My mother used to say not sleeping was the sign of a guilty mind. It could have been. There was a lot in my mind to feel guilty about. When you__e drunk and trying to sleep, your thoughts are visited by the ghosts of those deeds whose heat still glows hottest in your personal darkness. Our actions burn much longer than the moments in which they occur. And drunks like me, we hide from the glow of the embers by fueling other fires and hiding within the flames.
Those who deny guilt and sin are like the Pharisees of old who thought our Saviour had a __uilt complex_ because He accused them of being whited sepulchers__utside clean, inside full of dead men__ bones. Those who admit that they are guilty are like the public sinners and the publicans of whom Our Lord said, __men, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you_ (Matt. 21:31). Those who think they are healthy but have a hidden moral cancer are incurable; the sick who want to be healed have a chance. All denial of guilt keeps people out of the area of love and, by inducing self-righteousness, prevents a cure. The two facts of healing in the physical order are these: A physician cannot heal us unless we put ourselves into his hands, and we will not put ourselves into his hands unless we know that we are sick. In like manner, a sinner__ awareness of sin is one requisite for his recovery; the other is his longing for God. When we long for God, we do so not as sinners, but as lovers.
Peace of Soul: Timeless Wisdom on Finding Serenity and Joy by the Century's Most Acclaimed Catholic Bishop
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Those who deny guilt and sin are like the Pharisees of old who thought our Saviour had a __uilt complex_ because He accused them of being whited sepulchers__utside clean, inside full of dead men__ bones. Those who admit that they are guilty are like the public sinners and the publicans of whom Our Lord said, __men, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you_ (Matt. 21:31). Those who think they are healthy but have a hidden moral cancer are incurable; the sick who want to be healed have a chance. All denial of guilt keeps people out of the area of love and, by inducing self-righteousness, prevents a cure. The two facts of healing in the physical order are these: A physician cannot heal us unless we put ourselves into his hands, and we will not put ourselves into his hands unless we know that we are sick. In like manner, a sinner__ awareness of sin is one requisite for his recovery; the other is his longing for God. When we long for God, we do so not as sinners, but as lovers.
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