My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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REPENTANCE AND CONFESSION (Part II)
The Mysterion (Sacrament) of Confession
A Christian, at any rate, an Orthodox Christian, views repentance as a dynamic act of responsibility to God, but also to other men. It is not pining away in narcissistic self-reflection, even while implying self-knowledge and self-examination. Sin is a relational act - a break in the "I-Thou" relationship. It concerns my relationship with another person. When the prodigal son "came to himself" in the Gospel Parable (St. Luke 15), he did so in relation to his father: "I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (v. 18). We repent in the face of God; and we repent in communion with others, in the Church. Repentance in the early Church was, in fact, a solemn public act of reconciliation, through which a sinner was readmitted into Church membership. Even in Buddhism, monks regularly confess their sins publicly before Buddha and the congregation the phenomenology is the same as in the Church, even if the theology or ideology is different. Sin (and evil) divides, repentance conciliates, confession affirms the conciliation. Outside the community, outside the Church repentance would settle into guilty gloom, dulling the spirit or even driving to despair: metanoia turning into paranoia.
Confession (Gk. Εξομολόγησις), too, takes place within the Church. It is not a private procedure, a treatment of some guilt-ridden individual on an analyst's couch. It is not based on an admission of guilt and certainly cannot be reduced to a feeling of guilt, of liability for conduct contrary to norms and laws which render a person subject to punishment. It is related to what is deepest in man, to what constitutes his being and his relation with other human beings as well as with God. It is a sacrament (Mystery) - "the visible form of an invisible grace" (Saint Augustine), re-establishing a bond of union between God and man, between man and man. This is why confession also takes place within prayer and the entire world. As such, confession and prayer are not merely technical terms but means and opportunities offered by the Church For overcoming sins and death. Repentance is indeed the cause and consequence of prayer, being the highest and fullest foundation for and form of prayer. "True prayer," according to Saint Anthony the Great, "is that in which one forgets that one is praying," and genuine repentance enables one to forget oneself and simply long for God, who is present in the very depth of repentance. For it is "before Him alone that one sins" (Psalm 50[51]:3-4) - this is the personal or relational aspect of both sin and repentance.
The supreme act of communion is the Divine Eucharist, the communal sharing of bread and wine, symbolizing sacramentally the reconciliation to come and the reconciliation already achieved in the here and now. Repentance and confession as sacrament seals man's change of direction from disruption to reconciliation. An examination of the early forms of confession shows that they are derived from community services and even liturgies. Since forgiveness of sins involves reconciliation in and through the Divine Eucharist, the Eucharistic prayer contains penitential elements as immediate preparation for communion.
In early Christian times the exhortation of Saint James served as a foundation for the Mysterion (Sacrament) of repentance: 'therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed' (5:16). Confession was regarded as a form of repentance and regeneration (St. Matthew 3:6; St. Mark 1:5; Acts 19:18). The actual ritual aspect of repentance was a direct result of such Apostolic testimony, at first in the form of confession before the entire church and, subsequently, before a spiritual father.
Altogether, the function of the priest should not be ignored or minimized. "All who have experienced the blessing of having as their confessor one imbued with the grace of true spiritual fatherhood," writes his Eminence Kallistos Ware, "will testify to the importance of the priest's role. Nor is his function simply to give advice. There is nothing automatic about the absolution which HE pronounces. He can bind as well as loose. He can withhold absolution - although this is very rare - or he can impose a penance (epitimion), forbidding the penitent to receive Holy Communion for a time or requiring the fulfillment of some task. This, again, is not very common in contemporary Orthodox Christian practice, but it is important to remember that the priest possesses this right...not that the penitence should be regarded as punishment; still less should it be viewed as a way of expiating an offense...We do not acquire 'merit' by fulfilling a penance, for in his relation to God man can never claim any merit of his own. Here, as always, we should think primarily in therapeutic rather than juridical terms."
The most significant effect of confession is indeed due neither to the penitent nor to the priest, but to God who heals our infirmities and wounds. It is not a matter of a let off, a clearance; it has the force of healing, of making the penitent whole. As such it is a gift from God which man must be open to receive, and learn to receive: "Let us apply to ourselves the saving medicine of repentance; let us accept from god the repentance that heals us. For it is not we who offer it to Him, but He who bestows it upon us." It is significant that the Greek for confession, exomologesis, implies not only confession but also thanksgiving (cf. St. Matthew 11:25; St. Luke 10:21): "I shall confess/give thanks to the lord with my whole heart, and tell of all his wonders" (Psalm 9:1).
Through the forgiveness of sins in confession, the past is no longer an intolerable burden but rather an encouragement for what lies ahead. Life acquires an attitude of expectation, not of despondency; and confession becomes the way out of the impasse caused by sin. In this respect, repentance is also an eschatological act, realizing in our very midst, here and now, the promises of the age to come. Looking backward would seem to imply the fate of Lot's wife (Genesis 19:26): 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God" (St. Luke 9:62). God, Himself is revealed before us and walks in front of us. "One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead" (Philippians 3:13). (Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George