"I kept back nothing that was profitable, but declared it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:20-21).
On this day the Church has gathered us for pious joy. But in this week she prepares us for pious sorrow. Which of these opposite directions should we now chiefly follow, or how shall we reconcile them?
Pious joy is righteous over a righteous man who has been perfected and glorified. During his earthly life he was a lamp of this church, and after death he continues to be a heavenly light for her.
Pious sorrow is needed for our unrighteousness and sins. They darken life, hide the light of grace, and block the path to perfection and blessedness.
"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation and not to be regretted" (2 Cor. 7:10).
The holy Apostle Paul shows us by his own example that it is possible to reconcile and join seemingly opposite feelings, spiritual joy and spiritual sorrow.
"Now I rejoice," he writes to the Corinthian Christians, "not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful unto repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to God" (2 Cor. 7:9).
The mind of men of God is one and the same. Therefore I think that Saint Alexius will not consider the joy of his day disturbed.
Rather, he will rejoice today over us, if he sees us entering the saving sorrow of repentance.
Therefore let us speak about repentance. First we shall speak about its necessity, and then, as the present days require, about preparation for it.
Speaking to Orthodox Christians, I may take this as the basis of our reasoning. The necessity of any work is proved as soon as it is shown that true Christianity requires it and is essentially joined to it.
Therefore we must look at the relation repentance has to Christianity.
Let us ascend to the beginning of Christianity. John the Baptist was the morning star before the rising of the Sun, Christ. John's teaching was the dawn of Christ's teaching.
What, then, did John teach? Repentance. "John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mk. 1:4).
"Baptism of repentance," however you interpret this expression, shows that repentance was the chief feature and necessary requirement in John's teaching.
The Gospel explains itself in this way, when it sums up the whole preaching of John in these words: "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 3:2).
The Sun of righteousness rose. The day of Christ's coming arrived. Jesus enlightened the baptism in the Jordan by Himself and sanctified by His example the great forty days of fasting in the wilderness.
Then He appeared in Galilee, so that, as the Evangelist notes, the prophecy might be fulfilled: "The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and upon those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has dawned" (Mt. 4:16).
What is this light? The Evangelist's words following the cited prophecy show that he points to the light of Christ's divine preaching: "From that time Jesus began to preach."
What was this divine and light-bearing preaching about? Repentance. "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'" (Mt. 4:17).
The light of Christ had to spread. The twelve Apostles became its rays. They were sent to spread the light: "He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:2).
What light do they bring to men? In what does the preaching of the Kingdom of God consist? It is all the same light and all the same preaching: repentance.
"They went out," says Saint Mark, "and preached that men should repent" (Mk. 6:12).
Let us follow the movement of the Sun of righteousness through the dread hour when the powers of darkness thought to eclipse it forever by death on the Cross.
But malice, deceived by Providence, became a blind instrument for revealing the new and mightier light of Christ's Resurrection.
Without doubt, this vision and prediction of the Prophet refers to that light: "The light of the sun shall be sevenfold on that day" (Is. 30:26).
After a new forty days again enlightened the Apostles, the risen Christ "appeared to them during forty days and spoke of the things concerning the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).
Then the fiery tongues of the Holy Spirit enlightened them. According to Christ's promise, He was to "teach them all things" (Jn. 14:26) and "guide them into all truth" (Jn. 16:13).
At that time, a multitude of people was struck by the miracle of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
They were also struck by Peter's accusation of Christ-slaying and by his testimony to Christ's Resurrection. Ready to receive Christianity, they asked Peter and the other Apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37).
What new light, do you think, will shine from Peter's mouth? What teaching will pour forth? What preaching will thunder? Always the same light, the same saving teaching, the same ever necessary preaching: repentance.
"Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins'" (Acts 2:37-38).
Someone might think that Peter had a special reason at that time to preach repentance. He preached to those whom he was at the same time accusing of killing Christ by the hands of lawless men.
To correct this one-sided view of the event, it must be noted that Peter's hearers were surely all the astonished witnesses of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
They also witnessed the gift of tongues manifested in the Apostles. Among them were many visitors from different peoples: Parthians, Medes, Egyptians, Romans, and others.
They had no occasion to take part either in the Pharisees' plot or in the rebellious cries of the Jerusalemites, deceived by false concern for the safety of their city and land.
Yet to them also the Apostle offered no other preaching than the preaching of repentance common to all.
