The Lingering Guilt Associated with past Sins

The Lingering guilt Associated with past Sins

Eileen Renders

   Within all of us, at some time or another, we reflect on how we are growing in our spiritual lives, and often we may recall those sins of which we are most regretful. If we are truly growing in spirituality, these sins may cause feelings of unworthiness. In some of us, it might create depression. Loving our Creator, and placing Him foremost in our lives, we do not want to hurt Him, nor separate from Him. Realizing these feelings are negative and could lead to a setback on our journey toward salvation, we need to resolve these thoughts.

   A clue as to what is triggering these feelings that are dampening our spirit may be a plan to thwart our progress through the effort of the Evil One. To relieve our guilt and feelings of unworthiness, we might reflect whether or not we have confessed these sins. We can reflect upon our sincere sorrow for our sins. Also, we can examine our conscience and determine whether we are still tempted to commit again, those sins we are mindful of that are hurting Christ and our spiritual growth.

   During this Lenten Season, some of us may not have a regular schedule for frequenting the sacrament of Reconciliation, and therefore, are unsure whether certain sins have been confessed in the past, or have not been confessed. For those of us who might want to confess those sins in Confession, or should there be several occasions of similar sins of long ago, we cannot remember confessing to a priest, we request a General Confession from the priest after stepping into the Confessional box.

   It is important to all of us as we follow Christ’s lead to adopt the attitude that we will not repeat the same sins, over and over again. Let us profess our sincerity and sorrow to God as we seek His forgiveness and mercy as we say the Act of Contrition; “Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend thee my God. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life, Amen.”

   Our sincere sorrow for our sins that hurt our loving god can only be visible to God when we stop committing sin. As children, we may have thought to ourselves, “I will try not to do that again. As strong spiritual adults, we will not commit those sins again that hurt our Savior.