Repentance is our reconciliation with God
—St. John Climacus
Lent is a time of repentance—a time when our stony hearts should be transformed by the power of God from insensible to sensitive, from cold and hardened to warm and open—open to others and to God Himself.
Lent is a time of renewal, when as in springtime, all is once again become new; when our life that has gradually ebbed away to nothing and barely flickering, once again comes to life with the power that God can give us, joining us to His Holy Spirit, making us through the Holy Sacraments and in the direct gift of Himself communicants of divine nature.
This is the time of reconciliation, and reconciliation is God’s joy and our joy; it is a new beginning.
Today we celebrate the memory of St. John Climacus, and I want to read a few of his words to you that are especially significant for this period of the Church year, which we are now experiencing. Repentance is our return to God, the renewal of our baptism; it is an ascetic labor performed to renew our union with God, our vow to change our lives. It is a time when we can learn humility; that is, peace—peace with God, peace with ourselves, peace with all creatures. Repentance is born of hope and the decisive rejection of despair. And he who repents is one who deserves condemnation, yet departs from the judgment seat without shame or disgrace, because repentance is our reconciliation with God. And this is achieved through a worthy life, through a struggle with the sins that we committed in the past. Repentance is the cleansing of our conscience. Repentance is readiness, without words of murmuring and in transformation through love, to bear any sorrow or pain.”
And if we ask ourselves how, in what way we can achieve this, how can we respond to God Who receives us as the father received his prodigal son; how can we respond to God, Who waited so long for us, languishing when we rejected Him, yet He never turned away from us—how can we respond to such a God? Answering this is yet another brief excerpt on prayer: “Do not strive for sophistication and eloquence in prayer, because our Heavenly Father often rejoices in the timid and artless babbling of children. Do not be loquacious when you converse with God, because as you search for words, you can get tangled in them. God had mercy on the publican for just one word; just one word of faith saved the thief on the cross. Loquaciousness in prayer disperses the mind and fills it with an abundance of images. But a single word addressed to God will gather the mind in His presence. And if when you pray a word strikes your heart and reaches to your innermost depths, hold onto that word, repeat it, for in such moments your guardian angel is praying with you, because then we are being truthful and faithful to ourselves and to God.”
Let us remember what St. John Climacus says, even if my explanations be forgotten; let us remember his words; for he was a man who knew what it means to turn to God and remain with Him, to be a joy to God and to rejoice in Him. The memory and image of St. John Climacus is offered to us now as we ascend to the days of the Passion, as an example of how God’s grace can transform an ordinary, simple person into a light for the world.
Let us learn from him, begin to follow his example, and rejoice over what God, with His power, can do with a person. And with conviction, with hope, with exultant and at the same time quiet, unshakable joy, let us follow this advice to listen to God, Who beseeches us to find the path of life, and tells us that with Him and in Him we will live—for He is the Truth, but also the Way, and Life eternal. Amen.
