On Repentance

Introduction

Photo: ​Vk.com Schema-Archimandrite Kyrik of Mt. Athos (Konstantin Nikiforovich Maximov in the world) was born to a poor family. His secular education was limited to elementary and middle school, but throughout his life, he enriched his theological knowledge and spiritual treasure. Having left for St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mt. Athos in his youth, he was first sent to the Athonite Metochion in Moscow, where he helped publish books of the ever-memorable Theophan the Recluse

“>St. Theophan the Recluse. Later, he was appointed abbot of the Athonite Metochion in Odessa, where he acquired a wide circle of spiritual children, from the mayor to merchants.

He later returned to Mt. Athos, where he actively fought the Name-Worshipping heresy, which taught that God is inherent in the very words of the name Jesus Christ. He was sent to report to the Holy Synod in St. Petersburg on this matter. After the revolution, Fr. Kyrik remained in his monastery, where he was the spiritual father for the brethren. In the 1930s, on the advice of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), he was summoned to Yugoslavia by Serbian Patriarch Barnabas.

Father Kyrik was an experienced practitioner of the prayer of the heart and edified his spiritual children primarily through his own example. With simple words accessible to all, he spoke to them about the great feat of heartfelt contrition, humility, and obedience; he reminded them that when beginning to pray, we must remember that God looks upon the one praying—not at his outward apparel, but at the hidden man of the heart (1 Pet. 3:4).

Without Confession. God Is HereRepentance destroys hell in the penitent’s soul and transfers him to Paradise.

“>confession, man will perish! Man won’t receive salvation from improper prayer! Our God, glorified in the Holy Trinity, created man solely out of His goodness, and not simply so that man, living on earth, would be saved, but mainly that man might praise, glorify, and thank his Creator, and at that same time, might take care for his salvation and confess God, that is, recognize Him as his Creator and Benefactor. The Lord says: Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father Which is in Heaven (Mt. 10:32). From forgetfulness of God comes pride.

Thus, having created man, God led him into the Paradise of delights, gave him a helpmate Eve so they might rejoice and be blessed as much as they could contain it, and grow and multiply and be perfected for Heaven, living on the paradisiacal earth.

But satan, the former first angel, who fell from Heaven, envied man: Through envy, says the holy apostle,¹ sin came into the world (Wis. 2:24). Satan envied men, who would take his former place in Heaven; for this, he entered into the serpent that was sitting on that tree, the fruit of which God forbade the first men to eat as food. And the serpent spoke to Eve (before the fall of Adam and Eve, they understood the tongue of all living creatures). Rejecting God’s commandment, he assured Eve that they would be like God (after eating), and thereby slandered God and deceived Eve; then she and Adam decided to be gods and tasted of the forbidden fruit, and thereby violated the commandment of God and fell from that height and beatitude that they had hitherto possessed. It was noon when they ate of the fruit and it was noon when the Lord God was crucified on the Cross for the sin of Adam and his descendants. The omniscient Lord, knowing the fall of Adam, asked him: Adam, where art thou? (Gen. 3:9), thereby calling him to Repentance is the Second VictoryWe constantly recall the words of the saints, that it is greater to see your sins than to see angels. Why is it greater?

“>repentance.

Adam, where art thou?—that is, having been at such a height of blessedness, where have you fallen to now?! And what have you lost!…

But Adam didn’t repent but offered a reason to be excused, and Eve didn’t repent either. Because they had free will and reason, having no need to violate God’s commandment, they could use these same properties of the soul to reveal their will, reveal whom they loved more—their Creator God, satan, or themselves (because by our freedom of choice we’re given power to do both). And Adam was deceived, desiring to be a god, as he was assured by satan, who went against God, Who benevolently commanded Adam (and his descendants) to rejoice and be blessed forever. And God is benevolently cunning, as the Creator of all creatures—he outwitted satan, subsequently granting Adam and his descendants an even greater future blessedness. And for this, the Lord bowed the heavens, descended to earth, clothed Himself in human flesh, and by it suffered and died on the Cross for the sin of Adam and his descendants, which we all are. The Pre-Eternal Word became “flesh,” receiving, apart from sin, the fullness of human nature into hypostatic unity with His Divinity; the Incarnate Word became a partaker in that universal sorrow that lay as a heavy burden on the criminal conscience of sinful mankind.

