Repentance on the part of sinners draws the compassion of God. In the 1st Reading, Moses is called to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh’s captivity in Egypt. But what is bondage if not a compelling symbol of the slavery to sin. Scripted into God’s salvation is atonement on the part of those who are redeemed. As the 2nd Reading indicates, that those who failed to please God would pay the price for their sins.
This is clearly stated in the Gospel. “Unless you repent, you shall perish”. Thus far, our ears have grown unacquainted with what sounds like harsh language. In fact, we have come to expect that a kind and loving Jesus cannot help but love us because rejection cannot be a part of God’s vocabulary when dealing with us. We have comfortably blanked out the inconvenient truth that God’s mercy does not exclude justice or punishment, words which again jar our therapeutic ear.
A challenge we have is to reconcile innocent suffering and death with a benevolent God. Both innocent suffering and death are possibly a major cause for the loss of faith. If the implication that suffering results from sin, then anyone who dies violently must have been a grave sinner. It is true that sin causes sickness, suffering and even death. However, what should be clear is that sickness is not necessarily a sign of one’s sinfulness. Jesus is the prime case in point. He was sinless and yet He was not unfamiliar with suffering. While the consequence of sin is death, the contrary is not always true that suffering is the result of sin.
If there is anything to be learnt of unexpected death, it is this: be prepared for we never know the hour or the day when a reckoning will be made of us. Not even the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the Eucharist can save us if we are not repentant. The flip side of mercy is justice, not tolerance. Sadly, our view of justice seems to lean on a mercy that tolerates. If mercy were toleration, then the question is for how long. Jesus used the Parable of the Fig tree to draw our attention that time is not interminable and that we should not brush aside the chances we get to be spiritually reborn. Lent is definitely a time for turning back to God. In fact, it is an invitation that we should continually return to God and this begs the question of what shape should repentance take.
Look at the recent papal announcement. The Holy Father will consecrate both Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is timely but what is the point of this dedication? It is clear that everyone wants to end this conflict that is fully charged with a nuclear possibility. If Trump were crazy, Putin must be mad. But if we study the request Our Lady made at Fatima, the consecration of Russia was linked to conversion. Surely that brings us into the heart of repentance. Ending a war is definitely noble but repentance and conversion might just achieve what we desire.
Penitence must require a revisiting of the places where our hearts love to go. It is not a return to sin but as a title of a song suggests, “Looking for love in all the wrong places”. Repentance means we take a hard look at how our hearts are habituated in the areas of sin: pride, avarice, anger, envy, gluttony, lust and sloth. This means that confession is not just a list of sins to tick off. Rather, it is to be aware of the prime sin that rules our hearts and which spawns many other subsidiary sins. Pride is a good illustration. It is a sin which we share with Satan and the fallen angels. It powers so many subsidiary sins as it stems from a forgetfulness of who and what we truly are—creatures and not the Creator.
In fact, on Ash Wednesday, during the imposition of ashes, we used this formula: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return”. It is an humble[1] reminder of our “earthy” origin. The acceptance and embrace of our creaturely state is a struggle simply because man has stupidly swallowed Satan’s suggestion that he is anything but human. The return to our earthly roots must consist in stripping off our pride. This Sunday we are prodded in this direction as suggested by the alternative formula for Ash Wednesday: “Repent and believe in the Gospel”.
Salvation without repentance is meaningless. To save us who think we are “sinless” is a waste of “Divine Condescension”[2] and frankly, it makes a mockery of Jesus’ death. Everyone bar none is a sinner who needs conversion and redemption. If the Holy Innocents who were sinless are also in need of a Saviour, how much more do we need to be saved? And if we need to be redeemed, perhaps we can see what repentance means for us.
If there is a anything take unites us and makes us equals, be we a prince, a prelate or a pauper, it must be the democracy of sin. The message that God loves us but does not expect anything of us is not true to the Gospel for “unless you repent, you shall perish”. Therein lies a modern dilemma. The notion of repentance and the idea of contrition challenge the ethos that we are self-made or self-determined or that we cannot be bad. If anything, we are well-intentioned. Thus, within a therapeutic setting,[3] any exercise that self-deprecates is considered self-defeating. After all, what is sin or where have we sinned? We are incapable of sin because anything that is contrary to our “good” nature[4] is merely proof of our sickness. Within this arc of “immaculate conception”[5], sin is not a consequence of our freedom to choose. Instead, we sin because we are sick and therefore should not be held responsible for whatever we have done.
In light of Lent and so that we do not “waste” time, a step towards proper repentance is to recognise that our desires, more often than not, are disordered, our intellects have been compromised that we frequently cannot see the true picture and finally our wills are weakened because, as St Paul described it perfectly, we choose what we should not and omit what we should. To receive God’s mercy, we need His sacraments, notably the Sacrament of Confession. The more prepared our conscience, the better will our confession be. The more profound our contrition, the deeper will God’s grace of healing reach. If self-conquest with the assistance of God’s grace is the sure path to the fullness of life, then sincere contrition opens the door for God’s compassion to salve the soul scarred by sin.
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[1] Humility literally mean on the ground or from the earth and it is related to the word “human”. We are literally created out of dust or earth.
[2] The profound bow we make at these words “And by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary” is our response to the “Divine Condescension” of God. It would be a total waste of divine initiative in “taking flesh” so as to be one of us (albeit, except in sin).
[3] Feeling good as the standard for well-being and sometimes being good.
[4] Meaning, not even vitiated.
[5] Everyone seems to be conceived immaculately. And no one is vitiated by Original Sin.
