REPENTANCE By Archimandrite Seraphim Papacostas of Revered Memory.

Invitation to Repentance

The title of this book, the one word repentance, is a term that causes man of our modern society a feeling of discomfort similar to that which a sick man experiences on hearing the name of an unpleasant drug. Nevertheless, in every age and far more in the present deeply uneasy, tired and unsettled age nothing is more useful, more indispensable and more salutary than repentance. Often man wishes for nothing else more Keenly, even though he has no clear notion of what he really craves. Man has an ardent desire for repentance, because the finest and noblest words in human literature expressing the highest degree of human happiness and the most valuable gifts which respond to the deepest desires of our souls are rest, peace, love, joy, life, all of which are contained in one somewhat repulsive word and which are promised by the Lord who invites every man to repentance and are given by Him to every true penitent. We do not know whether the reader has ever heard of the inestimable invitation that the Lord addresses to us humans:

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest… and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt. 11,28-29). Come, He says, to Me. Return to Me and approach Me all of you who are tired and heavily burdened and I will give you rest; in Me you shall find the rest and peace for which your soul longs. Of all the loads and burdens of this life nothing weighs down so much on the soul and presses so heavily upon the conscience as sin. From it spring all the other tribulations of this life, as St. John Chrysostom, a great Father of the Church, says. It does not matter if this heavy weight of sin is not felt by all and especially by those who are heavily burdened. Does a sick man benumbed under the influence of a narcotic feel pain? Nevertheless the pain is there, and his body is eaten up by the disease. Likewise all sinners who have come to and realized what being guilty before God means, and have known well the multitude of their sins, have found that in the life of men there is no weight heavier, no burden more oppressive and more detestable, no poison more bitter and deadly, no torment more painful and more excruciating than sin. For this reason the prophet declares: “There is no peace in my bones because of my sins; for mine transgressions have gone over mine head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden”. For this reason “he waters his couch with his tears” (Ps. 37{38},3-4 and 6{7},6). Those who study themselves deeper, realize at every step of their lives the heaviness of burdens such as : egoism and selfishness, self-interest and covetousness, pride and ambition. If each of us examines his past and consults his everyday experience he will find that the greatest part of our anxieties, our bitterness, our greatest disappointments and our sorrows comes from the frustration of our selfish intentions, from our unsatisfied self-interest, from our unsatiated covetousness, covetousness of money, of pleasures and enjoyments, of favor and preference, of position and rank. From our wounded ambition, from the frustration of our hidden yearnings and plans, the thwarting of our will, the outbursts of our temper, the eruption of our anger, in general from the blows that our ego sustains in the encounters of everyday life. These have always been the common and universal causes of anxiety and sorrow in man. The great tribulations that oppress man’s soul and body are neither daily nor permanent. But the disorder, small or great, created by the vices and affections of sin in everyday life—in the family, in one’s work, in business, in social life—make life a heavy burden, render the attainment of inner peace and rest impossible and prepare the way to a sad and pernicious future.

 

