[obegeLype]

Dear Daniel,
Surely we are all guilty of Christ's death in the sense that we all share in the same human sin for which He died. And in some careful, sober way to aknowledge this can increase our love for what Christ has done for us. But I believe more often than not we run the risk of simply falling into an emotional state and missing the point for us of Christ's Crucifixion; ie that we might find our life in Him.
This is so important it cannot be repeated enough times- my spiritual father once told me, "you are mistaking the psychological for the spiritual." This was difficult to understand at first. Many years passed before I began to understand that our aim was to aquire Divine grace thru a life in Christ. In some vague way before this I just 'felt' that a Christian was supposed to act in some 'moral' sort of way, 'feel' some sort of way, etc. At the time I did not see that this type of moral 'Christianity' inevitably leads to a subjective emotional or intellectual state; you may have great thoughts & feelings but you are always on the outside looking in. And one day you come to recognise the inner emptiness that still remains and ask, 'what went wrong?'
This Daniel I believe is the chief danger in dwelling on 'feelings' (even seemingly good ones)
in the spiritual life. If they become the main driving force of our Christian life we can reach a real dead end or delusion. This is why I feel that Fr John's comments are very much to the point.
Another point- the focus and intent of our Christian life (especially Great Lent) is to recognise & repent of our sin; and from this find our life in Christ. The focus on 'feelings' will prevent this; they can easily become a kind of 'mind candy'. From this we can see how subtly there is a slide into pride.
There is a wisdom in the Evangelists & holy fathers that we can never exhaust; what they are is of the Holy Spirit. Not only their words speak but also their silence. The lack of personal detail about Christ, about His Crucifixion and many other things indicates a profound truth about the wisdom of God. Human portrayals of Christ enter into the Holy of Holies and set before us a 'humanised' or debased image of Christ; what is not of the Holy Spirit even if it its intent is good can produce a distorted image. What will happen to those who look on these images and take them for what is of the holy Spirit?
In Christ-Fr R