When You Feel Burdened with Guilt and Shame
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle, they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?” (John 8, WEB-BE)
To be caught guilty is different from being falsely accused
When we are falsely accused, we at least have our conscience on our side, and we have faith that God Himself would defend us as His own.
But there are times when the accusations against us are true
We may have made some mistakes, or we may have made some selfish decisions that have hurt others along the way. When we are accused of such things, all that we can feel is utter shame and guilt for the wrong things we have done.
It’s as though we are being dragged naked and without honor for all the world to see our disgrace. We may want to hide and run away, but we are bound. We want to change our awful past, but the harshness of those who accuse us want to crucify us to that very moment when we are most ugly and detestable.
During such times, let us look towards Him who understands all our misery and pain
Like the woman caught in adultery, let us humble ourselves at His feet and await His compassion. For He is not Lord only of the past but of our eternal destiny. He is not Justice only but Mercy and Love Itself.
Reach out to Him who understands that we are but dust, to Him who suffered rejection from men — despised, afflicted and considered a plague.
“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD:
“Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
- Isaiah 1:18, WEBBE
He will clothe you with dignity and wash away your sins
He will take away your shame. He will heal the wounds of your soul and restore you to everlasting life!
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:2–5, WEB-BE)
“The devil may try to use the hurts of life, and sometimes our own mistakes to make you feel it is impossible that Jesus really loves you, is really cleaving to you. This is a danger for all of us, and so sad, because it is completely the opposite of what Jesus is really wanting, waiting to tell you…he loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy.” - Mother Teresa
“Write this for the benefit of distressed souls: when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of its sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother. These souls have a right of priority to My compassionate Heart, they have first access to My mercy. Tell them that no soul that has called upon My mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame.” - Jesus to St. Faustina, Divine Mercy In My Soul
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