My dear friend, dear friends, here on Unseen Passages, on Piraeus Church Radio at 91.2 FM—the station that speaks to our souls—I feel something strongly today. And I want to say this to you too, my dear Vasilis Chatzinikolaou. Thank you for being with us again today, for providing the music and editing the sound, so that you, dear listener, can hear this program clearly and beautifully at home, at work, on the road, wherever you are. That is thanks to Vasilis’s care. I feel that what we are going to say today is very important, because it comes...

from your own anguish and pain, from your own heart, and from the many letters that have arrived over the years. All those letters bring one word to my heart. I feel that the people listening to Unseen Passages—and you too, well...

are overwhelmed by so much guilt. You feel burdened, stifled, weighed down. Deep within, you do not feel the freedom of forgiveness that Christ gives us.

I feel that, from time to time, we speak to people...

they have not truly felt the relief Christ brings to our hearts. We keep saying that we are God’s children. We keep saying that Christ came into the world to save and redeem us, to be crucified for us and forgive all our sins; that all of us, His children—all the world, all humanity, the whole universe—have been made new. Whoever is close to Christ is a new creation. “If anyone is in Christ,” Scripture says, “there is a new creation.” Everything is new. You have been born anew. You receive the Lord’s Blood and Most Holy Body. You receive Holy Communion, go to confession, take part in the Mysteries of the Church...

and receive your spiritual father’s prayer of absolution.

At every Divine Liturgy you ask Christ to forgive you: “Let us ask the Lord for pardon and forgiveness of our sins and transgressions.” You ask for that forgiveness.

The Church gives it to you; Christ offers you that forgiveness. This is also one purpose of Holy Communion: “The Body and Blood of Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins and life eternal.” And yet I feel that something is wrong, that you are still struggling to breathe under the weight of it all. Despite everything, you still do not feel forgiven by God. It shows in your face, your misery, your grumbling, your troubled expression, your sleeplessness...

your shortness of breath, your racing heart, your high blood pressure, your illnesses. This guilt and remorse suffocate you. They go on and on and never seem to fade. I can see this is not a matter of two minutes, where we can say, “It’s all right, they’ll get over it, find peace, and feel Christ’s forgiveness.” Some people—perhaps you are one of them; I don’t know—live like this all the time. They feel terrible.

You say, “I have faults and weaknesses. I make mistakes, act carelessly, and commit sins.” But you will keep making mistakes and keep returning. You will keep falling and keep getting up. With self-knowledge, humility, and simplicity, you go to Christ and admit: “Lord, this is who I am. This is what my soul is like. Accept my return, my metanoia—my repentance—and forgive me.” You are a child. Yes, even if you are advanced in years, you are still a child making scribbles in your notebook. You are a child learning to write the alphabet, making enormous letters: your ‘A’ fills the whole page instead of fitting between the two lines they teach us to use at school. You have not learned to write yet, but the teacher—the One responsible for your life—knows you are a child. No one holds that against a child. They simply say, “It’s a child.” By second grade, by third grade, as the child grows, things will get much better. What the child does...

even the letter written wrongly, is the best that child can do. If the child could write it better, wouldn’t they? This is what they can do, so this is how they write. God sees us this way too. We have made our mistakes enormous in our own eyes. We are gripped by anxiety, harshness toward ourselves, and the urge to lash ourselves and punish ourselves. We feel we must pay a terrible price to be forgiven, when Christ has sacrificed Himself for all of this. The Lord said He would take it all upon Himself to make us innocent, free of guilt, forgiven. Do you feel that forgiveness? Do you feel that you become an innocent creature before God?

Why such a strong urge to punish yourself? Why so much remorse, such relentless self-reproach, over and over? “I’m a mess,” you say. “I’m doing badly. I make nothing but mistakes.” Why are you so discouraged? Why can’t our souls soar and feel the relief and freshness Christ gives us? He says, “My child, I love you. Do not punish yourself. I have paid the price. I have sacrificed Myself. I have come to show you that I understand you, even with all you have done. I hold out My hand to you, not to dig through your mistakes, but to lift you up and show you the way ahead. Keep going.” When the prodigal son returned, his father, with kindness and sensitivity...

and perfect wisdom in guiding his son, did not dig up the past or make him feel terrible. He called for new clothes, new shoes, and a ring. He wanted to make his son’s life beautiful. That is what God is like. You feel terribly guilty. What does that mean? It means you feel you are worth nothing. “I am worth nothing.” I keep meeting Christians who feel that way. “I don’t deserve God’s love. As if God would love me! The way I am, I’m not ready for God to love me. Neither God nor other people could love someone like me. I don’t even deserve health. That’s why I’m sick: God is punishing me.” Guilt about everything, even illness—the thought that we must have done something for God to punish us. “I’m not worthy of happiness in my life...

