The Voice of Guilt is one of the most powerful influences the human mind and heart we can ever experience. True Guilt arises when we realize that what is said of us, our wrong doing, is both fact and belonging to what is evil. Our accusers can be others who know of our actions, or just ourselves when we measure our deeds against what is truth.
But there is one Accuser who's voice can lock up our hearts with unbreakable chains of guilt, it is Satan. Satan knows what deeds belong to evil, for he is the father of evil. He also knows the intimate details and motives of our actions. With the full force of an attorney for the prosecution, he lays out his case for our guilt with the full wait of irrefutable evidence. We may employ the services of psychology to explain away your actions but we are no celestial attorneys and no match for Satan.
Our sentence is inescapable, banishment to utter desolation. As the shackles of guilt are fasten tightly around our soul, the darkness of despair engulfs us, our sentence is pronounced.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: The salvation
and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have
now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown out:
the one who accuses them before our God day and night. Rev. 12:10
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FORGIVEN! Satan's case against us has been thrown out. "I forgive you. Go in peace." It is God's plan that we should abide in truth and experience the peace that flows from it. Evil wars against that plan and its weapons are sin and guilt. Our only hope is not our self-righteousness, rather, it rests solely in forgiveness. The Roman cross was the ultimate sentence of punishment and death. Satan used it to destroy God's only Son, and thus bring down God's wrath on all humanity. But from the cross His Voice is heard. "Father, forgive them."
St Ignatius described a soul in the grip of darkness as one in "Desolation," He defined it as the "darkness of the soul, turmoil of the mind, inclination to low and earthly things, restlessness resulting from many disturbances and temptations which lead to loss of faith, loss of hope, and loss of love. It is also desolation when a soul finds itself completely apathetic, tepid, sad, and separated as it were, from its Creator and Lord" (Spiritual Exercises, p. 130).
When we are overtaken by such desolation, cling to the Cross, confess your sin and let Forgiveness set you free.
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| The VOICE of Jesus from the Cross |
Of the many voices we hear on Good Friday, the Seven Last Words of Jesus, spoken from the Cross, enter most deeply into our hearts. Here is a link to an inspirational reflection on these words. LINK
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