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We do not know whether our reader has ever opened the wisest book ever written, the New Testament or Gospel, in order to read the most valuable assurance of our Savior, Jesus Christ: “ I am the resurrection and the life. He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 11,25 and 5,24). Spiritual and eternal death is incomparably more terrible and grievous than natural death—which we abhor and fear so much. Spiritual death is not caused by bodily disease, nor by crimes or wars, but by sin. Neither is this death brought about by the separation of the soul from the body, but rather by the eternal separation of the soul from God. By separating the immortal soul from God, who is the source of life, sin throws the soul into everlasting misfortune and misery. The life of a faithful and true Christian is immensely and incomparably happier than the life of the richest and most glorious mortal on earth; for it shall never be snuffed but shall go on after his departure from the earth—perfectly, happily and eternally. These are the priceless gifts—rest and peace on the one hand, a life of joy and happiness on the other—that Christ gives us when He invites us to repentance and the return to Him. Repentance is, therefore, the unique way that leads to the attainment of these great gifts that man so ardently desires. Repentance is the only medicine which cures a soul poisoned by sin—a soul weary and groaning under a heavy burden—and gives it a new, true and eternal life. “Come unto Me”, says the Lord, the one and only infallible physician and savior, calling us to repentance and return to Him. Come to Me so that I may cure you for certain, give rest to your soul which is groaning under so many heavy loads, and grant it new life. You have had enough of self-appointed physicians, who claim to be “the physicians of others while they are swarmed with ulcers themselves”. Many a time have they promised to cure you but have done nothing else than make worse the illness, heavier the load; or the most they did was to administer soothing lotions or pain-killing injections for the time being. But as in the case of a patient suffering from malaria or typhoid, feeling utterly weary and broken down, uncomfortable and feverish, a superficial treatment or a fall of fever effected by drugs will be of no avail if the deeper cause is not removed, if the deadly malaria or typhoid germs are not destroyed; so in your case, the material goods of this world by which the clumsy and false physicians, “deceiving and being deceived”, propose to cure you cannot remove anxiety nor give rest, joy and life to a soul which is separated from God and is headed straight on the death. One is the infallible medicine that destroys deeper causes, restores health, and effects radical cure: true repentance and a return to Christ. To this repentance the Lord invites us with such compassion, affection, and goodness, saying: “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,…. And ye shall find rest unto your souls. He that heareth my word hath everlasting life”. Dear reader, you may be among those people who have never known real relief and peace, among those in urgent need of a saving physician and of a salutary medicine for their souls (and who can say he has no such need if he stays away from Christ?). You certainly wish for joy and happiness. You may have looked for it in worldly places and by worldly means and have not found it, for it cannot be found there. You may have read many books telling you about joy, but have not valued any of them to the satisfaction of your soul. Now, take the trouble to read carefully what will be setforth here about repentance, this great and most important means of salvation and happiness. Do not say that you know about it and have no need to learn of it or that it does not fit your position or rank to deal with it. We ask you to study this book. If by studying it you know better where you stand and wish for repentance, if you repent in the way you will see explained here and thus find the path that leads to Christ, we assure you beforehand without the least fear of being proved wrong, that you have already stepped onto the road of salvation, life and happiness.

 

The Necessity and Value of Repentance.

Lest it should be supposed that what was previously written reflected the ideas of the writer, the notions of a mere man, and in order that the reader may be more fully rersuaded of the need for repentance—which is spoken of with displeasure, or ironically smiled at by those who wander away from God—and on the other hand of its value and importance, let him give heed to what the Holy Scriptures declare. Whatever the Sacred Writings say is not the view of man but the perfect truth declared by God. The Holy Scripture is the divine book our heavenly Father, the most high God, has sent to us through God-inspired men like a letter to give light and teach the whole truth to us, His earthly children. In this divine book, God has made repentance the basis of His relations with us. First in the times of the Old Testament, that is the period before Christ, an excellent and wonderful example of repentance and confession was set for us by David the great prophet and king, who by his personal example and his famous 50th (51st) Psalm has been ever since and will always be preaching and urging all men throughout the ages, to repentance and return to God. On the other hand God has through His messengers, the prophets, often issued appeals for repentance such as the following: “Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities” and “Be converted, and turn from all your sins” (Isa. 1:16 and Ezek. 14:6). Wash, He says, your souls clean, and stop doing the evil deeds you are doing before my eyes. Repent and turn from your abominations. When Christ, the Savior, was about to come into the world, He sent His great forerunner John the Baptist, the greatest herald of repentance, and through him He preached to the Jewish people, “Repent ye… bring forth fruits meet for repentance”. When Christ Himself came to the world opening the era of the New Testament, of the new Christian life, His first message was a proclamation for repentance. “Jesus began to preach and to say: Repent ye and believe the Gospel” (Matt. 4:17 and Mark 1:15). Jesus Himself declared that He came into the world to call sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:13). The excellent and most admirable parable of the prodigal son, this inestimable treasure of the Gospel, is the most touching sermon of repentance in which our Lord illustrates that God the Father not only enjoins repentance, but considers it of such great value that “there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). The Lord Himself received penitents with great compassion, affection, and love. The whole teaching of Christ on earth begins with repentance. His Apostles too, were sent to the world mainly to preach repentance. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and “sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost”, it was through the preaching of repentance that Peter inaugurated the apostolic ministry: “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”, he declared. Paul speaking to our ancestors of Athens on Mars’ Hill preached repentance saying: “The times of ignorance God winked at; but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:30,31). He further declared that he testified “both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”, for “God hath granted repentance that our sins may be blotted out, and unto life” (Acts 3:19, 20:21, 11:18). St. Peter adds that if our Lord has not yet come to judge and condemn sinners, He has not done so as He “is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. For this reason the Lord pities and considers most hapless those who have not fully repented (Matt. 11:20, Luke 13;3). The Church has until this day preached repentance as the foremost and absolutely indispensable road to salvation. Through repentance the Church has cleansed myriads of souls, sanctified them and secured for them God’s heavenly kingdom. Through repentance the Church will continue her salutary work, even unto the end of the world. For repentance is the gate of entrance and return to that divine mansion called Christ’s Church, the Christian religion. The idolater, the unbeliever, or unconverted, on the one hand—everyone who is not a Christian—must repent and be baptized in order to become a Christian and thereby enter the Church. The Christian on the other who has sinned in any way after his baptism and lost the purity he had received when he was baptized, by polluting his soul through sin and estranging himself from his Heavenly Father like the prodigal son of the parable, has to go through the sacrament of Repentance and Confession in order to get rid of sin, to cleanse his soul of the filth produced by sin and return to the Church as one of her genuine members. The Church calls to repentance not only those who are estranged from Christianity or those who call themselves Christians although they live like heathens, but also the Christians who have received a Christian education and have been kept safe from moral downfall but have nevertheless fallen or still fall into violations of the law of the Gospel. Reminding such Christians of the God-inspired saying of John the Evangelist, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8) the Church invites them to develop a more genuine repentance, to make a firm decision of becoming true Christians, accurately examining themselves each day, and carefully uprooting even the so-called small and involuntary sins or vices—which in fact are the root of the great and serious ones. The Church urges such Christians to try, as far as is humanly possible, to live worthily of the vocation of a Christian devoted to God in spirit and in truth. For these reasons every man has need of repentance, the most valuable means of salvation for all.

