The profession of the doctrine of the faith and the preaching of the Word of God are closely linked to repentance. Faith and its confession are not merely an ecclesiological issue, but also a soteriological one, given that the true faith and its confession represent both the element of unity amongst Christians, as well as the guarantee of the presence of the Word of God in the human heart—a guarantee of spiritual vitality and of man’s transformation from image to likeness.
It is no coincidence that we see Saint John the Baptist beginning his work of preparing people for the coming of the Kingdom of God with the words: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3:2). Christ the Lord, too, begins His work of inscribing His Word anew in people’s hearts with the same words: ‘From that time on Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 4:17). St Gregory Palamas says in a homily that repentance is the beginning, the middle and the end of the Christian life 1.
Receiving the Word and keeping it in one’s heart is one of the essential characteristics of the disciples of Christ the Saviour and their successors, and is closely linked to the state of repentance. Repentance, as a continuous process of transforming the human mind and replacing one’s own judgements in favour of the Word of the Living God, represents the possibility of bearing witness to Christ; it is not something external to man, but the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Word within man’s heart: ‘But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me’ (John 15:26).
St Paul the Apostle emphasises this in his Epistle to the Romans, saying: ‘For it is with the heart that one believes and is justified, and with the mouth that one confesses and is saved’ (Romans 10:10). Thus, we understand that our salvation also depends on whether or not we bear witness to Christ before others.
Faith is not merely a matter of one’s private life; it necessarily has an outward aspect. You cannot say that you are a believer deep in your soul, yet behave in society as if you were not. You cannot say that you have Christ in your heart and keep Him only to yourself. This is a great deception. Whoever truly receives Christ within themselves becomes transparent to the world for Christ’s sake. In every gesture, however small, of the spiritual person—in their gaze, in their words—you see Christ resting within them. Not only the Holy Apostles, but all Christians must be the salt of the earth: ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its flavour, how shall it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men’ (Matthew 5:13). The proclamation and witness of Christ is a fundamental requirement for anyone living within the Church. Witnessing is not the preserve of priests alone; every Christian has a duty to proclaim Christ the Lord in one way or another, according to their own strength and gifts. The words of the Apostle to the Gentiles, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:16), apply to a certain extent to each and every one of us. Perhaps not all of us can bear witness to Him through the spoken or written word, but we all have a duty to bear witness to Christ, the Saviour of our souls, through the way we live our lives and the way we conduct ourselves in society.
You cannot say that you have Christ in your heart and keep Him only to yourself. That is a great deception…
…we all have a duty to bear witness to Christ, the Saviour of our souls, through the way we live our lives and through our conduct in society.
The Day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit is not only the day of the Church’s birth, but also the day of the world’s coming into and being incorporated into the Church, through and in the Holy Spirit. The formation of the first Christian community after Pentecost, through the preaching of Saint Paul the Apostle, has as its central theme the same work of repentance: ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts of the Apostles II, 38). It is not difficult to see, in the early days of the Church, the power of the word which transforms and changes human life in the most real sense through the work of the Spirit. The words of Saint Paul the Apostle: ‘The gospel of Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16) clearly demonstrate the active power of the Word in human life, a work also confirmed in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians: ‘Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you well know what sort of people we were amongst you, for your sake’ (1 Thessalonians 1:5). The apostolate, the Church’s witness, is manifested not only through the Church’s missionary activity, but, moreover, through the full presence of the Word: ‘When you received the word of God’s obedience from us, you did not receive it as a human message, but, as it truly is, as the word of God, which is at work in you who believe’ (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
The witness of the Word is realised in the transformation of the human mind through the power of repentance: ‘Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind’ (Romans 12:2). In this sense, we observe that ‘Repentance is not, in the final analysis, a moral act, but an existential one. It does not belong to the realm of psychology or social behaviour, but to the realm of the spiritual life. Just as sin does not consist, simply, in the violation of moral commandments, but in turning away from the source of life, from God, so too does repentance not consist simply in moral rectification, but in a return to God and in dwelling within the deified life’2”.
By listening to the Word of God, man is moulded by it, ‘being imbued with Holy Scripture’3. ‘This penetrates the soul and transforms it, in the image of the Word and of divine thought’. Every word of Holy Scripture has its own importance, being essential to man in his spiritual life: ‘let us not leave unused the God-inspired teachings of Scripture, which are of great help to us’4.
The Church’s work in the world is none other than the work of Christ the Saviour, the continuation of His activity of inner renewal of the world, through those who constitute ‘the little leaven that leavens the whole lump’ (1 Corinthians 5:6). The purpose of the Incarnation of the Son of God was that, through the extension of His Person into history and into the world, humankind might enter the Kingdom of God. The life of the faithful within the Church is founded upon Christ. He is the vine, and the believers are the branches. Just as the branches cannot bear fruit of their own accord unless they remain in the vine, so too the believers cannot bear fruit unless they remain united with Christ – the Word (John 15:1–2). Christ the Lord does not call man to be a passive recipient of His grace, but to become an active bearer and participant in the true life given to him through his transformation. When a person is concerned with their own salvation and responds to Christ’s call, receiving Him into their heart, they become a fruit-bearing branch.
- 1
Saint Gregory Palamas, ‘Homily 59. On the Divine Baptism of the Perfect’, in Homilies, vol. 3, translated from the Greek by Parascheva Grigoriu, Anastasia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2007, p. 307.
- 2
Georgios Mantzaridis, Christian Morality, Vol. II, translated by Deacon Cornel Coman, Bizantină Publishing House, Bucharest, 2006, p. 102.
- 3
Father Marc-Antoine Costa de Beauregard, Pray Without Ceasing, translated from the French by Rodica Buga and Nicolai Buga, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1998, p. 83.
- 4
Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, XI, 12, translation, introduction and notes by Fr. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, published by I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 2000, in the ‘PSB’ series, vol. 41, p. 1067.