Guilt can be a tragic way of life for some. Because of a lack of awareness of one’s own goodness, a person starts staging bold—ablbeit unconscious—assualts on another’s psyche trying to take by force what they cannot access in themselves. It may start as kind and nice (“Your friendship means the world to me”), but it usually turns manipulative (“I don’t know what I would do without your friendship”), and ultimately brutal (“You are a phony for not being my friend”). While we may go the appeasement route of showering them with constant attention and affirmations, or the entanglement route of giving them such proximity to our inner lives that they feel like it is their own, we do our guilt-mongering sisters and brothers a great disservice if we fail to redirect them back to their own intrinsic goodness. Therefore, the next time such a one comes banging on the door of our hearts, demanding an external fix to their internal problem, we can remember that Christ, who himself is the door (Jn 10:9), instructs us, as difficult as it may be, to stay closed (Mt 6:6), so that we might serve as a trustworthy and steady backdrop for anyone who sincerely desires to work out and accept their own human goodness. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
