Daily Meditation: Monday, January 17, 2005

Conscience - can be appeased only if we make amends

01/17/2005

The person who is guilty and tries to appease his conscience will not succeed, because the problem does not lie with his conscience—which merely reflects the reality of his conduct—but with his innermost sense of the wrong he has committed. This lives on in him as a recorded debt, and until he has made reparations for his errors, his conscience will find no peace. It is normal to inflict punishment on those who have done wrong, but this is not enough. We must not be satisfied merely to punish wrongdoers; we must also give them the means to correct their mistakes. Otherwise they are all the more resentful toward those who have imposed sanctions on them, because they live constantly obsessed with the wrong they have done. To put them on the right path again, we must help them free their conscience by giving them conditions which enable them to pay their debts.