Admit: Look in the mirror and be honest about your mistake. Own your part, and leave it to others to own theirs.
Proverbs 28:13
A Priest asked a group of children at Catechesis class, “What is meant by REPENTANCE?” A little boy raised his hand and answered. It is “Being sorry for your sins.” Next a little girl from the back answered, “I think, it is being sorry enough to quit.”
Many a time in our modernized society, where everyone is right and has the capability of being right even in a situation where one is completely wrong, it is very hard for people to admit that they are wrong and own up to their shortcomings. They insist on being right in their wrongness, argumentative in their wrongness, and defensive in their wrongness refusing to say that powerful word: sorry. It is a word that has the power to ease pain and mend a whole lot.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus is furious with Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because these communities had been blessed with the visitation of God. Nonetheless, they kept on being stubborn. They refused to change. They were not sorry enough to quit.
These towns had received more in terms of divine grace such as the preaching and miracles of Jesus. However, they did not bear fruit as a result of the grace they had received. They did not make amends. They refused to reform and repent. Jesus predicts that they will be judged more severely than Tyre and Sidon because if Tyre and Sidon (the pagan cities that did not believe in the Lord) had received such grace, He said, “they would long ago have repented.” Sadly, despite the warnings of Jesus, they did not listen.
To repent means to turn and return. In the New Testament, repentance is from the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia) meaning “to change one’s mind.” As Christians, we are called by God to turn from sin and return to good. This is true change as Christians.
To add up, as we celebrate St. Francis of Assisi today, let us pray that his life will serve as a catalyst in our lives. Besides, may it also motivate us to be able to own up to our mistakes or wrongs and say sorry.
Finally, let us reflect on the words of Josh Billings, an American humorist. He said: “It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit.”
By: Rev. Fr. Charles S. N. Makara