Likewise, the Apostle Paul presents the preaching of repentance as a universal necessity and the chief apostolic work when he says of himself: "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
That means, the vision which called him to the apostolate. He continues: "But first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance" (Acts 26:19-20).
Someone may still say that John the Baptist, Christ Himself, and the Apostles preached repentance to people being prepared and called to Christianity.
But we, by the grace of God, have already been Christians from infancy. Therefore, it is a special question how the duty of repentance extends to us.
Indeed, the Apostle Paul assigns "repentance from dead works" not to the "perfection" of Christianity, but to its "foundation," or to its initial guidance and teaching (Heb. 6:1).
Yet he also shows us that this guidance and teaching has a place and use not only in the vestibule of Christianity, but also after entry into it.
For to whom did he express his pleasure over the repentance he had observed, when he wrote in the epistle, "Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful unto repentance"?
To whom? To "the Church of God which is in Corinth," as is stated at the beginning of the epistle (2 Cor. 1:1; 7:9).
Thus you see not only certain Christians, but a whole Christian Church entering into repentance, and the Apostle rejoicing over its entrance into repentance.
Was it not to actual Christians that the Apostle James wrote, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (Jas. 5:16)?
Was it not to those who had received remission of their sins in baptism that the Apostle John proclaimed a new remission of sins in repentance?
He says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:9).
In the first times of Christianity, some renounced every defilement of flesh and spirit by a first and decisive repentance.
They did this at full age, with free use of reason and by inward conviction. Then they passed through the all-purifying laver of baptism.
If afterward, in time, more or less dark stains appeared on the garment of their soul, these required the new cleansing power of repentance.
What, then, shall be said of us? The grace of baptism visited us without our knowing it. It was not met by repentance and was not accompanied by gratitude.
It is a great advantage to be guarded by the holiness of baptism before the inborn seed of sin has developed and grown into voluntary sins.
But did our parents, sponsors, and teachers use this advantage faithfully enough for us? Finally, have we ourselves used it faithfully enough for ourselves?
Did we not live for a long time without thinking at all of the importance of bearing within ourselves the holiness of baptism?
Do we not have all the more need of repentance after baptism, insofar as repentance was less accomplished in us before baptism?
To settle the matter more briefly, it is enough to ask one question. Do we have sin upon ourselves?
If, contrary to expectation, someone says, "No," I say to such a one without hesitation: you deceive yourself, and the truth is not in you.
Or rather, it is not I who say this, but Saint John the Theologian: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 Jn. 1:8).
But if, whether you wish it or not, you must admit that sin is upon us, what more do you want? Do you wish to die in sin?
For "sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (Jas. 1:15). If you do not wish this, then choose repentance, for there is no other way out of the realm of sin and death.
Enough has been said about the necessity of repentance. Let us now say something, as the present days require, about the order of preparation for it.
"If You should mark iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 129:3). Since the first sin of the first man, this saying of the Psalmist has been true for all and always.
Therefore, just as there is no man who does not need repentance, so there is no time when repentance would be superfluous.
This is the mind of the Church, which daily asks the Lord that we may "complete the remaining time of our life in peace and repentance."
Thus the whole life of a Christian must be spent in the spirit of repentance.
Yet confession of sins before the minister of the sacrament, the reception of gracious absolution from them, and spiritual instruction for guarding oneself from them, can occur only at certain times.
If the use of the sacrament of repentance were left only to each person's private sense of need and choice, then the negligent would have no encouragement.
Even the attentive would not have sufficient help. Therefore it was necessary to establish a certain order and determine times.
The care which the Church exercises for the purity of the garment of your soul may be compared to the care you exercise for the cleanliness of the clothing of your body.
If you happened to fall into mud, would you not hasten to wash your clothing? So, if you have fallen into grave sin, the sooner you cleanse your conscience by repentance, the better.
The Church is ready to receive you at any time. But if the whiteness of your shirt is only slightly changed by sweat and dust, you continue to wear it for a time.
Then, before some fixed day, for example a feast, you replace it with one completely clean. In this case, the example of order and the unclean man's example urge him to imitate the clean.
In like manner, the Church at appointed times before feasts, and especially before the great remembrance of Christ's saving sufferings, death on the Cross, and Resurrection, invites you to whiten the garments of your souls.
She does this so that you may celebrate in greater purity. As at a fixed season, she invites you through repentance and the mystical Blood of the Lamb, Who takes away the sins of the world.
THEOSIS