Repentance
Changing the Heart and Mind for new Action

Matthew 3: 1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert,

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’”

John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Discussion Questions: 

1. What is your experience with repentance as an ongoing spiritual practice in your journey with God? 
2. How do you notice your experience of Advent changing each year? What seems different as you grow?
3. In this season of Advent, of new life emerging, what do you hope to let go of, and what changes of “heart and mind” are you looking for in the coming year?
4. In what part of your life do you need a savior this Christmas?

Repentance and Metanoia: Often used together but slightly different.

Repent: a repenting or being penitent; feelings of sorrow, especially for wrongdoing; compunction; contrition; remorse. Turning from self back to God.

Metanoia: a transformative change of heart and mind especially: a spiritual conversion.

Both words imply an “about face” in replacing one set of behaviors for another. Hopefully the heart and our intentions catch up with our new actions. But, “feeling ready” is not necessary to make change happen!

Announcing the Coming Savior

Sr. Mary M. McGlone CSJ

John the Baptist takes center stage in the Second Week of Advent. Matthew portrays him as a prophet’s prophet. Although Luke presents him as son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Matthew has him “appear” in the desert as if out of nowhere other than from God’s eternal plan. John is as unlike his ordinary contemporaries as Jesus will be like them. Between them they almost depict the contrast between belief in a fearsome, punishing image of God and the shepherd of lost sheep. John knows he is not the centerpiece of his day, but he also knows that he plays a vital role.

John’s mission was to gear the people up, to remind them of how all the promises of old assured them that the broken world they knew was neither the will of God nor was it definitive. Relying on his religious traditions, John interpreted his times and preached that God would soon intervene, but the people had to be ready if they were to be a part of what God was about to do in their midst.

John’s baptism was the sign of their preparation. It was a proclamation of each one’s desire for metanoia. John stirred up the hearts of his people, reminding them that the shallowness of their lives and the institutional injustice of their society was sin and therefore both unnecessary and vincible. John’s mission was to drive home the message that the way things were was not the only possibility, that God had something much better in mind.

John’s apocalyptic images were geared to explode every sluggish mindset. He wasn’t saying that there was no good in his society. There were fruit-bearing trees, and there was wheat as well as chaff, but it was time for a major shakeup. John wanted each person to judge her or his own life, sifting weed from grain and then go into the water to come out renewed and ready for what was to come.

This is a hard time of year to proclaim the prophetic message of metanoia. It’s a tougher sell than is typically intended with “Let’s put Christ back in Christmas” campaigns. That’s why we need John the Baptists to force us to ask “Is this all there is?” While the metanoia message may seem to be a downer in the holidays, it is truly the only way to get at the meaning of the season.

John the Baptizer will always seem to be a voice crying out in the wilderness; it’s the task of today’s prophets to remind others that too much of this world is a wilderness of our own creation, and that’s precisely why we can hope for a change.

Ultimately, because we believe in God, hope is the message of the day. Today’s loudest voice in the wilderness may well be Pope Francis who in “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” invites us to pray:

Triune God, wondrous community of infinite love … Awaken our praise and thankfulness for every being that you have made. Give us the grace to feel profoundly joined to everything that is … God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love … O Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us to protect all life, to prepare for a better future, for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty. (#246)

Beauty, Hope and Repentance
      Reflection          
Fr. Michael K. Marsh

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

What does that mean for you? What is John the Baptist asking of us? What has been your experience of repentance? Does it inspire hope and joy? Or when you hear the word repent do you think, “Uh oh, someone’s in trouble?”

My thinking about and understanding of repentance have changed over the years. I used to think about repentance mostly in terms of behavior and morals. Somebody was in trouble. Somebody had better straighten up and fly right. Repentance meant being sorry, remorseful, for my behavior, trying harder, and doing better next time. It meant being good.

I thought if I could just be good enough and do it all right then everything would work out. Life has a way of dispelling that notion. I suspect you know what I’m talking about. All of us could probably tell stories about times when we did it right, we gave it our best, we tried hard, we made the right decisions, we met the expectations, we did what we were supposed to, and it still didn’t go the way we wanted. Or maybe it did. Maybe we got exactly what we hoped for but we still felt as if something was missing, lacking, and incomplete. We felt empty.

