Imagine what would happen to us if our physical bodies suddenly lost the

capacity to feel pain as uncomfortable as the pain is. It is a warning sign, an

alert to us that something is wrong. I remember meeting with the college

co-ed senior in college when I was teaching on a university campus and this young

lady asked to have an appointment for counseling and she came to me and she was

very distressed and she explained that she had recently been engaged and that

she and her fiance were involved in premarital sexual activity and she said

to me and I feel so guilty. She said, I want to see the chaplain of the school and I

explained to him how guilty I was feeling and he told me that the reason I was

feeling guilty was because I was a victim of an outmoded Victorian or puritanical

ethic that had a tendency to oppress us in our sexual freedom and in our right to

express ourselves as mature adults and so he counseled me to that end she said

but professors brought I still feel guilty and I said well you're very

fortunate and she said what do you mean fortunate I said well it's a wonderful

thing when you feel guilty if you are guilty the problem is when we are guilty and

don't feel it I said the reason you feel guilty is not because of something the

Puritans did or because of the legacy of Queen Victoria the reason why you feel

guilty is because you are guilty you have violated the law of God by your own

admission and by your own testimony and all of the attempts to psychoanalyze and

rationalize this guilt away fortunately for you have not been effective the

pain of guilt feeling is a marvelous curative thing imagine what would

happen to us as human beings if our physical bodies suddenly lost the

...