I’m useless, good for nothing, going nowhere. I deserve only misery and punishment.” And I ask: is this Christian life? Is this where we want to lead our young people? Do you want your child to become a Christian only to end up miserable like you? Is the Gospel a life of misery, grumbling, self-pity, depression, and sinking deeper and deeper into a swamp of despair? Is that what Christ calls you to? Here is the great difference. The Gospel is called the Gospel because it is good news. Where is the ‘good’ in that word? Where is the joy? Where is the forgiveness Christ gives?

I understand what you are thinking and why it troubles you: what becomes of metanoia, of repentance? What becomes of penthos, mourning for sin, and of sorrow over our sins? Of course these have their place, but they do not go on without end. They come to an end at some point. You cannot mourn until your dying breath. Even among the Saints, some preferred—or were suited to, or lived in a particular time and place that encouraged—one of two approaches. Some Saints strongly emphasized penthos, self-reproach, and tears. Yet even this is joined to joy and hope in God; it does not lead to despair. Other Saints and Fathers, though, emphasize...

the blessing God gives, forgiveness, and love. They look more toward the light, toward where God is calling us, toward Christ’s radiance, instead of continually digging through our mistakes. That gets us nowhere. You see this especially in the writings and talks of Saint Porphyrios the Kafsokalyvite.

He even presents metanoia, repentance, as something exhilarating: a celebration, an act of love, a joyful event. He says we should not go on and on in misery, weeping, and hardship—especially when people today are already tired, downhearted, and worn out. And then someone from the Church comes along to draw you into the Church and tells you, “You have to weep...

and feel terrible.” That cannot be brought about by pressure. And it cannot go on forever.

Guilt and remorse have a purpose in our lives: they alert us that something is wrong. Guilt comes to tell you, “You know, what you did was not loving. Recognize your mistake, take responsibility, weep over it, ask forgiveness, and make amends.” That is what remorse is for. It prods us, like a tap that urges a horse forward. You do not strike the horse to wound it or draw blood. You rouse it from its stupor and stillness, saying, “Come on, let’s move forward.” That is what remorse does. Its purpose is to wake us and get us moving, not to leave us sunk in guilt forever. It has an expiration date.

Remorse comes to an end. You will not spend your whole life weeping, mourning, and suffering. If you did, where would the Gospel be? Where would be the joy Christ calls you to live? Do we enter the Church to live in constant sadness, always thinking we are the worst people in the world? “I’m the least worthy person on earth, the most unclean, the most...” I am poor; I am a simple creature. But I am God’s child. I am God’s child, for whose sake God came to earth and was crucified. He shed His Most Holy Blood for me, washed me in it, gives it to me to drink and nourishes me with it. He rose from the dead and gives me His joy. How could I be ungrateful for that joy? I reach out my hands to receive it and say to Him, “Thank You...

I accept, Lord, the joy You give me. I accept the forgiveness offered through Your Mysteries, and I go on my way rejoicing.” I feel that the purpose of Christian life is not to make guilt your identity. Deep in your soul, you are not a guilty person. God dwells there: the grace of the Holy Spirit, the seal we received at Baptism, the holy chrism with which we were anointed. At the heart of our being there is no filth, so long as we belong to the Holy Church. Filth is something that settles on us. It has to do with our nous, our spiritual mind, and our logismoi, our intrusive thoughts. That filth is not who we are. Who we are is Christ’s kiss upon our soul. We are not bad people. We are good people, creatures of God’s love, who...

in our confusion and our temptations, act carelessly, commit sins, and make mistakes. We make mistakes, but we are not mistakes. We are not flawed creatures whom God made by mistake, then filled with filth and rejection and disorder, as though these were all we are.

We carry a deeply mistaken picture of God within us. We feel that God is angry with us. We feel Him watching us. That is how you often feel; you say so yourself. So many people write to me about it. You say, “Talk about it on the program,” but I do not want to read what you have written on air, because it is personal. So many people feel overwhelmed, as though God is punishing them.

