February 17, 2021
Repentance – 1
Dear Friends,
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the season for repentance.
What is repentance?
Often, we have been led to see this as focusing almost solely on myself, as doing a serious examination of conscience and seeking God’s forgiveness.
The emphasis has been on my faults, my dark sides, my sins.
That’s how I was led to think about repentance.
Many of us have been given and maybe are still being given this understanding.
I now believe that this understanding is incomplete and maybe even distorted.
Why?
Because it places “me” so much at the center of it all.
This understanding and practice of repentance can become deceptively self-centered.
I recommend that repentance needs to start with God and opening ourselves to God.
We need first to look to the One in whose image we are made and in whose likeness we are to grow.
“Repentance… means, not self-pity or remorse, but conversion, the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity….
To repent is to open our eyes to the light.”
So, we are to look first at the love of God, of Christ.
This is why I usually begin the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass with words like: “Let us open our minds and hearts to the love of God.”
That needs to be the first step, and yes, it will lead to an awareness of my sinfulness.
But that comes second and that, in turn, will lead me back to the love and forgiveness of God as the third step in this process of repentance.
With this approach, repentance becomes less of a self-centered and negative experience, as many have experienced it.
It becomes much more of a God-centered and positive experience.
I will continue these thoughts next week, in the Inbox Inspirations of February 24.
Father Michael Schleupner
[Quotation above from: The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware.
February 24, 2021
Repentance – 2
Dear Friends,
My thoughts today follow those in the Inbox Inspirations of last week, February 17.
Yes, at times we all do some things that are wrong.
These are sins of commission.
And at times we fail to do some good things that we should have done.
These are sins of omission.
It is important to be aware of these things and to recognize them as sins.
But, it is also important that we don’t stay mired in the mud of our sinfulness.
We continue to be God’s beloved son or daughter, in need of growth, yes, but not unloved or disowned by God.
Grounded in this love that God has for us, we can move forward.
So, in our repentance, it is important not just to look back, but to look ahead.
It is important not to be stuck in guilt and negative self-talk, but to see ourselves as human, human beings still on the journey with Christ.
Jesus calls us to look not just at what we did, but at what we can now do.
He calls us to look not just at who we have been, but at who we can become.
And, of course, in doing this, we are to be centered on Him, the One in whose likeness we are to grow.
This, I find, is a much healthier approach to repentance and spirituality in general.
It is an approach that is much more faithful to the change of mind and heart and the transformation that is the heart of repentance in the gospels.
One author puts it this way:
“Repentance…is to look, not backward with regret, but forward with hope – not downwards at our own shortcomings, but upwards at God’s love.
It is to see, not what we have failed to be, but what by divine grace we can now become; it is to act upon what we see.”
I hope these two Inbox Inspirations will be a good prelude to a four-part Lenten series on Sin that I will begin next week, March 3.
Father Michael Schleupner
[Quotation above from: The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware.
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