guilt vs. sorrow for sins

[theculturewarrior]

Is guilt part of sorrow for sins? Would God rather that we just change, and not beat ourselves up, or does one have to feel bad in order to change? Is "beating yourself up" desirable, and if so, to what extant? What does it mean to be sorry for your sins?

This might sound ridiculous, but some people suffer from excessive feelings of guilt for miniscule things, and for some, it distorts their perspective.

God bless,

TCW

[Laudate_Dominum]

Guilt can certainly be a part of repentance, but it depends on the precise sense of the term.
Contrition, which is sorrow personal sin coupled with a sincere desire to amend one's life, is essential to repentance. But there can be forms of neurotic guilt, which hinder true repentance. In one form this neurotic guilt is an implicit denial of God's goodness, power and infinite mercy and love. In another form it is merely a masked expression of pride. It can even be both.
The key attribute of true repentance is a humble abandonment to God's mercy and love. It is an acknowledgement of God's goodness and a surrender of heart that is simultaneously an act of receiving God's love and professing one's weakness before him as a child does in calling upon a loving father with arms outstretched.
So true repentance draws one closer to God and is centered and directed on God, whereas false (or at least imperfect) repentance is centered on self and alienates one from God.

I am using polar examples, but one's actual repentance might be somewhere in the middle in the concrete.

Another sign is that true sorrow and repentance results in peace and the fruits of the spirit. And the pains of this sorrow are a pure remorse and compunction rooted in love, not pains of despair or feeling sorry for oneself out of a disordered self-love.

Saint Catherine of Siena says that while it is good to reflect upon one's sins and wickedness to cultivate humility and a hatred of sin, one should never consider their sins without in the same breath considering the blood of Christ crucified. In other words our guilt and sorrow ought to be Christocentric. We must never forget that Christ has redeemed us and desires to give us freedom from sin and every good thing if we would only give ourselves to Him as He gives Himself to us. It is enough to but try. To paraphrase Mother Teresa, God does not ask us to be successful, but to be faithful.

Our guilt and sins can either lead us away from God and leave us estranged and alone, or they can lead us into the bosom of God in Christ and become a means by which Christ leads us to a deeper humility and trust in Him, ultimately a deeper communion with God.

"Poor me" guilt is bad; despairing guilt is bad; humble and loving guilt is good. We should have sorrow for our sins. One of the wonderful gifts of God is the gift of tears. St. Catherine and others (Ignatius) speak of this gift and I think the treatment of the different types of tears is illuminating with regard to guilt. Francisco de Osuna has nice observations as well.