Another Look at Repentance - Melkite Eparchy of Newton

Prayer and MeditationAnother Look at Repentanceby Christopher B. WarnerDuring the third century it wasforbidden to go to confessionmore than once in one’s lifetime,penance was long, painful, andpublic, and there were numerous sinsthat were unforgivable. It took wisemen and saints to develop the sacramentof Repentance through thecenturies – in form and theology.Confession remains an essential sacramentin the life of the Church.When God created us in His image,He gave us reason and free will. Hegave us reason to know right fromwrong and He gave us free will so thatwe could freely choose to love Himand serve Him in this life and the next.God created us for himself but he createdus sons and daughters, not slaves.He desires personal relationship withus, his children. Because we are children,there is a natural maturationprocess that takes place during theshort span of human life on earth. Wegrow in maturity by cooperating (synergoi)with God’s grace.Yet we know from human experiencethat cooperation with God is oftenthwarted by the devil, with little resistancefrom us because we are feeble sinners.“Woe is me! For I am lost,” criedthe prophet Isaiah. Our wills are weakenedbecause of the fall of Adam.Through Adam’s disobedience we nowlive in a world that is diseased and decaying.Death is the common inheritance ofman because of sin. It is difficult to dogood and avoid evil because we have disordereddesires which distract us fromthe wholesome life for which God hasmade us. However, it is not impossible todo good. We did not utterly lose our freedomand God did not completely abandonhis creatures. On the contrary, Godhad a plan for our salvation. He loved usso much, he sent his only beloved Son sothat we might not perish but share eternallife with him in glory.Salvation history is an adventurestory about God preparing a people forthe coming of the great hero of theworld, the Messiah, the Son of God,“…and the Word became flesh!”(Jn1:14). The Incarnation is the pinnacleevent of history and the benchmarkof our faith. Many theologians believeit was God’s loving, eternal plan tosend his Son to be incarnate, even ifAdam and Eve had not sinned. If thiswas the case, then the Incarnation wasmagnified even more when it became amission of salvation as well as an act oflove. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrectionhe opened for us the way tothe Father. He established the path oftheosis by which we enter into and participatein the love of the Trinity and arerestored to the divine likeness for whichwe were created in the beginning.Through Christ, we are transfiguredinto glory and participate in the joy ofthe Resurrection, if we cooperate withGod in His saving act of redemption.He has crushed death by his death!Salvation is won, victory is ours, thegates of paradise are open, but theIncarnation demands a response: faith,repentance, love…and baptism. Theway to Christ is not esoteric but sacramentaland the sacramental organismof Christ on earth is the Church. Or asMetropolitan Kallistos (Timothy Ware)phrased it in The Orthodox Church,“The Church is the extension of theIncarnation, the place where theIncarnation perpetuates itself.”Christ is present to us through thesacraments of the Church. Throughbaptism, Christians die to sin and risetogether with Christ into newness oflife according to His New Covenant.Through the Eucharist, we become“partakers of divine nature” and sharein communion with Christ and all hissaints. Through Repentance, we findhealing and forgiveness when we sin –a fresh start on the path of theosis.The sacrament of Repentance is oneof the sacramental mysteries of theChurch. The Greeks call them mysteriesbecause we do not see the spiritualreality hidden beneath the physicaldimension of each sacrament. As St.John Chrysostom put it, “It is called amystery because what we believe isnot the same as what we see...” InConfession, the priest lays his hands onthe head of the penitent and speaks thewords of absolution, but it is Jesus whoforgives the sins. The priest/confessoris the “witness” of the sacrament. Likeall sacraments, Repentance is personal– the individual believer is reconciledwith God for the healing of his souland body. The primary agent of thesacraments is Christ who uses thehands and tongue of the priest to doHis good work on earth. In a way, theentire Christian life is a sacrament,because every act ought to be a participationin God’s life. The goodChristian cooperates with God, but aswe strive to obey the precepts andcommands of God, we may fall. Thesacrament of Repentance gives us theopportunity to be healed and forgiven –restored to fullness of life in Christ.Third Century Repentanceand EcclesiologyThe practice of Repentance has developedwith time. Jesus gave HisApostles the authority to forgive sins.Undeniably, the practice of the sacramentof Repentance dates back to thefirst century, yet, the form and theologyof the sacrament have developedwith time. For example, some of theearly Fathers of the Church believedsome serious sins were unforgivable.This sparked debate in the Church ofthe third century. Tertullian wrote thatidolatry, adultery, fornication, blasphemy,and apostasy are not forgivable.Origen and Hippolytus of Rome had asimilar list of unforgivable sins.Incidentally, the most controversial sinin this list was that of apostasy. Duringthe Christian persecutions of NorthAfrica, many Christians had either sacrificedto the pagan gods or bought acertificate (libelli) stating that theyhad. After the persecutions were over,several of these Christians sought reentryinto the Church. They had lostcourage when the time came to givewitness, but they still believed.In pastoral charity, most bishopsallowed these apostates to reenter after alengthy penance or just before death.Those who believed it was wrong toreadmit apostates, like Tertullian andOrigen, were a minority, but a passionate,vocal minority. Tertullian could notaccept this because his ecclesiology wasbased upon a false understanding of thepurity of the Church. Tertullian believedthat the purity of its members is whatmade the Church holy. St. Callistus ofRome (217-222) and St. Cyprian ofCarthage (249-258) were the voices oforthodoxy in this debate. In order tounderstand their theology ofRepentance (Callistus) and Church16 SOPHIA • Summer 2012