The Gift of the Call to Repentance

On Repentance from Monologue to Dialogue

Message: Instead of wasting our life on the world wide walk of vanity, we can choose to get back on a path leading straight to converse and union with God, in this world and the next, by answering the Lord’s call to repentance. We repent from monologue to dialogue.

Introduction:

In this Afterfeast of the Theophany, season of Home Blessings, the “voice of the LORD is upon the [blessed] waters” that you sprinkle in your residences. And the voice, today, says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” May God help us to turn from bad habits to good. One I call to our attention is the common habit of monologuing with ourselves about our problems instead of turning to God in dialogue.

1. The Pattern of Monologue and Dialogue

Remember when the repentant prodigal returned home? The elder brother declined his father’s invitation to a feast, and instead unloaded his condemnation of the prodigal. Such brief, precise and powerful condemnation could only have been the fruits of the elder brother monologuing with himself, for a long time. “O that brother of mine. He disrespects our father and takes his inheritance early and blew it, wasted it, lived with strange people, not our people. I’ll never receive him back. I’ll never look at his face again. But as for me, I will just keep being obedient. O, I can’t stand that younger brother of mine.”

2. The Problem of Monologue with Ourselves

Monologue with ourselves takes away our awareness of whether we have pride. Monologue with ourselves takes away awareness of whether our compassion is lacking, takes away our awareness of whether our charity is cheap, because our prayer is directed to only our self: self-righteousness, self-pity, and other features of our self-directed life. It is what Fr. Alexander Elchaninov described in his diary as a focus on “(1) pride – faith in [one’s] own strength, delight in [one’s] own creations; (2) a passionate love of earthly life; and (3) the absence of any sense of sin.” (The Diary of a Russian Priest pg. 34) Today’s Gospel calls us into dialogue. We need dialogue with God. And Christ opens the dialogue, saying Repent.

3. The Call for Repentance by Turning to Dialogue with God

How many of you teachers have observed a self-focused and misbehaving student, a pupil who does not know what he needs for his own good, and you have opened a dialogue with him or her, saying: “Come over here. Listen. What you are doing is not right. You need to change.” How many of you parents and godparents have initiated a dialogue with a child who is distracted, by saying at the outset: “Look at me!” How many of you counselors and you friends have said to the anxious client and to the perplexed person: “Things have not been well for you. There is hope. Talk to me. Let’s go over this together.” This is what the Lord says to His people when He says “Repent.” He not only calls us to change but offers to help us. The first chapter of Isaiah 1:18 reads: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

“Our task is to begin simply,” writes Fr. Sergius, Abbot of St. Tikhon’s monastery, “entering into the dialogue with God and renouncing the monologue with our ego and passions.” (Acquiring the Mind of Christ pg. 12) It is to turn as He says in the Psalms and “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22 ) It is to turn as He says in Proverbs, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.” ( Proverbs 3:5-6) It is to turn as He says by his brother James, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” (James 4:8)

Application

How does this work? What does it look, and sound like in daily life as a Christian?

Are we monologuing because expenses are frustrating us, worrying us, are we in monologue - like “this darn car is getting so expensive,” or “How am I going to pay this loan?” We turn, to God, and say to Him “Even if I am in debt to man, You, Lord, have forgiven the debt of sin and released me from death by your blood. May your grace be sufficient, may your strength be made perfect in my weakness. Thy will be done.”

Are we monologuing because a fellow parishioner chooses something, writes something on the parish listserv, or says something that we don’t like? We cut off the monologue by starting a dialogue with Christ saying for example “Lord, we are all struggling in this life; so bless this person, and me, let me reconsider what this person is doing or saying. Lord, you gave your life for this person.”

Today, what other kinds of things are we tempted to monologue about with ourselves? The future? Our health? Something that happened to us or a loved one? When we don’t know how to begin a dialogue with Christ, the Church helps us with these blessed words of dialogue, worthy of repetition, worthy of habit: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

Conclusion

Today’s Gospel message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” seems harsh to the world. But for those who desire eternal life, they hear the Lord’s invitation, His call to a way to enter a feast, a never-ending day, where there is no more sorrow, sickness, or sighing. Turning to God is turning to face the truth in life, because we are turning to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Savior of our souls, whose kingdom is at hand. To Jesus Christ the LORD be our dialogue, and our praise, and our petition: “That we may complete the remaining time of our life in peace and repentance, let us pray to the Lord.” Lord, have mercy. Amen.