On a larger scale I used to think that if enough people would be good, try harder, and do better, the kingdom of heaven would come. The world would change, and problems would be fixed. I’m not so sure about that anymore. That doesn’t seem to fit with what John the Baptist says in today’s gospel. 

Listen again to what he says. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” According to John the kingdom has already come near. Repentance is not the pre-condition of the kingdom coming. Rather, it is our response to the kingdom that has already come near, in this time and place, in these circumstances, and in my life and your life as they are right now.

Saint Catherine of Siena said, “It’s heaven all the way to heaven.” Maybe we could paraphrase that and say that it’s the kingdom all the way to the kingdom. When we know that, trust that, and live that, we taste the fruit of repentance.

Maybe that’s why St. John is so harsh on the Pharisees and Sadducees, calling them a brood of vipers. They’ve become too comfortable in their status as children of Abraham. They have failed to recognize that it is not a status to be possessed but a way of being and a life to be lived. It sets a course and trajectory for their lives even as it does for ours.

So, what if repentance is about more than correcting bad behavior and wrong choices? What if repentance is really about returning to our truer and better selves? What if repentance is like learning to walk? It’s not so much about whether we will fall but whether we will get back up again. What if repentance is about recovering the parts of ourselves, we have forgotten, ignored, or neglected? What if repentance is about facing the aspects of ourselves that we don’t like that we think are unacceptable or unlovable, that we are afraid of? What if repentance is simply about the many U-turn’s we make to get back on track, the opportunity to change our mind, have a change of heart, and change the direction of our life? What if repentance is the recognition that we all are recovering human beings regardless of guilt or innocence?

That would mean hope and not guilt lies at the heart of repentance. Our focus would be less on where we’ve come from and more on where we are headed. It would be less about wrongdoing and more about healing and recovery. That doesn’t mean repentance is about becoming something new, something we are not already. It is rather returning to and reclaiming the original beauty given us at our creation. And who among us here today doesn’t need to make that trip? Who among us here today hasn’t known a time when our original beauty has been ignored, doubted, forgotten, or disfigured and defaced?

Repentance frees us from the past and makes the future possible, all because the kingdom has already come near.

I’m not minimizing the importance or consequences of our behavior and the choices we make. I simply want to enlarge our understanding of repentance and expand its reach into our lives. I need that. Maybe you do too.

For those who stay awake and watchful repentance becomes a way of life and it comes in some of the most ordinary ways. Let me give you some examples of what I am thinking of.

• Have you ever gotten so caught up in conversation with a friend, a meal with a loved one, in reading or writing, in music, in your artwork or hobby, playing with your kids, sitting in silence at a sunset, and you lose all track of time? In that experience nothing was lacking. Everything was exactly as it should have been. It was perfect and you never wanted it to end. In some way that was a time of repentance and you had returned to and were living from your truest and most authentic self.

• A couple of weeks ago I received a handmade card from a friend. She said that she was practicing thirty days of gratitude and I was her gratitude for that day. Then she told me things she saw about my life. As I read the card graciousness swept over me. I was lifted and grateful for my own life. She could just as well have written at the end of the card, “P.S. Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

• Sometimes I get in bed at night and look back on the day. I hear words I wish I hadn’t said. I see actions I wish I hadn’t taken and choices I regret. I don’t know what came over me, what possessed me to say and do those things, but I know that’s not who I am. That’s just not me or who I want to be. Slowly, I begin to recover and return to myself. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is coming here.

Repentance is the path we take to live the life we most truly want and to become more fully ourselves. It is an ongoing process, a never-ending journey. With each step on that path, we clothe ourselves in the attributes and characteristics of God. We put on love, healing, forgiveness, and mercy. We dress in generosity, wisdom, peace, and joy. We wear justice and compassion. With repentance the wardrobe of God is ours. And you know what? It fits. We wear it well.

Repentance brings us face to face with the one who is more powerful, the one who creates and loves us, the one who looks us in the face and says, “I know you. I recognize you. I see myself in the beauty of your face.”

So, let me ask you. What keeps you from living the life you want? What holds you back and prevents you from being your truest and most real self? What would it take to be fully you? What might you need to let go of, give up, change, or leave behind? 

What U-turn might you need to make?

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near and you are beautiful, beloved, and holy.

Reflection excerpt from Interrupting the Silence: Fr. Michael K Marsh https://interruptingthesilence.com Used with permission