Introduction: Repentance as the Narrow Gate to Health and PerfectionThe way to spiritual health and enlightenment is through repentance. This is a hard way, a narrow gate (Matthew 7:13), but of all the other possibilities, all the other paths to real life and meaning, all the other ways of becoming a good man or good woman, this is the only one that is true. Over the past several weeks, I have tried to share and convince you that there is such a thing as goodness, and that it is possible for us become part of it. But it is not enough to recognize the transcendence of beauty or the ontology of holiness. Nor is it enough to desire to become spiritual beautiful or holy.
The sick man may understand that there is such a thing as health; he may even believe that it is possible for him, too, to become healthy… you have to find a doctor that understands, then listen to and follow him.
The Need for Repentance. Bad choices and compromises are what made us sick.There is no doubt that this will involve coming clean – and regretting past choices and compromises. A good doctor will take time to talk to you about some very personal things: your moods, your diet, your personal habits, your relations with others, even you sex life. Why? Because poor choices in these areas affect your health. Your doctor wants to make sure that you recognize the habits you have that are hurting you, and while the doctor will not use these words, she wants you to repent of them. She wants you to be sorry enough about them that you stop doing them and commit yourself to a clean and healthy life. This is what the Great Physician wants, too. Like a good doctor, the Church is only interested in your moods, your diet, your personal habits, your relations with others, or even your sex life because it wants you to be healthy. It wants you to recognize the mistakes and habits that have done harm to your spiritual health, it wants you to repent of them, and then it wants you to live a clean and healthy life. And just like you can blow off your doctor’s advice and do what you want, you can ignore the counsel of the Church. Yes, you can make up your own rules. You can even find some quack that will tell you what you want to hear: that acquiring and maintaining your physical and spiritual health is easy and requires no effort or sacrifice. But they are wrong. Your conscience and snake-oil salesmen are trying to get you take the “wide gate” Christ warned us against. You conscience will do its best to convince you that you are fine the way you are. But you aren’t. I’m not. None of us are.
Then Having Repented, Live Well and Grow in Health and Holiness.We live in a fallen world, where it is easy to believe that we are good. There are so many things in this world that reek with decay and wickedness that it is easy to believe that we smell like roses. But a time will come when we will be forced to live in a world that really is completely suffused with perfection and holiness; when our own smell cannot be covered up by perfume or our own imagination. Those who regularly bathed in the tears of repentance; those who recognize their need for the assistance and grace of the God-Man Jesus Christ; those who believed in Him enough to walk the Path He established for us through His Church; in short, those who have dedicated their life to holiness in the only practical and efficient manner WILL, THROUGH GOD’S MERCY, FIND THIS PLACE TO BE THEIR TRUE HOME.
The rest of us? Not so much. Their spiritual stink will mark them as strangers. To put it another way (the way suggested by Saint Gregory Palamas), the Light of Tabor that draws the holy ascetic towards its source will bring constant shame to those who lived lives of selfishness and spiritual apathy (i.e. illumination); the same fire and heat that cause growth in the repentant saints will ignite the sins of the unrepentant sinners. For those who embrace those sins, for those who found their life’s meaning in their callous vices, the resulting pain will be unbearable. We pray that the resulting fire can be a cleansing one – as it is for those of us who embrace it now. We pray that sinners will be allowed even then to let go of their vices and begin healing. But this is not assured.
What is assured is that you can start now. Now is the time for action. The structure and ritual of Great Lent is designed for this: so that we might become holy and perfect as God is holy and perfect (Leviticus 19:2; St. Matthew 5:48; Thessalonians 4:7; James 1:4).
Conclusion: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand (St. Matthew 4:17).Sick (no? who are you kidding)? Want to be well? Today in the story of God’s encounter with the paralytic, we have a model of wellness. God heals the man’s soul and then His body. This is the order of healing and perfection for both our souls and our bodies. The time of God’s remaking draws nearer. You must prepare. There is no need for panic: God has shown you the way. It is the same way now as when He first started His earthly ministry: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.