Someone says, “My father fell ill, and I realized it was all my fault. He became ill because of me, because of my mistakes, and God punished us.” But if God did that to punish you and fill you with guilt over who you are, then the God you are describing has a problem of His own. The way you picture Him in your conscience and your mind makes it seem as though God Himself has psychological problems.

Think about it. You say God takes offense, gets annoyed and angry, feels insulted and upset. That would mean He is subject to the passions. Is that God? A child at school once said to me very honestly, “I don’t want to believe in a God like that. I don’t love Him, and I don’t care if such a God exists: strange, punishing, vengeful. If I do something wrong, He’ll be waiting to strike me, to punish me. Where is the love? And you say God loves you only sometimes, only if you do certain things. Otherwise He doesn’t love you.” My dear friends, God always loves. A father and mother always love their child. Of course they rejoice when their child is close to them and lives...

with love for them. And when a child gets caught up in drugs, other substances, staying out all night, bad company, or anything else, do the parents stop loving that child? They love the child all the more, because the child needs them more. God is not who you or I imagine Him to be. There is so much room for us to change the picture of God that we have formed within ourselves, or that others have shaped in us since childhood. Many of us have been taught to believe in a God who seems strange. Of course, you may have received a very balanced upbringing, one that was truly spiritual and pleasing to God. But someone saying, “I’ll tell you about God,” does not mean everything they say is right.

Many of us talk about God and get Him quite wrong. We project ourselves onto Him, just as the ancient Greeks described their gods in terms of their own lives. We do the same. If I am ruled by the passions, quick-tempered, vengeful, and eager to punish, I say God is like that too. But that is not the God we meet in Holy Scripture or in the person of Christ. He came to tell us: “I have come to show you that I love you, that you are My friends, that I forgive you. Behind your sins I see your search for happiness. Whatever you do, you are trying to find happiness. Even when you go about it the wrong way, I understand what you are seeking. I see you in the mud, but I do not turn away from you, because I know that even there you...

are looking for water to drink. That is why I have compassion for you and love you all the more: I see how much you suffer and how confused you are.” God’s love has no terms, no limits, no conditions.

God loves a child whether the child eats dinner or not. Yet a grandmother will say again and again, dozens of times, “Eat your food, dear. God loves children who eat their food.” God loves every child, including the ones who do not eat their food.

“God loves children who tell the truth, but He doesn’t love children who lie.” That grandmother means well, but she is saying it the wrong way. She wants the child to be good, yet she uses God as someone who punishes and scolds. God also loves children who lie. He loves children who struggle at school, children whose friends are a bad influence, children with long hair or tattoos. He loves children who tear their clothes and jeans and wear nose rings. That does not mean everything those children do is good for them. But God loves everyone, always, whatever they do, and His aim...

is not to fill anyone with guilt. He does not toy with us by causing such pain and making us feel so weighed down and overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed by guilt and remorse does not make you a better person. Intimidation, threats, fear, and panic do not lead us to love. They do not lead us to freedom. If I stop doing something only because I am constantly afraid, what does that accomplish? A God like that... I do not know what picture of God you carry in your heart.

I know that I made many mistakes like this with people in the past, especially when I was much younger. I was so strict that when someone saw me, I think they expected me to scold them and tell them that everything they did was wrong.

An acquaintance once said to me, “Why should I go to the Church? Whatever I say, it’s all sin. The Church is always scolding, and whatever I say there, someone will tell me I’m on the wrong path. It leaves us all full of guilt and remorse. That doesn’t help me at all.” There was also a child at school who, whenever he saw me during recess, before I became a priest, would raise his finger and say, “Sin, sin, sir, sin!” He was telling me that, to him, God was all about sin. I asked what he meant. He said, “Whatever we tell you, you’ll say God calls it a sin.”

I asked him, “Why do you say that? How did you get that impression?” He said, “I didn’t just make it up. That’s the picture you adults give me: you, my theology teachers, and the people of the Church. Whatever I do or say is sinful.” God is not like that. There is holiness; God calls us to holiness, innocence, and purity. But His love is another matter.

