In today’s Gospel, we read about two accounts of horrific deaths. The first is at the hands of Pontius Pilate, who has not only ordered the execution of Jesus’ fellow Galileans but had their blood mixed with “the blood of their sacrifices.” In the second incident, Jesus brought up the tragic accident in which eighteen people died “when the tower of Siloam fell on them.”
In both cases, Jesus rejected the common notion of the time that these incidents were caused by God’s punishment and focused instead on the importance of repentance. Jesus stated quite emphatically, that, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did” (cf. Lk 13:1-5)!
Jesus was emphatic about helping his followers understand the purpose of his coming. Jesus provided meaning and fulfillment in this life as well as being the way to the truth of eternal life in the next. Yet, to experience the benefits of his invitation, people needed to repent from their focus on self, misunderstandings of God, and the false substitutions that the world offered by having a change of heart and mind and turning back to God, the very source of their being. This is just as true for us today.
To repent and surrender to Jesus is not some submissive bowing to a tyrant but an acceptance of the aid offered by the divine gardener. Our repentance gives permission to Jesus to cultivate the ground of our being to rid us of that which sickens us and instead allow him to fertilize us with his word and grace in such a way that we are renewed. Jesus tends to our growth such that we can be more aligned with the will of his Father and the love of the Holy Spirit. In these ways, we are forgiven, healed and can better mature so that we will bear fruit that will last.
To repent is a good thing. As is written in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, line 1431: “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with our whole heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace.”
When Jesus shared in his first public message: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15), he invited then and invites us still today to a new way of seeing, hearing, experiencing, and living our lives. No longer do we have to live in fear, be bound by addiction, and/or entrapped by our sins. As we open our heart and mind to Jesus, he reveals to us with his loving light that which is preventing us from experiencing the love of God more deeply and growing in our relationship with him more intimately. Let us trust in Jesus’ mercy, welcome the gift of his grace, repent, and allow our hearts and minds to experience conversion and transformation..
Photo: Heart found during Rosary walk in Riverside Park, Vero Beach. When we repent, Jesus receives our brittle hearts and infuses them with his water of life.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 