Repentance ~ A Verb of Life

[A cyber-version of my homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time]

Bible Readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/091413.cfm

Repentance  ~ A Verb of Life

In our society today there is an intense obsession for placing blame.  From politics to health care, from our relationships and even the practicing of faith the desire to point fingers of blame dictate behavior, policy and life itself.  While it is important to understand the causes of issues and problems that understanding is not helped or developed when our conclusions are infected with this pervasive virus of the soul.  To embrace the fervor for blame, while popular, is not an embrace from God.  To foster blame is to foster judgment and condemnation.    To find blame is powerfully contrasted in our Bible readings this 24the Sunday of Ordinary Time.  Our readings share another verb but it is a verb of life, the choice of repentance.

It is unfortunate that when the word  repentance is shared many people will quickly sense a strong resistance and aversion to the concept.  Repentance has a conflicted and, at times, unpleasant reputation.  Straight away let us establish what repentance is not.  Repentance is not the harsh penances practiced (often with great pride) by individuals and groups throughout the church throughout the ages.  Self-inflicted beatings, cruel depravations of self and others of care, food and solace is, again not repentance.  Nor is repentance just about sin.  Say the word and many (Christians and unbelievers) will automatically focus upon a vast array of sins of which repentance may be needed.  Strangely, though the focus often stays on the sins or the sinner.  That is not repentance.  Nor is repentance the avoidance of what some may judge to be sin (food, music, people) or the practice of perceptions of holiness, (spiritual postures and practices and appearances).  Then what is repentance?

To understand real, healthy repentance we do well to go to the roots of the word.  The word repentance is from Old French and Latin.  Repentance is  a verb of life it is simply is an intensive action of regret and being sorry.  It is a realization of a wrong course of life or action and a real (intensive)  change of heart and direction.   God would call us all to be a people of  repentance, a people of life.  Our Bible readings help us understand what that means.  We are also profoundly blessed on this September 15th (our Vigil Mass for tomorrow) to be celebrating the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross; for it is at the Cross we discover the majestic truth, the joy and power,  we find the Place, the Practice and The Person of repentance.  

The Place of Repentance is discovered as we journey on our way of the Cross.   Through the course of our life we each will face times of failure, not just in doing that which is harmful but in not doing what brings us life.  It is in our places of  struggle, heartache or woundedness that we can (if we resist the temptation to just blame) chose to enter into the path of repentance.  It may be a profound realization that we are headed in a wrong direction and we must quickly get off the off ramp and turn around, or it may be a simple adjustment of attitude and vision.  It is a paradox of faith that the power of life bringing repentance is found at a place known for death, the place of the Cross.  Yet countless believers, starting with the repentant thief on the cross next to Jesus discovered that even when circumstances have us confined the place of repentance, the Cross is a place of freedom, healing and life.  For the Prodigal Son the Place of Repentance, started at the pig sty of personal poverty and worth.  But it encompassed a journey of intense, practiced steps…home.

The Place of Repentance teaches us, daily, the Practice of Repentance. There is profound power and joy that comes when one not only say but BE sorry.  Perhaps those seeds of sorrow for sin or failure may seem very small but when planted in faith and nurtured in humble love they can grow to lives of great beauty and strength.  This practice, as we have seen, isn't just about saying set prayers.  It isn't about the condemnation of self.  It is about the turning away from destructive practices, words, longings,  to those that bring life, discovery and hope.  A good measure of the strength of our repentance is the growth of peace, the realization of God's love and the sense of the joy of Heaven shared by the angels when a sinner repents. The practice of real repentance will bring a growing dawning of the Light of God's mercy as we turn our backs on whatever practices or places of darkness we may have known.  It is as we journey the places of repentance, growing in a faith-filled true practice,  that we come to discover that real repentance is about a Person.   The Prodigal in our Gospel had a long and arduous journey home, although his weak faith may have brought fears it was deep inside he longed to return home to his father. 

Real Repentance brings us to the Cross, it is there that our practices are freed from those things that cripple and deter us in our journey.  It is at the Cross we are freed to start practicing our lives for which we are created. And, it is at the Cross we discover we are destined to know the  Person, Jesus Christ and the  loving embrace of God.  Repentance is most clearly about a person discovering the forgiveness, mercy and love  God has for us.  The Prodigal son was fearful and humbly planned on living in his father's estate as a servant.  Little did he realize for how long his father had been waiting, searching the horizon for his son's return.    From the place of repentance and the faithful practices we then encounter and discover, as did the thief on the cross the embracing words of mercy of the Savior…"Today, you will be with in Paradise".  We would do well to leave our focus upon sins and sinners and focus on the scene as Jesus brought the fallen, yet repentant thief into the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father.  