If we are not yet as God wants us to be, that does not mean He does not love us. He does love us. That love is what moves us and warms our souls so that we may return to Him, if we choose. Guilt and remorse will not do it. Do you see? This matters greatly. Many generations, many women and men, have grown up...

with the feeling, “I am no good. God is watching me and punishing me. What I have done is terrible, and I will go to Hell. I cannot bear to look at God. I do not deserve to live.” Tell me, how does that help you? Does feeling guilty all the time help you become a better person? If someone makes guilt their whole identity and says, “I am a failure,” how can they find hope of changing? Remember what I said about tapping a horse to get it moving. Guilt can do that when it is healthy and serves its proper purpose. It tells you, “You didn’t handle that well. There is a better way.” For example, you insulted...

your friend when you were talking that afternoon. You belittled and looked down on him. That does not help love grow between you or strengthen your friendship. Do you see? You made a mistake. Recognize it. Picture how beautiful your love for one another could be; long for that, and get moving. Change.

If you sink into the thought, “I made a mistake. I’m awful, I’m awful,” repeating it will not stop you from doing something else wrong. A person who is always full of remorse may go on to commit more sins, thinking, “I’m already so awful; what difference will one more make?” It is like someone on a diet who has a moment of weakness one day and eats a little chocolate.

They feel they have ruined the diet for the day. They feel so bad about the chocolate and sweets that they sink into a fruitless sense of failure instead of getting back on track. “I’m a failure. I’ve ruined everything.” Then, in their distress, they open the cupboard, eat all the chocolate that is left, and have two slices of cake as well. “I’ve already messed up,” they say. “I might as well eat it all.” That is what guilt does when it is cut off from hope, from renewed courage, and from the vision of a pure and holy life. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You have put Him on. All of you who were baptized in Christ’s name have been clothed with Christ.

Saint John the Theologian says in his epistles that whoever believes in Christ does not sin, but lives in the light. Whoever is united with Christ shares in His light, holiness, and purity, and can cease from sin. Some passages speak of how guilty and sinful you are; others tell you to recognize the purity God gives you. You will never feel that purity while you see yourself as filthy all the time. When you already feel dirty, it is easy to pick up more dirt. You think, “My hands are already covered in mud and grease.” Then you see something dirty in your path and pick it up too. “What do I have to lose? I’m already dirty.” But when you come to feel the innocence at the heart of your being...

You are God's beloved child. Whatever you do, God loves you. There is great beauty within you, a brightness, a radiance, a grace. It is like coming out of the bath freshly washed, clean and fragrant. If someone then gives you something dirty to touch, you cannot bring yourself to touch it. You say, “No, I can't. I've just washed. I feel clean; I can't pick up what you're giving me.” When you feel clean, when you can rest in that cleanness and see how wonderful it is, then you stop committing sins and making mistakes. That does not happen when you constantly feel guilty, dirty and unworthy. Do you understand? Remember this: when you feel clean, you stop reaching for the filth of this world.

Your mind turns to other things. But when you feel guilty, that state of mind makes it easy to go on to new acts of wrongdoing, and to more guilt.

I want to change by following the path of hope. I want to look toward the light, to aim for the sun, to aim for Christ, instead of dwelling over and over on the mistakes of the past. And remember: guilt that goes on and on leads to new sins. Constant guilt, then more new sins. When confession puts an end to that guilt, you need to feel it and say, “That is finished now. It belongs to another time. I spoke about it, talked it through, confessed, wept and repented. I believe and accept in my heart that Christ forgives me and loves me.” Sometimes I see something I can hardly believe: people receive Holy Communion at ten in the morning, and a little later you speak to them and

ask, “How are you?” They answer, “Oh, you know how it is. You know me. I'm a mess, still caught up in my sins.” But at ten o'clock, when you opened your mouth to receive the Lord, what did the priest say to you? Well...

“The Body and Blood of Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life.” What happened to those words you heard? Where did they go? Two hours later you sit there saying, “I'm a mess. I'm unworthy. I'm full of guilt.” What happened to that forgiveness? Did it enter you or didn't it? Did you receive it, take it into yourself and live it? Did you glorify Christ and let that light fill your whole being, give you joy, and let that joy last? And not just for a day, but for the rest of your life. That powerful change is missing, and instead we have become addicted to guilt.

Remorse has become our drug. We want to feel bad. We have grown fond of that miserable, tearful, gloomy air we carry around all the time. We crave it like a drug. People at home are laughing and enjoying their conversation, and someone suddenly says, “You'll see, this will end badly. We'll pay for all this laughter.”