 

The Meaning of Repentance.

To repent means literally to change one’s mind. Namely, to change sinful thoughts and opinions manifested in everyday life by sinful words and deeds; to be sorry for every sin one has committed; to disapprove of it and loath it; to make a sincere decision not to come back to it; to keep in one’s mind the thoughts on the other hand and opinions which are agreeable to God and to observe for the rest of one’s life, by word and deeds, the law that God has ordained and laid down. To use the words of the Lord Himself, to repent means “to turn(one’s self) from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that (one) may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified (Acts 26:18). Repentance, hence, may be defined as the divine sacrament of the Christian Church whereby God, through a priest, forgives all sins committed by Christians after Baptism, provided that they truly repent and confess their sins to the priest. Therefore, since forgiveness is granted, as was mentioned above, only to those Christians who truly repent of their sins and confess them to a priest, the act of repentance presents two sides: a) repentance proper, and b) confession—both of which we now proceed to explain.

 

The Characteristics of True Repentance

We repent often and of many deeds. There is no man on earth who has never repented of his evil deeds. Even Judas the traitor repented of having betrayed innocent blood. This, of course, does not mean that all people repent truly and return definitely to God and enter into the new life in Christ, clean and forgiven, walking steadily on the road of salvation like true children of God. It therefore has to be ascertained in each case whether repentance and return to God are frank and genuine. There are several signs and indications by which both the penitent and his friends or relatives may know for certain that he has truly repented and that a change in his inward disposition has been noted. Here are the most essential of these signs:

a.    The Awareness of a Sinful Condition.

The penitent must first obtain a clear knowledge of his sins and be convinced that he is a sinner. He must examine, as accurately as possible, the sins he has committed during the whole time he lived a life of sin away from God. Moreover, he must examine the passions, vices and defects that sin has created in his soul and to which he has bound his mind, heart and body. This examination will convince him plainly that he is guilty not of one or two, but of many sins. As there are Christians who have never known the law of God and do not know even how to examine themselves, unaware that many of their deeds are sinful, we shall enumerate some rather serious sins in order to help them do so. We begin with the more grievous and well known sins which even the most unenlightened and ignorant Christian may detect.

(1)  Transgression of Commandments and Duties.

The penitent will examine whether he tells lies in talking to others or in his dealings at his everyday occupation; furthermore, whether by long use this has become a habit. Let him know that falsehood is one of the gravest sins, which the God of truth abhors and punishes as the offspring and product of the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies, as Christ Himself declares (John 8:44). The penitent must be very careful, for this sin has spread so wide in society that many do not think of it as a serious fault and in fact often assume that they simply have to tell lies, for otherwise they cannot earn their living. This idea is preposterous and unfounded. For it is deplorable to maintain that the truthful and sincere Christian who walks in truth, obeying the God of Truth and having full confidence in Him as a good Protector and Father, cannot work and make a living. He will also examine if the vice of falsehood has led him to slander and calumny, in which case his guilt is far greater. For he has not simply brought harm on another’s material interests, but on his honor and reputation and has morally wounded or killed him.

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