God calls us to be a people of repentance.  He calls to turn away from blaming, fear, hate and judgement.  He calls us away from sin.  He calls us each to realize we are all prodigals and that our Heavenly Father longs for us.  He calls us to a life of Heavenly joy as we share in our deeds and words the practices of real repentance.  He calls us to both know and share the mercy-filled embrace of the Savior as He brings us to our Heavenly Father.  True repentance is, simply realizing God, in love is calling us.

Cross + Roads ~ Problems & Presence

                                                Cross + Roads ~ Problems & Presence

Our Bible readings (  Mass Readings second Sunday of Lent ) this Second Sunday of Lent bring us to the heart of this season of renewal.  They bring us to God's gift to us, the gift of repentance.  This grace often has negative connotations.  But if we allow the light of Scripture to show us the way we experience that repentance is a gift and grace we all need.  We grow in this grace as we grow through the realities of the journey of life as we experience PROBLEMS, we can grow in REPENTANCE that leads us to His PRESENCE.

PROBLEMS:  Our world seems flooded with problems.  Economic upheaval, violence, even in the Church the media (and some Catholics) would see the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI as a huge problem.  And in our own lives, health, budgets, family, workplace issues all offer an abundant menu of problems on which to feed.  Scriptures today, from the story of Moses and the Burning Bush through to the Gospel speak of problems to illustrate a reality of human life, a reality we all share.  We have problems.
Some are problems such as Moses encountered as he went about, minding his own business, a bush that was burning, but... not burning up...and in the bush an angel of the Lord was speaking, calling Him.  This wasn't a bad thing per se...but it was a huge problem for Moses.  He couldn't get his head around what he was experiencing.  He couldn't solve this problem with his understanding.
In the Gospel Jesus is challenged by the people with the news events of the day.  Accidents, tragedies, real problems for the victims. Those questioning Christ were doing what seems a favorite human pastime...seeking who was at fault, who was to blame.
St. Paul in his writing to the church at Corinth, a church beset with problems, reminds us of these challenges, and the solution by the example of those who had followed God before.
But Jesus responds to those challenging Him with both the solution and a greater challenge...REPENTANCE.

REPENTANCE:  In the Gospel the word "repent" is from the Greek word:  "metanoeo"  which means to literally "change ones mind".  It is as we journey through life we are given crossroads, places, times where we have opportunity to change our minds, change the direction we are headed.  The season of Lent is given us to grow in this grace, this gift.  Repentance is not meant to be confined to Lent alone.  It is a grace we are to be strong in throughout all our journey.
Repentance doesn't just mean "turning away from sin".  It means turning away from something, some activity to something better...turning to God, His plan for our lives.
Moses was not sinning by caring for his father-in-laws sheep.  He was doing a necessary and good work.   But God had something more important.  From leading sheep God was calling Moses to leads His people to the promised land.  Moses changed his direction, his mind, from caring for sheep to doing what God was leading him to do.. and to be.
Jesus in the dialogue with those challenging Him used those real problems to remind us all we are called to be a people of repentance.  We are called to turn away from whatever hinders us from following Him.  This may mean letting go of events in the past, or struggles with people in our lives.  In repentance God may not free us from those circumstances as we would want.  He may not free us from all memory or awareness of our own brokenness.  He will call us simply follow Him.  In the parable of the barren fig tree we are given an insight into repentance.  The gardener asked that he be able to break up the ground and fertilize the barren tree.  So it is with repentance.  It is as we allow God to break up the soil of our soil and to, with the problems, the failings, the sins of which we repent God will then use them, as it were, for compost by which to help us grow fruitful for Him.
This work of real  repentance will bring us to grow in God's Presence.

PRESENCE:  It is as we seek and allow the Holy Spirit, God's angels and saints, His Holy Word to leads us we are brought to turn away, to let go, of all the stuff and stumblings of our lives and to turn to grow in His Presence.
Moses grew from the burning bush experience to follow and grow in the Presence of God.  He did not do so perfectly.  He had other opportunities to repent, to turn at the crossroads of life.
Jesus calls us in the Gospel to let the Holy Spirit lead us to examine our souls, our lives and to seek to grow in what is better, the mercy and will of God.  The Psalm would remind us of the depth and scope of that mercy we are called to know.  We experience His mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation, in the acts of repentance we share with others in our life and with our God.  As Jesus did with those wanting to focus on the problems of others so He does with us.  He calls us not to focus on others but on Him and our relationship with Him
He calls us to His Presence to know and grow in Him and from which to share with others the way of the Cross to the Presence of He who conquered evil, sin and death, the greatest of all problems.



[Cyber-version of homily for the Second Sunday of Lent]