3rd Sunday OT
Strip the apostolic faith of its Greek metaphysics, its Jewish prophetic tradition, and its imperial Roman administrative structure and you're left with a simple proclamation: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Immediate, forceful, and crystal clear. This is the Gospel in nine words. Without much effort, we could reduce it further to just: “Repent!” That one word holds within it the whole of the Law and the freedom of Christ. Now, you might be thinking, “I thought the Gospel was about love or mercy or sacrifice.” It is. But love, mercy, and sacrifice turn on repentance. In sin, we cannot love, forgive, or sacrifice because all three come first from God. If we are confused in disobedience, deadened to the movement of the Spirit, we cannot receive all that the Father has to give us. Without access to the Source of our freedom, we are slaves to things of the world. So, yes, “repent” is the one word that bears the whole of the Gospel. And the rest – “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – is our reason for getting on with repenting. The Kingdom is here. It's coming. And God's promises are bursting at the seams.
Later today – at breakfast or dinner – the novices will likely accuse me of backsliding into my old Southern Baptist ways! You focused on repentance, Fr. Prior! Very Baptist of you! Well, like Paul says, “...Christ sent me...to preach the gospel, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.” The persistent temptation for us humans is to ease our way toward what we think we want. To shortcut the longer, harder route and arrive early. With the Gospel, we've done this repeatedly. First, we get rid of the necessity of suffering well. Suffering is evil. Avoid it. Medicate it. Psychoanalyze it away. Make it illegal. Next, we make sacrifice heroic. Something done only by the truly saintly, those given extraordinary graces. That way we – the ungifted many – don't have to think much about it. Sacrifice becomes nearly miraculous and therefore rare. Then, we turn love into a sentiment, a feeling of generalized warmth that smothers truth and goodness. Love is no longer a passion worthy of martyrdom but a gesture of mere approval. Now, the Cross is empty. It's been flattened. Squeezed. And mass-produced as a plastic toy. The Way back is repentance.
If I were going to backslide fully into my Baptist past, I'd end this Mass with an old-fashioned altar call. I'd ask Br. Isidore to get on the organ and play, “Just As I Am” or “Old Rugged Cross.” And while he softly played in the background, I'd harangue you all to come forward, kneel, and confess your sins to our brother priests. I'd urge you to accept Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior. But all that stuff we stripped away from the apostolic faith at the beginning – the metaphysics, the prophetic tradition, and the Roman administration – gives us a different way of repentance. One grounded firmly in the Gospel and sacramentally effective – confession. But repentance isn't limited to the sacrament. It can be an unspoken resolve to turn to God again. It can be a prayer for mercy and the reception of grace. It can be a private conversation with a fellow sinner or saint and the joy of reconciliation. The drama of an altar call and public repentance is compelling. It's also frightening. But it is not as frightening as the coming of the Kingdom and the possibility of choosing not to be an heir. So, in word and deed, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!
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