On Repentance

If anyone sins, we have an Advocate to the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One: and He is the cleansing for our sins (1Jn 2:1-2)

Today, beloved brethren, you will go to repent. As is my duty as a pastor, I want to impress upon you what is required of the one who draws near to confession—that his confession be genuine, pleasing to God, and saving for the soul. — Namely, of the penitent there is required contrition for his sins, the intention to amend his life, faith in Christ, and hope in His mercy.

So then, first of all, contrition for one’s own sins is required. But this very thing is what we confessors very often fail to see in our spiritual children.

Very many come to confession with complete indifference, and if nothing were asked of them, they would either say nothing at all, or say only something in general terms, such as: sinful, spiritual father, in all sins. And if only they said even this with heartfelt consciousness of their guilt—no; it is a grief that it is without consciousness of their sins, but simply so as to be done with confession the sooner. Beloved, let us not turn the work of God’s utmost mercy toward us sinners into a pretext for the wrath of God. What unfeeling creatures we are! As if we had nothing at all to grieve over at confession! Our sins are many indeed: if we were to weep over our sins our whole life long, even then we would be doing nothing superfluous, only what is due. Ah! If anyone of us said that he has no sin, he would be deceiving himself, and in that man anyone seeking for truth would seek it in vain.

Do you not see your sins? Pray to God that He would grant you to see them; surely it is not in vain that you have so often repeated after the priest in church: Lord! Grant me to see my transgressions! — Let us then strive, at least now, by our common efforts, to see our sins, so that later at confession we may acknowledge them with heartfelt contrition. And here is our first and very grave sin: that we, being great sinners, do not feel that we are sinners who deserve not mercy but God’s punishment! Let us condemn ourselves first of all for this insensibility, and say to the Lord from the depths of our soul: here I am, Lord and Master of my life—an insensible sinner; I am the greatest of sinners, yet I do not feel my sins; probably because my sins have multiplied beyond the number of the sands of the sea, and I am wholly in sins, as one sick with smallpox is covered with smallpox. I repent before You, my Lord God, from all my heart of my insensibility, and I implore You: do You Yourself grant me to feel with all my heart how greatly I have angered and still anger You. — O, this false, Pharisaic righteousness of ours, how many people it has destroyed, and is destroying still! And to our harm it strikes our heart precisely during our season of preparation for Communion, during the very Mystery of repentance and before the Mystery of Holy Communion.

But let us look further—with what sins have we most of all sinned against God? Now then: if we are people of little faith, and we live on earth not for heaven, not for God and the salvation of our soul, but for the earth and for all that is pleasant on the earth—in a word, we live for the flesh and its pleasures, and not for our immortal soul, not for its future life—is that not a great sin? What—have we, then, forgotten the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, endured for us, His most pure blood shed for us on the cross—His glorious resurrection? Was it not for our sake—that is, to lift us up to heaven, we who have been banished from heaven by sin—that His descent to earth took place, His divine teaching, His miracles, His prophecies—for example, of the coming Dread Judgment, of the resurrection of the dead on the last day of the world, of the blessedness of the righteous and the eternal torments of sinners? And, finally, His sufferings, His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven? — So then, if it is true that we must live here for the age to come, is it not a sin—not to live for that life, but to live on the earth and for the earth with all our thoughts and all our heart?

And how much sin comes from the fact that we want to live only for a pleasant life here on earth and do not believe with all our heart in the future blessed life? How much malice, hatred, love of money, envy, stinginess, and deceit come from it? From this come all the vices: all fleshly lusts, all the passions of the soul. So let us repent of this as well—that is, let us repent that we are of little faith, if not altogether without faith, and that for the sake of God and the salvation of our souls we either do not live here at all, or live very little; and likewise that there is little hope in our hearts—if indeed there is not none at all—in the future life. And besides, we suffer from the greatest sin of ingratitude toward God, and of lack of love for Him, despite His countless and unspeakable mercies. This, I think, everyone is conscious of in himself, at least at times.

Here you all are, moving about on your own legs, all healthy in body and soul, honored by God the Creator with reason and with free will—and what were you so recently? Nothing; yet the Lord has brought every one of you from non-being into being, and from that time He has lavished everything upon you: He presented you with a soul and its faculties; He gave you, and constantly gives you, food for the nourishment of your body and clothing for its covering; He gave you a little corner of His own earth, and shelter in a dwelling; He feeds you with the priceless, life-giving food of His Body and Blood, and makes it to you a sweetness and a rest; He gladdens you with the hearing of His word; He forgives your sins without number; He constantly guards your life, as a mother guards the life of her infant; He grants us His future kingdom—and how much else does He not do out of His love for us sinful and ungrateful ones? It is impossible to enumerate it all. And what then? How do we answer His love for us—a love for which there is no number and no measure? With nothing but lawless deeds, nothing but wickedness, nothing but ingratitude. So then, with tears let us repent before God of our ingratitude, of our lack of love for Him, and likewise with tears let us entreat Him to grant us the gift of love. Oh! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His rewards[1].

What is also required of the penitent is the intention to amend his life; pay attention to this as well. As you go to confession, say to yourself: after confession I will strive with all my strength to correct myself of those sins of which I now wish to repent. I will no longer deceive myself; I will not lie to God; I will no longer insult the Mystery of repentance. Help me, O Lord; strengthen the powers of my soul, O Lord! What good is such repentance, after which one again gives himself over, without any scruple of conscience, to the very sins of which he repented? The proverb is fulfilled in such people: the dog returns to its own vomit, and the pig, once it has been washed—to its own puddle.[2]

Finally, faith in Christ and hope in His mercy are also required of the penitent. Everyone who comes to confession must believe that during the Mystery Christ Himself stands invisibly and receives his confession; that Christ alone can forgive sins, since through His sufferings, His precious Blood, and His death He obtained for Himself from the heavenly Father the right to forgive us all our transgressions without offending divine justice; and that He, in His mercy, is always ready to forgive us every sin, if only we acknowledge them with heartfelt contrition; if only there is within us the intention henceforth to live better; if only faith in Him is in our heart. Your faith has saved you: go in peace[3]. Thus He says inwardly to everyone who repents as he should, after the priest’s absolution.

Let us all repent sincerely; let us all take care to amend our lives; let us bring to God the fruits of repentance. Amen.