{"id":7242,"date":"2021-09-05T10:05:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T00:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7242"},"modified":"2021-09-12T18:41:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T08:41:58","slug":"the-cycle-of-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-cycle-of-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cycle of Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Cycle of Repentance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

adapted from a sermon by Fr Paul Fanous<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The journey that we are going to go through today is the\ncycle of repentance. The cycle of repentance describes the forgiveness of God,\nfrom the beginning of the journey to the end of the journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beginning point is that unfortunately, we all sin. No one can escape sin, St Paul is clear on that, there\u2019s none righteous, no one will escape this idea of sin or committing mistakes in front of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parable of the Prodigal Son is written about a father who had two sons. He had one son that stayed at home, and he had one son that took the money, wasted and squandered it. Both are on the journey of repentance to return to their father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The younger son – the more obvious sinner – actually comes\nback sooner. The second son, at the end of the parable, we don\u2019t know if he\nactually returns, but both are on the journey. Part of the understanding of\nthis idea of the forgiveness of God is that we recognise two things;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. We are all sinners <\/li>
  2. We don\u2019t judge other people for sinning, we endeavour\nto forgive those around us. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    No one is righteous because we\u2019re all under the same condition, we all make the same mistakes. If we hold people to a high standard, then God will apply the same standard to us, and we will make the same mistakes as them. To carry on to the next stage is to acknowledge the sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As a hand full of sand thrown into the ocean, so are the sins of all flesh as compared with the mind of God<\/p>St Isaac the Syrian<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    St Isaac is saying that even though sometimes our sins feel really big and sometimes we feel we\u2019re very far from the Father. The Father\u2019s mind is like an ocean a little bit of sand has been thrown in to. The love of the Father is not affected by our sin, the love of the Father is not affected by the mistakes we make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Father in this parable sits and waits for the return of his son. His mercy is available but he waits for his son to return. My wickedness can never change the feeling of forgiveness. We must understand this crucial part of this journey is remembering that the Father\u2019s love for me does not change. Nothing you can do is wicked enough, nothing you can do is bad enough, nothing you can do is deep enough that God would not accept you back. Not only would He, but He is waiting to accept you back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just as a strongly flowing fountain is not blocked up by a handful of earth, so the compassion of the creator is not overcome by the wickedness of His creatures,<\/p>St Isaac the Syrian<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    The next part of the journey is that as the son takes the money and squanders it, he experiences famine. He has this moment of awakening, he has this moment where he says, \u201cwhat am I doing here? Couldn\u2019t I be a servant of my father?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Repentance is the gateway to mercy. It is open for all who seek it. By way of this gate, we enter into divine mercy and apart from this entrance, one cannot find mercy.<\/p>St Isaac the Syrian<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

     So, there is a trigger point for the mercy of God. The mercy of God is waiting but there is something that we do that triggers the mercy of God, it opens up the mercy of God. It is available to everyone but we reach it through repentance. Repentance is a self-awakening. I begin to adjust my behaviour, I become alert to myself and my mistakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fear is the paternal rod which guides us as far as a spiritual Eden but once we have reached there, it leaves us and turns back. Eden consists in a divine love.<\/p>St Isaac the Syrian<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Maybe what wakes me up is fear, maybe what wakes me up is guilt, maybe what triggers me to go back is fear of bearing consequences of my mistakes. But it only brings me to the door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once I enter the door, what does the father do? He runs out, he robes me. He says, \u201cbe merry, come and feast.<\/em>\u201d It is love that continues the journey. When I walk the journey with God, love is the driving force, it\u2019s not fear, fear is the beginning point, it brings me to the door, but love is what continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Guilt has no place in the spiritual life, except to return me to repentance. I don\u2019t sit and wallow in my guilt. Unfortunately, some of us hold onto our guilt and don\u2019t let it go even when we\u2019ve returned, we maintain our guilt, we feel that God could never accept me. This is a toxic mindset and it keeps me from returning to God. The Father is sitting and waiting, He\u2019s robing the people, He wants you in the feast, He doesn\u2019t want you staying outside feeling lousy, He wants just enough guilt to bring me back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Part of the journey is to be cleansed and to leave the guilt\nand the fear and to continue on with love and faith and that is one of the\ngifts of repentance. Even if, coming back, I can\u2019t see how the guilt will leave\nme, once I recognise the forgiveness of the father, the consequence is love. I\nstart to recognise the love of God and I start to love Him back in a proper\nway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That last stage, which is the nicest stage, is the reward of\nsin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The reward of a sinner is this, instead of a just reward, God grants them resurrection and in place of bodies that trampled on His laws, He robes them in the glory of perfection. The grace which raises us into life after we have sinned is greater than the grace which brought us into being when as, yet we were not.<\/p>St Isaac the Syrian<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    You will be rewarded for being a sinner as long as you\nreturn. You will have a gift for being a sinner, as long as you return. The\ngift and the grace you\u2019ll get for returning is more than when God first created\nus. It\u2019s a big statement, we\u2019re bounced higher after repentance, it\u2019s the\nhighest spiritual level according to lots of the fathers. We take this idea of\nreturning to God from examples such as the right thief, the first one to enter\nthe kingdom. God doesn\u2019t know how to hold a grudge. From the characteristics of\nGod, we understand certain things, He doesn\u2019t know how to be harsh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you read the Old Testament, read it carefully, people often see in the Old Testament a harsh God, \u2018He\u2019s wiping people out\u2019, \u2018He\u2019s killing\u2019 but read it carefully, you\u2019ll see that God does not know how to be harsh. The second that you say \u2018Sorry, please, don\u2019t God\u2019, He always relents, every time, you will never see him rebuking without saying \u201cIn the end, I will glorify you\u201d, \u201cI\u2019ll raise you up\u201d. The second someone bows down and says, \u201cGod I am a sinner\u201d, God says, \u201cOk stand up\u201d. See how He\u2019s humbled Himself to the worst kings in the Old Testament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Glory of God is manifested in that. Let us recognise the\ninvitation given to us by this parable of the prodigal. Let us be inside the\nfeast, not outside like the older son and come inside and start the process of\nrepentance today. Let it be today, don\u2019t wait to start our process of\nrepentance. Glory be to God forever and ever. Amen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Cycle of Repentance adapted from a sermon by Fr Paul Fanous The journey that we are going to go through today is the cycle of repentance. The cycle of repentance describes the forgiveness of God, from the beginning of the journey to the end of the journey. The beginning point is that unfortunately, we … Continue reading “The Cycle of Repentance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7250,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242\/revisions\/7250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}