When St. Pope John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries of the rosary, he included, as the third mystery, the Proclamation of the Kingdom with the Call to Repentance. Unfortunately, in a society that tends to view repentance in a negative light, this mystery is frequently subject to being abbreviated as merely the Proclamation of the Kingdom.
Yet, as the example and teaching of so many saints have so clearly pointed out, ongoing repentance is the key to authentic spiritual regeneration. It is important to stress the fact that authentic repentance must be ongoing.
Just as the health of our physical bodies requires the ongoing operation of our immune system, so also our spiritual health, and eternal salvation, depends on an ongoing repentance guided by a rightly formed conscience, i.e., a sincere conscience docile to the whole truth of God, not a sin-seared conscience, which seeks salvation through excuses and resentment.
Repentance is the way we show hospitality to the mercy of God. Note that when Adam and Eve sinned, they refused to offer God the hospitality of sincere repentance. Instead, they tried to hide from God’s mercy.
When that did not work, they sought to find salvation and restoration through excuses and resentments. Thus, having persisted in their refusal to offer Him the hospitality of repentance, they left themselves exposed to the metastasizing consequences of their disobedience.
Repentance is a gift
Next, we need to rediscover the basic truth that, at its core, repentance is a gracious gift of the Holy Spirit whereby a person seeks to love beyond his/her ability. This is done in three ways.
First, where one’s ability to love is perverted and/or crippled by past sins and festering resentments, repentance humbly and gratefully opens the soul not only to forgiveness, but also regenerative joy. We need to remember that the sacrament of reconciliation involves a proclamation of prayerful gratitude. What we are confessing is our contrite conviction that God’s gracious mercy and transformative graciousness is greater than the perverting and desecrating power of our sins.
Thus, refusing to confess that God’s mercy is greater than a particular sin is a de facto sacrilegious assertion that our sin is greater than God, that the power of Satan to desecrate us is greater than God’s ability to regenerate us in his image and likeness.
Secondly, loving beyond one’s ability means gratefully acknowledging that any virtue one seems to possess is the fruit of numerous other people’s ministry, prayers, forgiveness and sacrifices. As indicated in Genesis 1:11-12, 29, this fruit of other people’s prayers, sacrifices and ministries contains the seeds of new life, which can germinate and take root in the lives of many others.
Thirdly, loving beyond one’s ability requires that we offer others the gracious hospitality of seeking their help – either when we need to further enhance our own compassion or when our outreach requires the competence of others to enhance our work.
For example, St. Teresa of Calcutta would not hesitate to ask a doctor to volunteer his professional services to the poor once a month. She did not hesitate to “repent” of her incompetence by asking others to enhance her ministry with their professional competence. Ironically, in this way she was able to draw her helpers and her spiritual children into a deeper intimacy with the compassionate hearts of Our Lord and Blessed Mother.
Be open to mercy
Numerous souls fail to realize the awesome depths and riches of the merciful heart of Christ. Since the sacrament of reconciliation involves a certain degree of awkwardness, there is a tendency either to avoid the sacrament or to downgrade the seriousness of particular sins by mumbling our sins, by using euphemisms or veiled language.
We can only experience the full transformative graciousness of God’s merciful love by confessing in a way that is humble, sincere and complete. One way of doing so is to offer the awkwardness we experience as a sacrificial prayer for another soul so that soul may also have the courage to trust in God’s mercy and seek healing absolution from his/her sins.
When we do so, the heart of Jesus is filled with gratitude – and Satan suffers a crushing headache. As one spiritual director pointed out, “Don’t let a good confession go to waste!”
The whole premise of repentance is that we are sacred. There is an adage, “A fly cannot offend a king.” Although a fly can irritate a king, it cannot offend him since it is not a person.
Only persons, since they are sacred, are capable of offending and desecrating themselves, others and creation. Thus, those who deny that we can offend God by our sins imply that we, as human beings, have no more dignity than a fly.
In a world which would have us ask, “How can I survive/thrive in this situation?” – the Holy Spirit invites us to ask a more authentic question, “How can I help to sanctify this person/situation?”
The more we are open to the many dimensions of that mercy, the more we will witness it coming to fruition in all dimensions of our lives and relationships. As Jesus Himself teaches us:
“Be earnest, therefore, and repent! See, I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and
dine with him and him with Me.” (Rv 3:19-20)
Father Thomas Collins retired in 2018 and remains a priest in residence at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Hot Springs.