“All this laughter will come back to bite us.” How strange, we think: everyone is laughing, so something must happen to punish us. We treat happiness as though it were unnatural, and when punishment comes, we feel that life is back to normal. Talk about your unhappiness and everyone looks at you as they usually do: another unhappy person, just like the rest of us. But when you try to speak about something joyful, your friends find it hard to accept that you can see life

hopefully, despite its problems, because you are alive. We need not die before our time; we will die when the time comes. While we are alive, let us enjoy life, make use of the opportunities God gives us, stand on our own feet, lift our heads in hope and look upon the face of Christ with expectation and gratitude. We need not live all the time under this cloud of misery and dejection. I don't know, Vasilis, how all this sounds to you. Thank you for the beautiful music; I couldn't do this without it. Thank you for giving us some rest, helping us relax and helping us feel that perhaps this is how things really are.

I think this is how things are. The station's telephone numbers are 4118602 and 4118641. There is also an email address: atheata dot perasmata at yahoo dot gr. The programs are rebroadcast a few days later, and you can find them online by searching.

And think a little about what we have said. I don't know what state you are in. Are you happy, whether you are a woman or a man, and at peace in Christ? Or are you constantly overwhelmed by guilt and remorse?

Vasilis, I love that dismissal hymn which says: “You came down from on high, O Compassionate One; You accepted burial for three days, that You might free us from the passions.” I love hearing it in the Church: “That You might free us from the passions, O our Life and Resurrection, Lord, glory to You.” “That You might free us from the passions.” Lord, You came for this very purpose: to free us from the passions, those disordered desires; to take away our guilt, our troubles and our burdens, to loosen the nooses that choke us, and to fill us with happiness.

Yes, we still make mistakes. But those mistakes come from our nous, our spiritual mind, from the logismoi, the intrusive thoughts that trouble us, from ignorance and forgetfulness. We forget. I forget that you are my brother, and I strike you. You forget that I too have a soul loved by God, and you insult me. I forget that my wife, my friend and I hope to enter Paradise together, and that we have one purpose: to be saved. Thank you. Then I take offense because I have forgotten. Forgetfulness—that is what it is. I forget, and I do not understand. I do not know what is really happening in life, so I keep making mistakes. I do not know the meaning of life; I forget the truths of the Gospel.

Suppose there is a car accident, and I forget what Christ teaches us: nothing happens by chance. Not even an autumn leaf falls from a tree, He says, without God's knowing it and allowing it for a purpose. When the accident happens, I forget that I could say, “God has allowed this. Let us see what good might come of it.” God certainly did not allow the accident so the cars would collide and we would quarrel, curse each other, feel hatred, and punish and strike one another. He did not allow it so that we would become even worse. Yet at the moment of the accident we forget, grow angry, seek revenge and make more mistakes. Mistakes—but I am not the mistake. Mistakes arise there in our minds, in the logismoi, those intrusive thoughts, and in our nous, our spiritual mind. What is the nous, according to the Holy Fathers? The nous

is an instrument of the soul, a means by which the soul communicates with this world.

Our soul is more than the nous, the spiritual mind. The soul has a nous, but it is not only the nous. I have things around me, for example, but if something happens to them, that does not mean I am bad. If my car is damaged, it does not mean that I myself am injured or ruined. Something belonging to me has been damaged,

but I am a child of God. My nous, my spiritual mind, was wounded and fell into sin. But remember what lies at the heart of your soul: you are good. Your soul has the Holy Spirit within it through your Baptism. God knows this, and that is why He loves us and goes on loving us whatever happens. This is the joyful news Christ brought us.

Picture Christ coming to earth and telling us this. In fact, you need not imagine it; that is what happened. He says to us, “My children, we are brothers.” Saint Porphyrios the Kafsokalyvite says this again and again: “I hold you as my brothers.” Understand what he means. “I am not holding Hell over you. I do not want you to think of me in difficult, lofty, overly doctrinal and theological terms that trouble your thoughts, sometimes even stirring up your logismoi, those intrusive thoughts, and a hidden pride. See me simply as your brother. I hold you as my friends.” Have you heard that recording of Saint Porphyrios the Kafsokalyvite saying, “I hold you as my friends, as my brothers. God is your Father; He receives you all and loves you all. Come close to God, all of you”? That is it. Christ did not say, “I came to earth to tell you to feel guilty.” Christ never said to any sinner,

“From now on, feel guilty. You should be ashamed. Never sleep again after what you have done; let sorrow keep you awake.” He did not say that. He said, “My child, go in peace. Go on your way, and from now on sin no more.” The way to stop sinning is to love. The way to stop sinning is to be free from fear.

