Not only is repentance a recurring theme in the Bible, but it is also a theme we find repeatedly in the liturgy as well. During Advent, Ash Wednesday, Lent, and in various weeks throughout Ordinary Time, the liturgy both reminds us of and calls us to repentance almost continuously. At the very beginning of each Mass, regardless of the liturgical season, the priest calls himself and those present in the congregation to acknowledge their own sins. He does this, once again, not so that people begin Mass by feeling guilty or ashamed but so that they can prepare themselves interiorly to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist. The best way to do this, the Church believes, is by a prayer of repentance called the Confiteor. This prayer, prayed by the entire congregation, is as follows: “I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts, in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask the blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”
The Church herself, then, in her most sacred liturgy, recognizes this need for daily repentance. By doing so, she wishes to establish within the hearts of all God’s children a recognition of their own shortcomings in their relationship with God and the reminder to seek Christ passionately in every area of one’s life. It is this repentance that ultimately creates in the soul a greater receptivity, not only to the love and mercy of God but the grace of God that is so lavishly bestowed on us in the Sacraments. Hence, beginning each Mass by reciting the Confiteor is not merely a smart or humble way to begin Mass, it is spiritual genius!
Why then do we hear about repentance so often both in Scripture and throughout the liturgy? The answer is very simple: because it is the truth. Repentance is what we must do and how we must live.
Regardless of a person’s social class, ethnicity, age or gender, there is inside each one of us a deep-seated desire for freedom and healing throughout our whole person. The reason for this is obvious; most of us are not interiorly free or healthy. Many people go to extreme lengths in this life in the hopes of attaining this interior freedom and healing that we all need. Though the world and even the social sciences provide some benefits in this regard, it is like everything in this world: limited. Christian spirituality, without denying the many benefits that things like psychology offer, has always taught that our own interior freedom and healing correspond directly to the level and sincerity of our repentance. St John Chrysostom articulates this truth most beautifully when he writes: “Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent…Sin is a wound, repentance is a medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has the shame and repentance possesses the courage.”[1]
The reality that we are sinners and must repent has unfortunately experienced grave distortions and exaggerations throughout history and within the church. Some of these distortions have really hurt people and have caused serious damage, both spiritually and psychologically. As a priest, unfortunately, I have heard many horror stories from people who whether in school, church, or from their own parents, were taught that God is an angry God filled with wrath. The only way one can escape God’s anger and wrath, many of these people were told, is through repentance. This is like a child who, out of fear of a parent’s punishment, obeys a parent’s command. Hence, repentance in this mindset and dare we say “spirituality,” is merely a survival tactic and not an occasion for growth and healing. It is essential, therefore, both for our own psychological and spiritual health to understand repentance correctly.
By calling us to repentance God is simply asking us to be honest with ourselves and our own humanity. Very often in conversations with people today, I hear many people express their desire to be genuine or to be their true self. There is an awareness in many people’s hearts and minds that there is more to them than merely the self they portray at work, in their community or on social media. Interestingly, the desire to be genuine and our true selves is exactly God’s desire for us as well, and this is revealed most clearly through the call to repentance.
At our deepest core you and I are in need. One of, if not the greatest mysteries and paradoxes of being human, is that though we are born and live in this world, there is nothing in this world that can ultimately complete us. Despite our very often desperate attempts to find something or someone in this world to complete us, we never fully succeed. We try to use other people, the world, and even ourselves to complete us and fulfill us, and it never works. Repentance suggests that rather than trying to save myself, or turn to someone else, life, or my vocation to save me, I turn to the One, the only One who can! The Psalmist expresses this sentiment perfectly when he says, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation” (Psalm 62:1).
In today’s world, many people are suffering from a very deep psychological and spiritual fatigue. I am often surprised and saddened when, as a priest, I listen to so many people express to me how exhausted they are physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Interestingly, these people are not only those with families or major work responsibilities. Nor are they primarily people who are undergoing a major health concern or who are in the middle of some sort of crisis in their life. For the most part, they are ordinary people, priests and religious, married and single people, young and old. What all of them have in common is not primarily something dramatic that is occurring in their life, but rather their experience of life as a whole, which is both exhausting and overwhelming.
