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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THE MYSTERION (SACRAMENT) OF REPENTANCE AND CONFESSION
The Sacrament of Repentance and Confession is in decline and repentance is misapprehended. The decline and the misapprehension cannot be easily qualified, but they are unmistakable at least inasmuch as they are considered to be no more than incidental practices in the life of the Church today. The "traditional" way of thinking of sin and forgiveness has collapsed among a growing number of Christians. Nothing less than a theological and pastoral renewal is necessary in order to rediscover the living meaning of repentance and confession.
Repentance is indeed an act of reconciliation, of reintegration into the Body of Christ, which has been torn asunder by sin. For "if one member suffers, all suffer together" (1 Corinthians 12:26). "Therefore, confess your sins to one another - that you may be healed (Saint James 5:16). The whole Church expresses a search for repentance in the repeated words of the Psalmist, commonly known as the "miserere" (Psalms50[51]). It is through the faith of the community that the individual is readmitted and forgiven. "When Jesus saw their faith He said, 'man, your sins are forgiven'" (St. Luke 5:20; St. Matthew 9:2; and St. Mark 2:5). "Justification" in the New Testament does not mean a transaction - a kind of deal; and repentance defies mechanical definition. It is a continual enactment of freedom, a movement forward, deriving from renewed choice, and leading to restoration. The aim of the Christian is not even justification but a reentry by the sinner and saint into communion in which God and man meet once again and personal experience of divine life becomes possible. Both prodigal and saint are "repenting sinners."
Repentance is not to be confused with mere remorse, with the self-regarding feeling of being sorry for the wrong done. It is not a state but a stage, a beginning. Rather, it is an invitation to new life, an opening up of new horizons, the gaining of a new vision. Christianity testifies that the past can be undone. It knows the mystery of obliterating or rather renewing memory, of forgiveness and regeneration, eschewing the mystery fixed division between the "good" and the "wicked", the pious and the rebellious, the believer and the unbeliever. One repents not because one is virtuous, but because human nature can change, because what is impossible for man is possible for God. The motive for repentance is at all times humility, unself-sufficiency - not a means of justification for oneself, or of realizing some abstract idea of goodness, or of receiving a reward in some future life. Just as the strength of God is revealed in the extreme vulnerability of His Son on the Cross, so also the greatest strength of man is not to embrace his weakness: "for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I render glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" 2 Corinthians 12:9). To be flowed is the illogical, perhaps supernatural characteristic of humanity in which one encounters God.
The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, denotes a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of man's vision of the world and of himself, a new way of loving others and God. In the words of a second-century text, "The Shepherd of Hermas, it implies "great understanding", discernment. It involves, that is, not mere grief of past evils but a recognition by man of darkened vision of his own condition, in which sin, by separating him from God, has reduced him to a divided, autonomous existence, depriving him of both his natural glory and freedom. "Repentance", says Saint Basil the Great, "is salvation, but lack of understanding is the death of repentance."
It is clear that what is at stake is not particular acts of contrition, but an attitude, a state of mind, "For this life," states Saint John Chrystostom, "is in truth wholly devoted to repentance, penthos and wailing. This is why it is necessary to repent, not merely for one or two days, but throughout one's whole life."
Any time within oneself or distinction between the "time to repent" and the "rest of one's time" is, in the language of the Orthodox Church, attributed to the demons. The role of these demons is extortionate, offensive - "diavallo", the word "devil", means to tear asunder. We cannot be deprived of true repentance or diverted from its path by the deception of demons. Yet the demons can work through virtue, working to produce a kind of spurious repentance. By nature we are destined to advance and ascend spiritually, but the demons divert the course by simulating advance in the form of a fitful movement, a wobbling from side to side, like crabs. One can test the quality of repentance by ascertaining whether it is fleeing or fluttering. Inconstancy and inconsistently are a danger signal; lastingness is auspicious. One is being tempted by the demons when one is caused "at times to laugh, and at other times to weep." (Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)
(To be continued: The Two Dimensions of Repentance)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George