The way to find your path is to discover what you are truly seeking. In any case, Christ says, “I will never tell you to live in fear from now on, trembling and filled with remorse that chokes you.” That is not why Christ came into the world. We have come close to making an idol of guilt, and some people even regard it as a sign of spiritual

maturity. They say that the guiltier you feel, the more spiritual you are. The heavier your manner, the gloomier your face, the more you say, “We are so unworthy,” the holier people think you are. “He is so gloomy, always looking down...” Well, if someone truly feels that way and can bear it, so be it. But especially today, people already walk with heads bowed under debt, sorrow, financial troubles, problems in the world and in politics, and illness. Is God to come and give them another blow, saying, “Here is one from Me too. Keep looking down and feeling like a worm”? I love the words, “You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Lord, You will wash me,

You will wash me clean, Lord. You will wash my heart, and I will shine brighter than the sun; my soul will be radiant. You will give me gladness and joy, and even my bones will find rest. As the Psalm says, “The bones that have been humbled will rejoice.” And, “A broken and humbled heart God will not despise.” If my heart is humble and simple, Lord, and I repent of my mistakes, You will not reject me, crush me, or drive me away. You will love me. That is the image I hold onto. If something else brings you comfort, I don’t know. But then how do you experience closeness to God? Hasn’t God called us to be united with Him? Can you be united with Christ, who is love and joy and forgiveness and holiness, while remaining miserable and downcast?

And in that environment that pulls you down, you can feel that melancholy. Besides, guilt like this can eventually make your body ill. It affects your health, even if you seem well: your blood pressure, sleepless nights, headaches, migraines—many of these can begin with guilt and remorse that a person cannot let go of. I am not saying to simply brush them aside. Let them go in the proper way. Lay them at Christ’s feet. Talk them through with your spiritual father. Receive forgiveness, and then let them pass. They are behind you. Let yourself feel well. Give yourself permission to do that. Otherwise, in the end, we become vulnerable

to this guilt, and it becomes self-destructive within us. When you live with that remorse, you are not really loving yourself or seeking your own good. You fear God, so you say, “To keep God from punishing me, I’ll punish myself. I’ll be hard on myself so I can feel better and say to God, ‘Look, my God, I’ve already been beaten. Leave me be. Don’t strike me or punish me. I’m beating and punishing myself.’” Do you know what that creates inside you? A strange sense of safety. You begin to want to punish yourself. Some people come to confession, and you say to them, “I understand what you’ve told me. It is very serious, and I appreciate that you have spoken of it.”

“I respect your conscience, and I assure you that God loves you, receives you, and forgives you.” Someone once said to me, “Now, Father, tell me what I must do. Punish me.” “Why would I punish you?” I asked. “Give me some kind of punishment,” he said. “Why?” “I can’t bear it if you don’t punish me. I need to feel some punishment.” Many people have taken this to heart. We cannot bear God’s free gift or the freedom He gives. Punishment makes us feel safe. We say, “Well, at least I’ve been punished now.” But then how can you call God Father? Is that how you treat your child? When your child makes a mistake, would you want them to punish themselves?

Your little one misbehaves at school or gets poor grades. Then your child comes home and says, “Mom, Dad, I did terribly. I won’t eat today. I’ll shut myself in my room and punish myself for what I did.” What would you say? “My child, yes, you made a mistake. You shouldn’t have; you should have studied more. But come and eat with us. Are you going to go hungry now? Don’t fast.” You love your child. Do you imagine God treats you differently? Does it please God to see you like that? What sort of God would that be?

Would He take pleasure in punishment?

In the end, we find God’s great love hard to bear. It frightens us. When we are punished, we feel that things are as they should be. We say, “If I have so many troubles, perhaps I don’t deserve happiness anyway. Maybe it’s better this way.” But we do deserve happiness. We were made for happiness and joy, not punishment. Accept God’s love. Thank you.

When you turn away from the love of God and other people and choose to remain in guilt and remorse, do you know what happens in the end? You draw toward yourself the very thing you fear. Eventually, people really do find you hard to be around, because you will not let them love you. They come close, and you say, “No, I don’t believe it. You don’t love me. I don’t deserve love, so the love you offer must be false.” That is what you think. Let God embrace you. Believe that you are a person worthy of love. God created you. Did He make you to be thrown away? Does God ever create anyone worthless? Then how could you be worthless?