This experience, of course, is understandable and very relatable. In contemporary society there is a great deal of uncertainty and upheaval in almost every facet of life. We live in a world where there seems to be almost constant political turmoil, not only in this country but also throughout the world. There is turmoil and division within the Church. The instability of the economy causes much stress and anxiety, and family life, for many reasons, is also suffering greatly. As a result, many people are afraid, anxious, and unsure how to respond and live their life in these very difficult times and among these very difficult situations.
Due to the circumstances of the modern world, many people conclude in these difficult times in which we live, that God is silent or has abandoned us. This is certainly the working of the Enemy, since there couldn’t be anything further from the truth. In these difficult times and in our own difficult moments in life, God is never silent, and he certainly never abandons us. In many ways, God is shouting, not at us, but to us, begging us to turn to him and reminding us that we must be rooted in him because without him we have and can do nothing. Before the deeply distressing and confusing events of the Passion Jesus reminds his disciples, as he does us today: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Several years ago, when the war between Russia and Ukraine began, a friend of mine sent me a video of a small town in Poland where, in response to the war that had just begun, thousands of people had gathered in the town square to pray the rosary. As the camera moved through the crowd you saw thousands of people, men and women, young and old, on their knees in the streets praying the rosary. As I was watching this video, tears began to form in my eyes and I thought to myself, “This is how we respond to life. This is how we respond to the trials, tragedies, and all the many other difficulties we face in life. We don’t turn away from God or begin to doubt his love for us and his nearness to us, rather we must turn more deeply towards him.” In other words, in everything that happens in life we must repent again by turning deeper towards Christ who is our only peace, and our only hope. St. John Climacus reminds us, “Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair.”[2]
Hence, repentance is the only true and lasting stability we have in this life. In a world, and in a time when everything is uncertain, Jesus Christ is certain. His love is unconditional, and his presence never disappears. What will tomorrow be like, or next month, or next year, in our own personal life and in the world? Nobody knows, and in some way, it’s not important. What is important is that we turn again to Christ, and give him what he so desperately wants, which is simply you and me. If we do that there will ultimately be nothing to be afraid of, because there will be nothing that can harm us. We will be firmly rooted in the truth.
Hopefully, each one of us desires to be a saint. What is a saint? A saint is not, as some may believe, a perfect person. Rather, a saint is a sinner who has stopped trying to heal himself, and who has stopped expecting other people or life to heal him. Instead, a saint is someone who each day repents and turns himself over completely to God, regardless of what yesterday was like and what tomorrow will be. So many people wonder what the key to happiness in life is. Some believe that it is wealth, health, success, etc. The saints teach us, primarily by their life and witness, that the key to happiness is repentance, because only the person who is truly seeking and embracing Christ can be truly happy.
When St. Francis was dying, he said to the brothers who were with him: “Brothers, let us begin again, for up until now we have done nothing.” What St. Francis was essentially reminding his brothers of when he was dying was of their need to lead lives of repentance. He wasn’t telling them, as some may interpret, that their lives have been a waste or that they have never doing anything good, since St. Francis and his earliest followers could never have been accused of being lazy or self-centered. On the contrary, he was reminding them that if they wish to do anything good in the future they must begin by repenting, turning more deeply towards God again and passionately seeking Christ.
Repentance then, as the Bible, the Liturgy, St. Francis and all the saints reminds us, is not merely a suggestion from God or something we may wish to consider for our own lives. Rather, it is the primary action and attitude we must adopt as disciples of Christ, since the very purpose of discipleship is not only to embrace Christ more deeply by turning away from sin, but to be always running towards him and seeking him every moment. Such is the beautiful life we are called to as sons and daughters of God.
[1] The Fathers of the Church: St. John Chrysostom on repentance and almsgiving. Translator Gus George Christo, Catholic University of America Press, 2010, 115.
[2] Bro Smith SGS, A Monk’s Topical Bible Letters A-D, (Revelation Insight Publishing Company), 2010, 129.
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