Fruitful Guilt
“Guilt isn’t the point. Recognizing the consequences of our actions, even those ‘things ill done or done to others’ harm which once we took for exercise or virtue,’ as T.S. Eliot so deftly put it, should bring us to terms with our complicity in evils we help perpetuate. But fruitful guilt redirects our gaze toward God’s mercy, where we may find not only relief but reorientation toward the common good God intended for each and all of us. We need this part of the biblical message to offset the excesses of market capitalism run amok: my neighbor matters more than I imagine. Love of God comes to fruition in love of neighbor.”
— Marilyn McEntyre, Where the Eye Alights