The Appeal of Guilt

"There is no order of difficulty in miracles, for they are all the same. Each is a gentle winning over from the appeal of guilt to the appeal of Love. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, Section IV, 5:3-4, 6:8

"No real relationship can rest on guilt, or even hold one spot of it to mar its purity. For all relationships that guilt has touched are used but to avoid the person and the guilt. You forget that real relationships are holy, and cannot be used by you at all. They are used only by the Holy Spirit, and it is that which makes them pure. If you displace your guilt upon them, the Holy Spirit cannot use them. For by pre-empting for your own ends what you should have given Him, He cannot use it for your release." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section X, 2:2-3, 5-8

"Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 567, Line 31

Do you realize the dark appeal that guilt has in your life? Do you see that in every situation where you think something is wrong, you will find someone or something guilty of 'causing' it? Do you see that this confusion of cause and effect, this belief in your ability to screw things up, is the very essence of the imagined separation from God, from All Good, from your True Self?

A Course in Miracles tells us that "The attraction of guilt produces fear of Love, for Love would never look on guilt at all. It is the nature of Love to look upon on the Truth, for there it sees itself. Love is attracted only to Love. Overlooking guilt completely, it sees no fear." (ACIM; Chapter 19, Section IV,i, 10:1-2, 5-6) While we maintain that we are separate from the One, from God, we have split vision. We can look from the eyes of Love and Wholeness, or from the fragmenting vision of fear and guilt. But never can we see both, just as we can never be in the Light and experience darkness. Darkness is simply a nothingness, an absence of... in this same way, guilt and fear are truly nothingness, simply an absence of the Light of Love that is our True Self.

When we fear life or others for any reason... perhaps they seem to be unkind to us, or they seem to be judging us, or they seem to be invading our space, or they seem to be angry and accusatory, maybe we think we have failed or disappointed them in some way... regardless of the seeming basis for our fear, we are looking through a fragmenting lens, the lens of fear that makes someone guilty. This is the projection of the imagined fragmenting of Self into many selves. There is only One. The thing is, as we begin to learn these truths, we think that this One is 'me.' But the 'me' we refer to is a fiction. There is only One, but it is not personal, and it looks on 'you' and 'me' as One. So as long as we are defending a personal 'me', with personal space and personal interests and a body to protect, we are lost in the illusion of a separate self. Who are you being when you feel the attraction of guilt and fear? Are you being One, or many?

Sometimes the appeal of guilt is huge. I started this blog early this morning, but heard to wait to finish it until later. Then, this evening, on my way to pick up my elderly mother for a dinner at my daughter's house, I ran over and killed a neighbor's dog. This is unthinkable for me, the savior of animals big and small. I was numb with shock. It came out of nowhere, just shot under my wheel... and it was a big dog. There was nothing I could do... and yet, the litany of guilt was, "I should have done this, if only I had done that..." I noticed the owner, a young woman who was obviously heart-broken, was blaming herself... she should have not let him out, she should have watched more closely, etc., etc. It was one big wall of misery and guilt.

Later, on my way home, I did what I have often done for my own lost pets... I bought her a rosebush to plant on his grave, to remember him in beauty. She was surprised to see me again, and grateful for my love and concern. Oddly, she was still blaming herself and feeling guilty, when I am the one who ran over the dog! Isn't this a mystery? Someone has to be guilty in this warped and fragmented vision, and we especially love to blame ourselves. We are not worthy of love and forgiveness in this warped view. She feels she failed to keep her beloved pet safe. I feel I failed to watch closely enough. Have we failed Love? Has Love failed us? Who are we being when we feel guilty and miserable... One, or the fragmented perception of many selves? The appeal of guilt is the fear of Love... because as long as we believe love has anything to do with separate selves with separate bodies, and believe those bodies can give us pleasure (even the bodies of pets), we also believe they can give us pain when they grow sick or when they are injured or when they die, when they leave us.

The dream of guilt and separation plays on, with twists and turns that have no meaning and no justification. If we look for meaning and salvation in the dream, we are lost in the fragments of self that splinter and multiply daily. But even here, in the midst of a guilty dream, One Voice speaks. It speaks the Truth... that I neither create life nor destroy it. How could I? The Mind of God is our Creator and our Life, and God is Omnipresent and Eternal. I cannot change the eternal. I can simply dream nightmares of separation and guilt, or I can gently awaken and dream happy dreams of Oneness that remind me Who I Am. But never has what is True and Loving and Eternal been touched by any of my dreaming, or by the imagined appeal of guilt.

"Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to deny the other." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section I, 1:4