Repentance

Recently I read a sermon given by an early Bishop of the Church. Its words kept coming to my mind and so I pass them on to you. The preacher was St. John Chrysostom, a fourth century Bishop of Constantinople.  (The name “Chrysostom” means golden-mouthed.) He is considered the patron saint of preachers, and a Doctor of the Church. His sermon was on the topic of repentance.  That, of course, is a topic for every one of us to consider. Christ constantly calls all of us to repentance in our lives.

St. John Chrysostom speaks of five ways that will lead us to repentance. “The first is to admit and condemn our own sins…for a person who admits his own sins is slower to commit them again.” There really can be no repentance unless we are willing to acknowledge our sins.  We need to stand humbly before God and admit what we have done. It is important to acknowledge our sins. The Church expresses that need at every Mass as we begin the celebration of the Eucharist with the priest’s instruction to call to mind our sins and express our call for mercy.

The second “path” is to “put out of our minds the harm done by our enemies, in order to master our anger and to forgive our fellow servant’s sin against us.”  This may be the most difficult path to repentance because we find it too easy to hold on to our anger. Repentance calls us to end our hatreds.

The third path that St. John identifies is that of almsgiving. This path requires that we be willing to give something of value to those who need assistance. The positive work of mercy, says the Bishop, is a sure path to repentance.

The fourth path is prayer. He speaks of the prayer as the “finest and most careful kind of prayer that truly comes from our hearts.” He speaks of a prayer of true sorrow.

He offers one final path to repentance: “Living a modest and humble life.”

These are the five pathways that St. John Chrysostom offers to us as our pathways to true repentance. I hope to keep them in mind and I hope you will as well.

St. John Chrysostom, pray for us.

Fr. Charlie Froehle

Published in Bulletin: September 5th, 2010