"REPENT!"

Homily for January 4^th, 2016 Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25.

          “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Jesus says at the beginning of his public ministry. Bible scholars tell us that Jesus uses the phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” in order to avoid speaking the name of God, which was forbidden to Jesus’ people. When reading a text which contained the word “God”, they substituted “the Lord.” Jesus was actually telling the people that God’s reign was at hand. Hence, Jesus said in his teaching, they must repent. Repentance begins with the acknowledgement that we fall short of what God wants for us; and of what, deep in our hearts, we want of ourselves.   

At the beginning of the long interview with Pope Francis that was published all over the world in September 2013, just six months after his election a Bishop of Rome, he was asked: “Who is Jorge Bergoglio?” (his pre-papal name). “He stares at me in silence”, the interviewer writes. “I ask him if I may ask him this question. He nods and replies: ‘I do not know what might be the most fitting description … I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.’”

The acknowledgement that we fall short is the necessary start of all repentance. Having made this acknowledgment, we must follow it up by telling the Lord we are truly sorry, that we want to do better; and that we know we can never do so without his help. Pope Francis, who helps us repent by identifying himself as a sinner, says often: “God never gets tired of forgiving us. It is we who get tired of asking for forgiveness.”

Jesus, who is God’s Word – his personal communication to us – shows us God’s readiness to forgive by calling as a disciple a public sinner like Matthew, the tax collector. Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son has the same message. The Father in the story (who is a stand-in for God) immediately forgives his shiftless son, who has wasted his money, freely given him by the father, in what the text charitably calls “riotous living.” Not content with that, he orders a banquet to celebrate his son’s return.

He is doing the same right now – for us. Because we are unworthy, we begin every Mass by asking forgiveness. And we pray before we approach the Lord Holy Table: “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church.”