Repentance and recovery of correct self-direction

by Rev. Fr. Ignatius Senanayake

The Lenten Season of 40 days begins every year on Ash Wednesday. The Readings of Ash Wednesday very importantly set the theme for the whole Season of Lent. The Prophet Joel calls us to tear our hearts not our garments. In other words the Prophet calls us to a true repentance.

Should the experience of repentance impose restraints to the Season of Lent alone or is there any continuous requisite of repentance in the time to come? This question is answered by the repetitious pattern of choosing same Readings for Ash Wednesday in all the three liturgical cycles. One might think that the repetition of repentance is not necessary and it has to be limited to a season like Lent.

Significance

The significance of this repetition is shown by the choice of the same Readings for the Eucharist of every Ash Wednesday. This repetition signifies the importance of repentance which has to be repeated irrespective of season or time. One might think that repetition of repentance is not necessary.

We should recall how John the Baptist and Our Lord commenced their ministry: According to the Gospel of Matthew, “Those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,’ Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near’,” (Mt. 3: 1,2). From that time Jesus began to proclaim, repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near (Mt. 4: 17). “John the Baptist and Jesus called people to repentance, because it was a requirement to possess the kingdom of God. This requirement does not have any boundaries of time or season.

There is another reason why repetitious repentance is important. Repentance prepares the passage for us towards the removal of sin. As repentance has power to weaken sin, sin also has power in itself to lodge in our life again and again. We may not be interested in sin, but the author of sin is interested in us. Thus our constancy in repentance is necessary to combat the proneness to sin re-entering into our life and becoming active in it.

There is another directive, why the repetitious repentance is necessary for us. Whenever we miss the direction to the Lord, the repentance shows us the correct direction. Zacchaeus lost his direction to the Lord and as a consequence he lost his relationship with God and man. He was rejected by the general public; his career caused lots of damage to the poor people.

Later, his great interest to see the Lord was the most important factor for his repentance. When the Lord entered his house, his direction got changed and began to work in a new direction. Likewise, repentance invites the Lord to enter our life and thereafter the Lord will show us the right direction He wills for us.

No one should say that the Season of Lent is over and the season for repentance is over. The Season of Lent helped us to renew the requirement of repentance to enter the Kingdom of God. The Gospel Readings on five Sundays in Lent open five gates to enter different experiences. These five experiences are not time-bound or season- bound experiences. They are our daily experiences to live. Removing the sin and finding the right direction is backed up by the true repentance and thus, these experiences will help us to meet the True Light every day.

Readings

The Gospel Reading of First Sunday in Lent speaks of three temptations that Jesus encountered before His public ministry. As the Gospel of Luke presents the same event, after the devil had finished every test, he had departed from the Lord until an opportune time. Devil’s ‘office’ is an unending iniquitous one. Devil’s time is always an opportune time for him.

We are the victims of this opportune time of the devil. Our true repentance will help us to take a decision to give this opportune time to the Lord and reject the Devil. If this opportune time is given to the Lord to enter first to our life, the devil will have an utter defeat. The Lord enters our life when we truly repent. True repentance means the devil’s disappointment.

According to the Gospel Reading in the Second Sunday in Lent, the Transfiguration of our Lord was a different experience to the three Apostles who joined Jesus to journey to a high mountain. If they had any doubts regarding what Jesus said and did, their mountain experience helped them to dispel certain doubts that were in their preoccupied mind. The heavenly revelation helped them understand the Sonship and Lordship of Jesus. They realised the difference of Jesus’ body when they saw the Transfigured Lord.

They could realise their unworthiness before the Lord; thus they fell prostrate before Him. Apparently, their bodies were not transfigured; perhaps, a hope of transfiguration took place in their inner selves. The Season of Lent is calling us to enter this mountain experience of the Apostles to experience the hope of transfiguration of ourselves into the likeness of Jesus. Our repentance and other Lenten observances will help us enter the mountain-experience of the Apostles.

The Gospel Reading of Third Sunday in Lent is about the Samaritan woman’s experience at Jacob’s Well. For her, it was something unexpected to meet a man seated at the well all alone, but that incident helped her realise the turning point in her life. She went to the well to get the jar filled with water, but she was compelled to accept the Messiah who gave her living water. This divine and human encounter, forced her to look back on her life and become a changed person.

This incident shows that a conversion is possible at any moment, when we listen carefully to the voice of the Divine Master. Repentance helps us listen to the Divine Master. Finally she had to take home not water to quench her thirst but the Good News that could lead many to the Living Water. The Season of Lent is inviting us to enter the same experience of listening to the Divine Master’s call and to take the Good News to all and to be the Good News.

Repentance

The Gospel Reading of the fourth Sunday in Lent called us to the experience of the blind beggar at the pool of Siloam. The blind beggar was not the main focus of the passerby, but Jesus was interested in him. Jesus showed his interest in him, not simply by giving him something to eat but by giving him back his sight. He might have disturbed the passerby by begging something to live. Surely, people could have given him food and money, but no one had disturbed him to treat and give back his sight. Jesus disturbed him because He was interested in him.

Jesus entered his problem because of His compassionate love for the poor. Jesus’ physical touch made him a new person. We need constant repentance because, though, Jesus is interested in us, most of the time we are not interested in Jesus’ compassion towards us. We are blind to Jesus’ compassion. Our true repentance will help us enter the experience at the pool and to get our sight back and realise our blindness towards our own selfish attitudes. Repentance is a ‘disturbance’ of Jesus, but a good disturbance which gives us true interior sight.

The Gospel Reading of last Sunday in Lent accompanied us to the experience at the tomb. The emotional life of Jesus is well explained by the Gospels. As the Gospel of John records, Jesus was not emotionally moved at hearing of the death of Lazarus, His best friend. Jesus called His disciples to come with Him, not to go for the funeral of Lazarus but to wake him up from sleep. As Jesus went closer to the tomb, first He commanded people to “roll away the stone.”

Secondly, commanded Lazarus “to come out.” Thirdly, to people again, “untie him and let him go.” Jesus’ behaviour recalls to us the importance of our Lenten observances and repentance. We need constant repentance because we are sleeping most of the time and not interested in God and man. Our repentance will wake us up to join Jesus. Our repentance will urge us to roll away the stone that blocks our time to be devoted to repentance. Our repentance will call us to come out from the darkness of the past and enjoy the true light of the Lord. Thirdly our repentance will help us untie our bonds of slavery to pride, inordinate passions, possessions, and divisions.

Introspective character

The true repentance has an introspective character. When the Prophet Joel says, “Tear your heart not your garments,” he wants to highlight the introspective character of repentance. The perfect example is the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who went to the temple to pray. In the Pharisee’s prayer there were lots of words, but not a single word was introspective. His prayer did not touch the inner reality of his life. When the inner reality of life is ignored, the fear of God is absent. It is fear of God that leads us to repentance. The tax collector’s prayer was introspective.

The Fear of God led him to repent for his past conduct of life. His prayer was realistic. The most righteous person before God was not the Pharisee who used the high tone to pray but the tax collector who used the low tone to admit his failures. Repentance means giving room to the low and humble tone to dialogue with my conscience.

Therefore, as we take time to repent and recall our failures at the beginning of every Eucharist, we also should continue to repent without time limitations to find the correct direction as the Gospels show us. To live the Word daily and be obedient to the Commandments of God, repentance is a constant requirement.

Courtesy: Messenger