POINTS TO PONDER : REPENTANCE
- “It is God’s call for you and for me to be holy : to live a life of repentance, turning away from sin and selfishness, turning away from darkness and turning to light, obedience, to serving everyone else with selfless love, to being like Jesus Christ. That is the purpose of our Orthodox Church in Canada. That is why we are here”. See Homily : 27 June, 1994, Sunday of All Saints, Reasons for celebrating this Feast each Year.
- “We see our Lord coming to Levi (who is actually Matthew), sitting at the customs office where he is a tax collector. What happens ? Our Lord says to him : ‘“Follow Me”’. Immediately Levi gets up, leaves everything behind and follows the Saviour. He immediately responds to the Lord. In other words, this man repents. He turns away from his unrighteous way of life of greedy gain (as was the way of tax collectors in those days). He turns away from it all and follows the Saviour.” See Homily : 21 March, 2009, 2nd Sunday in Great Lent, Let us turn about and follow our Saviour.
- “This is the whole point of everything when it comes to life in Christ. The Church (and any congregation of faithful Christians) is not the society of the perfect. It is the society of those who are sick, who are wanting to be well, who are turning to the Lord. They are trying to be faithful and to follow our Saviour as Levi did just now”. [See previous homily of 21 March, 2009.]
- “Today, we are celebrating the memory of Saint Mary of Egypt, the most important example of repentance for us all (as far as I can see, and as far as I can understand). In her Life and in the hymns, we heard what sort of a life she had lived before the time came for her repentance. She, in fact, was living a very, very twisted and ruined life, and she took people into ruin with her. Yet, when the Lord gave her a clear sign that she could still be loved, she repented. Because of the way she turned about her life (she became very holy, as we find out at the end), she is truly an important sign for us”. See Homily : 13 April, 2008, 5th Sunday in Great Lent, Will we accept the Lord's Forgiveness ?
- “How did the apostles survive that test of walking with our Saviour on the way to His Passion ? According to our standards, we would likely say that they failed badly. Why do I say that ? Well, they kept falling asleep ; then they were afraid ; then they ran away ; and then the Apostle Peter, himself, denied three times that he even knew Jesus Christ. When it comes to this denial, it is nothing trivial, because this is betrayal. Betrayal is even more serious than what Saint Mary of Egypt did, one could say ; and yet, the Apostle Peter and the other apostles repented with tears. They were sorry that they were so weak and so overcome with fear, and they returned to our Lord. They begged forgiveness (which they certainly received, or we would not be standing here today).” See previous homily of 13 April, 2008
- “It is important for us to remember that repentance is not what many people think it is. Many people say : ‘Boo-hoo, I am so sorry for what I did wrong’. They weep and weep, feel dejected and morose, and all those things. There may be weeping involved, but weeping and saying : ‘I am sorry’ is not the main thing. Repentance is doing. It is not talking. The word ‘repent’ means to turn about. Zacchæus is showing us exactly what this means : he had led a corrupt and broken life ; it was a life that was obviously completely selfish, and he turns about today in front of us, in front of the Saviour. He says : ‘I’m correcting everything that I did wrong insofar as I am able’”. See Homily : 1 February, 2009, Zacchæus Sunday, We turn a new Leaf.
- “The Saviour enables Zacchæus to do what his heart is telling him to do. That is why he wanted to sneak up into the tree and see the Lord in the first place – to turn about, to serve the Lord, to follow the right path of life. Zacchæus turns from darkness to light, from death to life, from fear to love, from selfishness to selflessness. He turns about completely today in front of our eyes. This is a very big lesson for us all to be learning today”. [See previous homily of 1 February, 2009.]