ترجمة المقالات said: A Call to Repentance at the Beginning of the Year
A Call to Repentance at the Beginning of the Year¹
As we begin a new year, we must begin it with a new heart, a pure mind, and conduct far from the mistakes of the past. This inevitably leads us to repentance. And before we enter this subject in detail, it is important for us to clarify:
What is repentance?
Repentance is a spiritual awakening. For the sinner is a heedless person who does not fully realize what he is in, nor knows where his sins are leading him. He is like a ball rolling down a mountain, and with speed and force pushing it downward, it continues to descend and descend until it collides with a large rock and stops… Then it asks itself: Where am I going?! Here is repentance, which stops it so that it does not descend further…
Thus repentance is a cry of the conscience, and a revolt against the past in disgust that rejects the previous fall, feeling ashamed and disgraced… Repentance is a change in a person’s life and conduct. It is not a temporary emotional reaction toward God. Rather, it is a serious and radical change in the mind, heart, and dealings, so that everyone who interacts with this repentant person feels that his life has changed, as well as his temperament and manner of speaking. And he has become practically rejecting all his previous sins… His thoughts have become of another kind; therefore it was said about repentance that it is a renewal of the mind.
Repentance is a return to God.
It is the longing of a heart that sin has distanced from God, separating it from Him, then it felt that it could not go farther. So it was necessary for it to return… And since sin is enmity with God, repentance becomes reconciliation with Him, with the angels, and with the spirits of the saints.
Thus it was said that repentance is the replacement of one desire with another— a desire for life with God instead of the desire for the world, matter, and the body.
And repentance is a response from the human being to God’s call to him… It is a response of the conscience to the voice of God within it. And it is a response of the will to what the conscience urges it to do. Nay, it is a response from the human being in general to the work of grace with him, guiding him to goodness and distancing him from every wrong…
Repentance is an opportunity for a new page that God opens in His relationship with you. In it He forgives the entire past. It is an opportunity that strengthens hope within you and removes despair from you no matter how bad the state or how long the fall…
Repentance is the gate of mercy and the gate of forgiveness:
It is a bridge that connects earth with heaven. And it is a cause of joy in heaven and on earth. Joy in heaven among the angels and the spirits of the saints at the return of the repentant to God. And joy on earth for the repentant, his family, and all the society around him. At the same time, it is torment for the devil who tries to hinder it. Because repentance saves and frees the captives whom he captured through his evil. And because his labor, which he toiled for many years, is frustrated by repentance. He planted thorns in our land over a long time, and behold, repentance burns them in one day and purifies the land.
Repentance is the life of victory and the hymn of the conquerors.
And it is the beginning of the journey that a person walks on the path of purity and cleanliness.
A call to repentance:
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Would that you, dear reader, respond to the call of repentance in this new year. And do not think that you are in no need of repentance on the pretext that you are far from all kinds of errors. Truly, the one who does not see that he needs repentance is a person who has not examined himself well.
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Therefore, each of us must sit with himself at the beginning of this year and hold himself accountable with precision, without flattery, without excuses or justifications, so that he discovers what he needs to change to reach what is better…
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And if someone does not sin in action, he may find that he sometimes sins in thought, or intention, or the feelings of the heart. All this also needs repentance. For the righteous person must have righteousness that includes his mind, his heart, and his intentions. And the first point in the path of repentance is the desire for repentance, for many do not want to repent. Rather, they find pleasure in their sins which call them to remain in them. Or their habits are beautiful in their eyes and they do not want to change them… Therefore, the mere desire for repentance is a good point that grace grasps and works its work in the person, pushing him to abandon sin. And more important than abandoning sin in action is being freed from its desire: A person may never have taken revenge on those who wronged him. But the desire for revenge in his heart has not yet been purified. And he may long for this desire. And he may regret certain opportunities in which he could have taken revenge but did not! Such a person may have abandoned the sin merely to obey God’s commandment, not because he hates it…! And it is required that he progress in the life of purity until this sin and every sin is uprooted from his heart. Therefore, it was said that the perfection of repentance is hatred of sin— that is, to reach the state in which he hates sin with all his heart, feeling disgust toward it, and needing no effort to resist it if it presents itself. Because it no longer agrees with his pure nature. An example of this is Joseph the righteous who was pursued by sin and pressured by it, yet he refused and fled from it… After abandoning the sin that fights the person, even to the point of hating it… then comes another step:
Abandoning the sins that are revealed by spiritual growth:
Because God— blessed be His name— out of His tender compassion for us, does not wish that all our sins and weaknesses be revealed to us at once, lest we fall into discouragement. Rather, as we hear spiritual sermons and as we read in the Book of God and in spiritual writings, weaknesses in ourselves are revealed to us, and shortcomings that need treatment and repentance. Thus we enter a process of self-purification that may last a lifetime.
Therefore, there is repentance for the deficiencies revealed by growth and not limited only to combating the negatives which are the acts of sins. We must know that the devil, in his warfare against us, may leave one field to fight us in another. So we must be prepared for him in all fields. Even the sin from which we have found rest for a time may attack us again.
Thus repentance is not a stage in our lives that ends, but continues with us. And thus it becomes a daily work that requires constant vigilance so that we do not sin. Let us pray that the Lord grant us strength in this year to continually do what pleases His goodness. And may His grace work in us all.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Al-Ahram newspaper on 31-12-2006.
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