When a child disobeys his or her Heavenly Father, He does not say, "Now sit there and contemplate the Way of the Cross and think about how guilty you are and how guilty you should feel." No; the Father did not even wait for an apology from the Prodigal Son when he returned but immediately embraced him to show him His love. God really says, "Meditate on the Way of the Cross to come to know how much I love you," for it is then that we become obedient out of love, not fear.
Jesus did not die on the cross to buy our love. He died on the cross for us out of love for us and to be with us in eternity if we would only choose Him. He paid the debt of our sins for us, but he does not use that as a guilt-trip. He does not use that to get us to follow Him or be obedient to Him out of fear or shame. He is not manipulative like that. In fact, it is the villains who we would hear say such things as "I did all this for you and this is how you repay me? You are a terrible child!" For example, isn't this exactly what Cinderella's evil stepmother said to her? And the same was the case for Rapunzel. Such words come from evil motivation and manipulation, and in our case, not an evil stepmother, but the evil one, the devil. The devil manipulates these words so that we come to God in repentance in shame, thinking we have to earn God's love be repaying Him for what He has done for us.
We need to know that Jesus does not want us to follow Him in fear or in a sense of duty that we must repay Him, for, in fact, we could never repay Him. He wants us to fall in love with Him, just how He has fallen in love with us. We need to know our guilt to acknowledge it so we can mend our ways and improve our relationship with Him, but God wants us to know our guilt, not in shame or fear, but in love. We should feel remorse and guilt, but not by means of thinking that we are terrible people, thus forgetting that we are still His beloved children, but by recognizing His love for us and seeing our ungratefulness in returning it. He wants to love us when we come to Him in repentance, not yell at us and beat us up emotionally with debasing thoughts. Instead, He is gentler than the most tender mother, and says softly, "My (insert name), I love you. This is how much I love you (the Cross and His Passion). Will you accept and receive my love? Will you love Me, too?" So it is that the "evil stepmother" quote is turned on its head, from obedience motivated by fear and shame to a desire to give God a greater love. Perfect contrition for our offenses can only come from love. It is not by our own attempts that we will get there. It is only by grace, which if we desire and ask God for, we shall receive.
When we see that God loves us regardless of what we do, that His Mercy is bottomless, it is then that we can do things out of love and not fearful obedience because it is then that we understand that His love and Mercy are not earned.