Feel God’s love, and you will also feel His protection and His peace. If you do not let that love into your heart, you will always be afraid. You will keep thinking you are in danger, that someone will hurt you, or that something bad will happen.

When you feel Christ’s love within you, fear will leave.

Guilt looks for company. When you feel guilty, you go looking for more guilt, both in yourself and in others. You see problems everywhere and allow neither yourself nor anyone else to rejoice. A person burdened by guilt often sees faults in others too. They become difficult to be around and see sin everywhere. Whatever other people do, they call it sinful and make life hard for them. We’ll talk about that... What time is it, Vasilis? Has the time gone? All right, I won’t say much more on this today. I have more to say, and there is plenty for us to discuss, if you wish. What you write by email or tell us on the phone will give me material for a future broadcast. I think today is only the beginning of these broadcasts about the remorse and guilt we feel within the Church.

We approach it in the wrong way. The Church should be the place where guilt is lifted, yet we often live with guilt and even live on it. It becomes the basis of our relationship with the Church: we relate to the Church only because we feel guilty. We cannot feel that we are entering our Father’s house. Some people go only to seek forgiveness, over and over, without end. Will you not come to feel like His child one day? Will you not feel God’s kiss and hear Him say, “My child, you may have been like that fifteen, twenty, or thirty years ago, but you cannot go on living as though you still are”?

You cannot be eighty or ninety years old and still feel guilty after receiving Holy Communion hundreds of times and going to confession a similar number of times. We’ll talk about it another time; we’ll continue and discuss...

We’ll talk about the harshness some Christians show toward others, making life difficult for them over fasting and other matters. Instead of helping them find peace, they fill them with guilt and remorse over their lives and choices. We’ll talk about how guilt ties us to the past and keeps pulling us back when we try to move forward. Then we’ll talk about how to let that guilt leave us and what we can do.

Another thing I thought we could discuss—I’m giving you an idea of what is to come—is the guilt we feel about people close to us who have died, relatives who have passed away, or harm that happened while we were there. We say, “It’s my fault they died. It’s my fault they became ill. This happened because of me.” We’ll talk about a father who was about to...

embrace and kiss his wife when he came home from work. Something happened to their baby in the crib, and he was filled with guilt. He said, “It’s my fault.” We’ll talk about how deeply remorse gets tangled up in our lives, and how we also create that same guilt in others when we say things like...

“If you don’t get an education, your father’s blood pressure will rise because of you. You’ll be the death of him if you don’t do well.” We burden others with guilt over the choices they are about to make. There is a great deal to say about this.

I’m just giving you an idea of what we’ll discuss. Today we’ve only made a start. Hold onto whatever you remember from what we said. If you don’t remember it, that’s all right. Don’t feel guilty or full of remorse. I don’t either. God will bring it to mind another time, and you’ll hear about it in other broadcasts too.

There are so many other broadcasts to hear on this station, so much good work and so many beautiful things. All of them teach us. Isn’t that what everything we hear on Piraeus Church Radio, and in our Church more broadly, is teaching us: how our souls can be set free, and how we can live close to God in joy and happiness? Isn’t that the purpose?

We will find our way, and you will find yours, even through small setbacks and mistakes. God is very great, and He will not abandon us. Thank you so much, Vasilis Hatzinikolaou, for staying attentive all this time and doing your very best again today. And thank you for your love—to each of you listening.

You can call the station at 4118602 or 4118640. Thank you so much for writing to tell us that the books bring you comfort and give you something to think about. Someone asked where to find them: at the Piraeus Church bookshop. Some of the programs we’ve made together here have been published as books, each with a CD. You can listen to eight programs and read them too, if you like. The first volume is called “Strengthen Your Soul,” and the second, “Love Forever.” Someone asked if there will be more volumes. Yes, there will be more. Ask when the time comes, and you’ll find out. I wish you strength as you continue your struggle. Smile. Life is beautiful, and crying all the time gets you nowhere. Smile, and keep hoping.

You, too, are allowed to make mistakes, just as a little child is allowed to get a letter wrong when first learning the alphabet. Don’t forget: you’re still learning too, even though you’re grown up. In God’s eyes, we are children. That is how He sees us, and it gives us great courage and hope. If I’ve upset you or confused you, forgive me. And I’ll try not to burden myself with too much guilt, because I believe that if I’ve confused you a little, God will help you understand what is right in another way. Take heart, and keep going. We’ll talk again next time. I’ll be waiting for you. Rejoice.