Homily for Wednesday of the First Week of Great Lent

“If anyone sins, we have an Advocatewith the Father, Jesus Christthe Righteous One: and He is thepropitiation for our sins” (1Jn 2:1-2)

Today, beloved brothers and sisters, you will go to confess. I desire, in my duty as a shepherd, to impress upon you what is required from one who approaches confession, so that his confession might be true, pleasing to God, and salvation-giving for the soul. Namely, from one who repents is required sorrow for his sins, the intention to amend his life, faith in Christ, and hope in His mercy.

And so, first and foremost, sorrow for one’s sins is required. But this, very often, we spiritual fathers do not see in our spiritual children.

Very many come to confession with complete indifference and if one were to ask them nothing, they would say either nothing or only in general that, they say, Father, I am sinful in all my sins. And if they were even to say this with a heartfelt acknowledgment of their guilt: no, but woe, they say it without acknowledgment of their sins, only to get the confession over with quickly. Beloved! let us not turn the work of God’s utmost mercy toward us sinners into an occasion for God’s wrath. What insensitivity is ours! Is there nothing for us to grieve over in confession! How many sins do we have: if we were to spend our entire life weeping over our sins, we would still not do anything excessive but only what is owed. Ah! if any of us were to say that he has no sin, he would be deceiving himself, and in such a person one would search in vain for truth.

Do you not see your sins? Pray to God that He will give you to see them; it is not for nothing that you have often said in Church after the priest: “Lord! Grant me to see my transgressions!” (Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian) Let us strive now, together with all our strength, to see our sins, so that afterward at confession we might acknowledge them with heartfelt sorrow. And here is our first very serious sin: that we, being great sinners, do not feel that we are sinners deserving not mercy but God’s punishment! Let us first condemn ourselves in this very insensitivity and say to the Lord from our whole soul: behold I, Lord and Master of my life, am an insensitive sinner, I am the greatest of sinners, and yet I do not feel my sins; it must be because my sins have multiplied more than the sands of the sea, and I am entirely—in sins, like someone sick with smallpox—in pox. I repent to You, Lord my God, from my whole heart for my insensitivity, and I beseech You: grant me Yourself to feel with my whole heart how greatly I have angered and do anger You. O! this false, pharisaical righteousness of ours, how much it has destroyed and destroys people! And against our will it wounds our heart precisely during fasting, during the very mystery of repentance and before the mystery of holy Communion.

But let us look further—with what sins have we sinned most against God? Well, if we are people of little faith, living on earth not for heaven, not for God and the salvation of our soul, but—for earth and all that is pleasant on earth, in other words—living for the flesh, for its pleasures, and not for our immortal soul, not for its future life—is this not a great sin? Have we forgotten the sufferings for us of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His most pure Blood shed for us on the Cross, His glorious resurrection! Was it not for us—that is, to lead us to heaven, we who had been separated from heaven by sin—that His descent to earth, His divine teaching, His miracles, His prophecies, for example about the future dread judgment, about the resurrection of the dead on the last day of the world, about the blessedness of the righteous and the eternal torments of sinners? Finally, His sufferings, His resurrection from the dead and His ascension to heaven? And so, if it is true that we must live here for the life of the future age, is it not a sin—not to live for that life, but with all our thoughts and our whole heart to live on earth and for earth? And how much sin comes from the fact that we wish to live only well on earth and do not believe with our whole heart in the future blessed life? How much enmity, hatred, love of money, envy, stinginess, and deception comes from this? From here come all vices: all fleshly lusts, all passions of the soul. Let us repent of this then, that is, let us repent that we are people of little faith, if not of no faith, and that for God and for the salvation of our soul, we either do not live here or live very little; also that there is little hope in our hearts, if there is hope at all—for the future life. We also suffer from the very greatest sin of ingratitude toward God, of not loving Him for His countless, unspeakable mercies. This, I think, everyone consciously or at least at times recognizes in themselves. Look at all of you, who move on your own feet, all healthy in body and soul, honored with reason by God the Creator, with free will, but what were you not so long ago? Nothing; but behold, the Lord has brought you all from non-being into being and from that time has given you everything: He has given you a soul with its faculties, a body with its wise and beautiful structure, He has given you and continually gives you food for nourishing your body, clothing to cover it, given you a corner on His earth and shelter—in your dwelling; He feeds you with the priceless, life-giving food of His Body and Blood; He delights and comforts you with it; He gladdens you with listening to His word, forgives you without number your sins, constantly preserves your life—like a mother preserves the life of her infant, He grants us His future kingdom, and is there not much else He does not do out of His love for us sinners and the ungrateful? It is impossible to enumerate. And what then? How do we respond to His love for us—a love that has no number and measure? Only with lawlessness, only with wickedness, only with ingratitude. And so with tears let us repent of our ingratitude before God, of our not loving Him, and also with tears let us ask from Him the gift of love. O! “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Ps 102:2).

Furthermore, one who repents is also required to have the intention to amend his life: and pay attention to this. Going to confession, say to yourself: after confession I will strive with all my strength to amend my life from those sins for which I now wish to repent. I will no longer deceive myself; I will not lie to God; I will no longer offend the mystery of repentance. Help me, Lord, strengthen my spiritual powers, O Lord! What benefit is there from repentance after which one again without shame returns to the same sins for which one has repented? On such people is fulfilled the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit, and a washed pig, returns” to its mud (2Pet 2:22)

Finally, one who repents is also required to have faith in Christ and hope in His mercy. Everyone who approaches confession must believe that at the time of the mystery Christ Himself stands invisibly and receives his confession; that Christ alone can forgive sins, because by His sufferings, by His precious Blood shed, and by His death He has obtained for Himself the right from the heavenly Father to forgive us all our lawlessness, without offending divine justice, and that He, in His mercy, is always ready to forgive us all sins if only we acknowledge them with heartfelt sorrow; if only we have the intention henceforth to live better, if only faith in Him is in our heart. “Your faith has saved you: go in peace” (Mk 5:34). Thus He speaks inwardly to every one after absolution by the priest, to one who repents as is proper.

Let us therefore repent all with pure heart; let us all take care about amending our life; let us bring to God the fruits of repentance. Amen.