Repent! What Does that Mean?

It's not that complicated

Mar 24, 2025

Today, we see Jesus talking about repentance and he warns people of the consequences if they do not repent.

Sometimes we can make this more complicated than it actually is. Repentance is simply changing a direction in your life, trying to break a habit or to eliminate a vice from your life.

Don’t do that!

An example: A long time ago, a friend of mine and I went snorkeling in Hawaii. We were at the beach. This means, we were not wearing shirts and because we focused on looking down under water, we forgot that we left our bare backs exposed to the sun.

The next day, we woke up with severe burns, fortunately we did not have blisters but it was extremely painful. We had to fly home that day, so we had to stay seated with our backs against the airplane seats.

Now someone could point to us and say, “If you do not want to end up like them, don’t do that!” and your response could be simply, “Ok I won’t do that.” That is what repentance is all about. It is choosing not to walk down the wrong path.

We can remember the words of St. Irenaeus: “The glory of God is a [person] fully alive.” So, we choose to follow Christ so that we may be formed into everything he is calling us to be. That is what repentance is all about following more closer the leadership of Christ.

We live in a world ruled by the laws of physics

Now why is this important besides the obvious. Well, let us say there is a man you see who is burned severely on his hands and his face and I explain to you he is like that because he opened his car radiator when the engine was hot. Of course, never, ever do that. The water is under pressure from heat and steam if you open the radiator, it will come out of the radiator explosively. So never do that. Why does this happen? Because of the laws of physics, this is the way the natural world works. This is the world we live in.

If we don’t follow the rules of physics things go wrong. It is the same with the ways of the Lord. But there is something missing here.

There is a chapel at the West St. Liturgical Store in Boston that used to be open to the public but unfortunately, one of the sisters got robbed, so it no longer is.

Be sorry for yours sins and then what?

When you walk into the chapel, you see a sign that says: “Be sorry for your sins.” These are the ominous words calling us to repent. However, when you turn right and look at the altar, you see the words over the tabernacle: “From now on I will enlighten you.”

These are the words Blessed James Alberione heard in prayer. He is the founder of the Pauline order and the order that runs that Liturgical Arts store. Notice, the point of repenting is to become more open to the grace that God wants to pour into our lives.

So, as we focus on where the Lord is taking us, we seek to turn from those things that block us from God’s grace and turn towards those things that lead us to Christ.

We have all the tools to help us which is the sacrament of Reconciliation available to us to help us repent.

Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA

The parish podcast is at CatholicAudioMedia.com

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