Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Today we tackle one of the mysteries of the Church that raises a large number of questions among the faithful. We ask the question: Why are repentance and confession so important within the life of the Christian believer?
Now many ask: What’s the point of repentance? Or some will say: How does confession remove my sin? And some even ask: Why should I confess to a priest? All of these are sincere questions and our Orthodox Church provides some great answers for them all. In order to do them justice, we will break them down into a theme of three parts. The first video will address specifically the question of what is repentance. The second video will speak to the subject of confession and its direct correlation with repentance. And finally, the third video will give us a brief overview of why the Church insists that the true and proper mystery of confession requires a priest or bishop who has been granted the priesthood of Christ. Let us begin with repentance.
First let us define repentance or what is called μετάνοια (metánoia) in Greek. Now this term translated actually refers to a change in mind or better expressed, it is a change in your νοια (noia) or your νους (nous). The nous here is what the early Church Fathers always referred to as the eye of the soul. What this means for you and I is that repentance is when we redirect our spiritual intellect or our spiritual mind back to God. This by default means that sin is that state in which our direction or orientation is away from God; it is pointed towards sinful passions.
And the Church has always described this false direction as a falling away of some sort of the grace of God. This would explain why we have always referred to sin committed by Adam and Eve in the garden as the fall. If the state of sinfulness is therefore categorized by a falling, then the process of repentance must therefore be seen as a rising up. Now let’s put this into context with the word metánoia or what we have often herd it said in the Coptic tradition as being called a metánya. A metanya is the action of rising up from the position of a full prostration. Our rising up, therefore, is precisely what we are called to do whenever we hope to combat sin in our lives.
See, for example, the story of the prodigal son as portrayed in the Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 15. We all know how the younger son asked for his inheritance and then left his father and wasted his life away in prodigal living. We also know of how he came to his senses and
chose to go back to his father. What we should pay attention to, however, is how he expresses this need to go back to his father when he realized the horror he had found himself in. Let’s read together from that passage of Luke, chapter 15, verses 17 to 20:
'' 17 But when he came to himself, he said, „How many of my father‟s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”' 20 And he arose and came to his father... '' (Luke 15:17-20)
Twice we hear the word arise and arose. This rising up that we witness in this story is the meaning of repentance: a complete and utter change is adopted not only in his speech and mindset, but also in his behaviour and ultimately, we witness this rising up in his life.
Now if we are to speak of repentance as a change in direction or a change in your nous, then we must understand that, as Christians, we struggle in order to achieve repentance and we also repent along the way. You see, repentance is both the journey as well as the destination of our salvation. The Church labels this phenomenon by stating that there is both a repentance to life as well as a life of repentance.
Now the first is very clearly observed when a person comes to their senses and receives the revelation of Jesus Christ and immediately adopts a change in order to receive this new life that is offered to them. We see this very evidently in the book of Acts, chapter 11, where the great Apostle St. Peter tells a story of how the Holy Spirit fell upon men, who were considered Gentiles, after he spoke to them and how the Lord had revealed to him that...
'' 9 ...What God has cleansed you must not call common.'' (Acts 11:9)
In this same chapter, in verse 18, we read that...
“ 18 When [the apostles] heard these things they became silent; and they [began to glorify] God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.'' (Acts 11:18)
This repentance to life is therefore found in the fact that true life is bestowed upon those who adopt this metánoia, this change in nous, this change in direction. However, according to the Orthodox faith, this is not merely a single moment in time that is forever solidified and, once received, it cannot be undone. On the contrary, this repentance must be chosen and acted upon every single moment of our lives, which now makes it a life of repentance. And this is very evident in the lives of the saints who have preceded us. We have many great examples
of this in the history of the Church who are truly beautiful icons of how to live a life of repentance.
Take for example St. Moses the Strong and St. Mary of Egypt. Both lived very sinful lives and we all know their stories. They both also experienced a repentance to life. For St. Moses, this occurred when he was admitted as a brother within the monastic community of Scetis. For St. Mary of Egypt, it was that moment after she had cried to the Theotokos, asking for her intercession, that she was allowed to enter into the Church on the day of that feast. However in both cases, we also see the need for a presence of a life of repentance. For St. Moses, it was in his daily struggles with his passions as a monk. For St. Mary, it was her extreme ascetic approach in wandering the desert for years. In both cases, we see in the lives of these saints the true meaning of change in direction as they are truly great examples of repentance.
For us, what we must remember is that our goal is to push forward and to ask the Lord to grant us true repentance no matter the spiritual warfare that we find ourselves in. St. Macarius of Egypt warns us and tells us the following:
''It often happens that Satan will insidiously commune with you in your heart and say: „Think of the evil you have done; your soul is full of lawlessness, you are weighed down by many grievous sins.‟ [And then St. Macarius warns us, he says:] Do not let him deceive you when he does this and do not be led to despair on the pretext that you are being humble. You should answer: “I have God‟s assurance, for He says: “I desire, not the sinner‟s death, but that he should return through repentance and live”. „ What was the purpose of His descent to earth except to save sinners, [and] to bring light to those in darkness and life to the dead?'' (St. Macarius of Egypt, The Philokalia. Vol. 3)
What we see here, my beloved, is truly that our Lord has come down for our sakes in order for us to repent and to have abundant life in Him. Let us be encouraged and be bold in our struggle, always being assured that the Lord will grant us real change, victory, and repentance in our lives.
Remember, my beloved: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And to God be the glory now and forever unto the ages of all ages. Amen.