act from our hereditary will and these inclinations
are revealed in our life. This does not necessarily mean we are
guilty for what we have done. We may not even be aware of the
seriousness of what we have done.
We know that children are not condemned to hell yet they
often act from their hereditary will. They have not yet learned
that these inclinations are evil. We, too, may act without
thinking from inclinations of our will. Often this happens in a
moment of sudden stress or emotion. We become angry--strike out
with word or deed against someone who opposes us. Later, we
regret it and perhaps feel terribly guilty for what we have done.
Certainly, we should regret our action. Should we feel guilty
about it?
The Writings teach that "evil from the will and not at the
same time from the intellectual does not condemn, because the man
does not see it, thus does not consider whether it is evil, and
therefore he is not conscious of it. Such evil is evil from
heredity, before the man has been instructed that it is evil, and
also after he has been instructed and is merely in external life,
or the life of the body" (AC 9009 underlining added).
Any action taken without thinking--whether from ignorance or
in a state when rational reflection is not possible--is not an
action that condemns us. Again, we are taught: "Evils which
proceed solely from the will, thus not with premeditation, are
such as the man inclines to hereditarily, or from some previous
consequent actual doing of evil. These are not imputed to the
man," we are told, "unless he has confirmed them in his
intellectual part..." (AC 9009). Such is the mercy of the Lord.
We may suffer also from the feeling that our inherited
tendencies are worse than the tendencies of anyone else. It is
true that the evils to which we incline may differ greatly from
those to which others incline, yet we are no more guilty of them,
no matter how depraved, than others are guilty of theirs.
Everyone is given the chance to recognize his tendencies for what
they are, to know in his thought that they are from hell, and to
wish to be rid of them. We are all alike and equal in this
regard.
Even if we commit an evil after recognizing it in ourselves
and desiring to be rid of it, we are not necessarily condemned.
True, the Heavenly Doctrine teaches: "to see and to understand
that a thing is evil, and still do it, makes a man guilty" (AC
9069), and that "the man who knows a thing to be evil, and does
not repress it, is guilty; for he approves it" (AC 9075). These
are strong teachings and should not be ignored. Still, it is not
easy to be rid of the habit of evil--especially one that has been
entered into from youth and is strongly confirmed. It requires
repeated effort and trial and the Lord allows for human weakness
and failure.
As the Lord said to Peter when He had found His disciples
sleeping while He Himself suffered agony in the garden of
Gethsemane: "Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest
you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the
flesh is weak" (Mk. 14: 38). He knew better than they knew just
how weak, for He was in the flesh. The spirit is willing, or
ready, but the flesh is weak. It is an all too familiar saying.
Actually, the meaning is just the opposite. The flesh, or
the call of the natural will and its selfish demands, is most
powerful. Sometimes it can overpower the best intentions of a
willing spirit.
The Lord has provided that our salvation does not depend
upon what the flesh does or does not do. It depends rather upon
our inner purpose, intention and end in life. So we read that:
"Evil or good is imputed to every one according to the nature of
the will in his deeds, and according to the nature of his
understanding concerning them" (CL 527: 2). If a man does evil
"from some prevailing concupiscence of the body, it is not
imputed to him because he did not propose it to himself and does
not confirm it with himself" (CL 529).
This is a most important teaching in that it relieves man of
the greatest burden of guilt which he is likely to feel--guilt
for failure to do what he knows is right. We are not condemned
for the evils we do which we did not intend to do and which we
regret afterwards. This does not mean we should be unconcerned,
or should not try to avoid every situation that leads to a
downfall of this kind. Every evil we commit brings both
spiritual and natural harm to ourselves and others.
Yet this is taught: "With the man who from natural is
becoming spiritual there are two things, commonly called the
spirit and the flesh, which in the beginning combat against each
other...If it happens that the lust of the flesh is aroused to a
heat beyond what the spirit acting from reason can restrain, it
follows that...the heat of lust pours such allurements over the
spirit that it is no longer master of its reason and hence of its
duty" (CL 488).
Evils committed in such a state are imputed or judged in a
man according to the degree his understanding afterwards does or
does not favor them. If the man does not favor what he has done
and confirms his intention not to do it again, he is not guilty
of the evil as he would be if he favored his deed and made it
allowable in his own mind.
This doctrine is not to be used as an excuse to yield to the
demands of the flesh whenever they come in conflict with the
ideals of the spirit. Yet, if we fall, as we often do, we can
know that there will be another opportunity to combat our evil
inclinations. We should not become discouraged remembering that
the most fatal insinuation of the hells is the feeling of despair
for our salvation.
Our feelings of guilt should be most acute when we discover
an interior intention of doing evil, knowing that it is wrong yet
not wishing to put it away. If we recognize such an intention,
let us make ourselves guilty of it, confessing it before the Lord
and asking His help to shun it. This is repentance.
Neither are the demands of repentance great. If it is
undertaken at recurring seasons it is sufficient to initiate us
into the way that leads to heaven. "If from will and
understanding, or purpose and confirmation (men) abstain from one
evil because it is a sin, and still more if they abstain from
several, they abstain from all: for as soon as one from purpose
or confirmation abstains from any evil because it is a sin, he is
held by the Lord in the purpose of abstaining from the rest.
Therefore, if he does evil from ignorance or from some prevailing
concupiscence of the body, it is not imputed to him because he
did not propose it to himself and does not confirm it with
himself. A man comes into this purpose if once or twice a year
he examines himself and repents of the evil which he finds in
himself. Not so with one who never examines himself" (CL 529).
Let us, therefore, like the prodigal son of the Lord's
parable, say in the awareness of our guilt: "I will arise and go
to my father, and will say to him, "Father I have sinned against
heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called
your son...." (Lu. 15: 18f).
And the Lord will answer: "Do I have any pleasure at all
that the wicked should die...and not that he should turn from his
ways and live? Therefore turn and live!" (Ezek. 18: 23, 32).
Amen.
Lessons: Ezek. 18: 20-32; Lu. 15: 11-24; AC 9009../ |