What can she do with the guilt she feels for Christ's Passion?

[Veronica2010]

My friend is struggling with her faith. She feels a huge distance from Jesus and feels she didn’t ask him to die on the cross, and does not understand why she must feel such a burden of guilt because He did. She loves God and does not understand why God could not have saved us from our sins without the intervention of Jesus. I am at a total loss as to help her. She has stopped going to Church, because she feels the Sacrifice of course, is about Jesus, and this is where she is so confused about her feelings. The longer she stays away, the angrier she becomes. Please help me to start guiding her back and back to Jesus.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

In John 10:18, Jesus says: “No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…”

Your friend didn’t make Him die on her behalf. He is God and loves her so much that He freely chose to express His divine love for her in a way she could comprehend. His love for her has no limit. This we can’t comprehend because we have never had the experience of dealing with anything that has no limit. But we do know what suffering is like. So His Passion shows us how good He is. It also show us that we are the creatures He loves that much! We are that valuable to Him!

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.