Nothing More Terrible Could Happen Than What Had Already Happened

　　Dear Lord, this afternoon I shared my feelings of guilt and sinfulness with one of the monks. He gave me good advice. He kept urging me to move away continually from introspection and self-preoccupation and to concentrate on expressing my love for you.

　　What most helped me was his remark that nothing more terrible could happen than what had already happened: your death, O Lord, which is the most terrible, sinful, and frightful event in the whole of history.

　　We human beings killed you, our brother, Son of the Most High. Whatever will happen—hunger, oppression, or war—can never be worse than what has already taken place.

　　But you overcame the worst. You did not reject us, but made your death the sign of our redemption. Your love became fully visible to us in and through your death. Whatever evil I did or will do, you have already suffered it and showed me that it is never so evil that I cannot return to you.

　　O dear Lord, let me never doubt your forgiveness, but let me always remember that you died for my sins and rose from the dead as a sign of your forgiving love. Let not my guilt, but your love, guide me. Amen.

　　~ Henry J.M. Nouwen, “A Cry For Mercy”.