Today's the day when in 1170 Archbishop Thomas Beckett was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. He was killed by four knights of King Henry II, apparently on the orders of the king himself who had fallen out with Beckett over the extent of the church's jurisdiction. The murder of such a high official was made all the more shocking by the fact that it took place on the sanctified ground of a cathedral. The Christian world was shocked by Becket's death, and in 1173 he was made a saint. In 1174, Henry was forced to do penance at his tomb, and his efforts to end the separation between church and state ceased.
If King Henry's penance was genuine then he must at some stage have felt the pain of deep regret. That's an experience most of us have known to a greater or lesser extent. It's that feeling that we really wish we had acted differently, because we were foolish or just downright wrong. The Bible promises us that God's mercy totally cleanses us of our past wrongs. Even when our inner heart tries to make us feel guilty, God says we are forgiven, because he is greater than that condemning inner voice. This is what John says in his first letter:
This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
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