Everything, save sin, inherent in mankind has become the lot of the God-Man. When all the powers of darkness descended upon His soul, the insignificance of man appeared in all its amazing power during the sufferings upon the Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Who cried out to His Heavenly Father, on behalf of all mankind: Why hast Thou forsaken me (Matt. 27:46)! From this, let every Christian soul understand how grievous is the sin of transgressing the commandment of God and therefore, how important for us and how pleasing to God is repentance! Thus, only repentance opens the closed doors of Paradise. But because Adam didn’t repent when God called him to repentance with the words, Adam, where art thou? the Lord God interrupted the conversation with Adam about repentance and struck it up again with Adam’s descendants after His Baptism in the Jordan, calling everyone to repentance with the words: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! (Mt. 4:17). The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, or is granted only to those who repent to their God and Creator. Thus, if man is created according to the image and likeness of God, then it’s to Him alone that man should strive. The basis of this striving for God must be humility before God, unlimited devotion to Him as Creator and Almighty, and boundless love for Him as the infinite Good. Without these qualities, the pursuit of God is pride—the greatest sin—because in this case it represents a seizure of the Divine without God’s will, and a self-willed—and therefore—criminal likening of oneself to God, which is what Adam attempted to do. For this pride mankind suffered in the person of its forefather, because it was precisely in this pride that the sin of Adam’s crime consisted.

After the fall of the first men, man didn’t completely depart from God and didn’t cease to strive for Him, because this desire for the Infinite Being is embedded in human nature.

Now, after the fall, this desire should have increased, intensified by the awareness of our grave sinfulness. This awareness of sin is an expression of humility, without which Adam was deceived by the devil. This awareness of sin and distance from God is repentance! Through repentance, faith is given: The Lord reveals Himself only to those who are aware of their sinfulness. Thus, first of all, we must cultivate humility; through humility, we will turn to repentance. Humility grants a man all the benefits of the Holy Spirit, and above all, the spirit of repentance, to which the Lord God calls us: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! Everyone without exception must repent—both great sinners and people of God with small sins who think there’s no need for them to repent of small everyday sins such as sinful words, thoughts, desires, and intentions, and similar trifles.

However, the Holy Apostles urge us to repent (these evangelists were infallible organs of the Holy Spirit, according to St. John Chrysostom); thus, St. John the Theologian said: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 Jn. 1:8); that is, in the very thought that you have no sin, there is already sin. The holy Apostle James said: For in many things we offend all (Jas. 3:2), and the holy Apostle Paul said: … of whom I am first (1 Tim. 1:15)! Thus, if such universal luminaries repent like this, then how can we dare to say that we have no sin for which to repent before God? Such egotism is spiritually destructive. The Lord will reject such conceited “righteous ones” at the Dread Judgment, saying: I never knew you: depart from Me; they’ll object: In Thy name [we] have cast out devils; and in Thy name [we have] done many wonderful works (Matt. 7:22–23). Saying this, they think they were holy while living on earth (having no apparent sins), and in the eyes of others they appeared as such. But the Lord will cast such self-esteemers away from His presence forever! This is how dangerous it is to think that we have no sin and therefore no need to repent. On the other hand, if we’ll be judged so severely for small sins, then what can be said about great ones, in which men persist even until death? Lord save us from such insensibility!

In order not to reach such a state, we must watch over our heart ,mind, and thoughts, and smash them immediately (when they appear), while they’re still babes and haven’t grown large; that is, they haven’t turned into vices and haven’t become natural for us. Crush them as soon as they are born or appear in the conscience—on the rock, that is, the name of Jesus Christ; then you’ll be blessed. In this way, you won’t allow these germs of sin in, then you won’t have any great sins either. And since without God’s help or the grace of the Holy Spirit we can’t do anything good and salvific, and we can’t even think without the help of our Creator, then we must of necessity ask help of Him, at all times, in all our deeds and undertakings. However, even in this case, due to his infirm nature, man will fall, being persecuted by the enemies of our salvation. Then we must rise and amend ourselves. But how? Through repentance before God. For example, as soon as you notice within yourself, in light of your conscience, sins of word, or mind, or thought, or some other sinful passion that can torment you at any time and place, repent to God that very minute, saying to Him: “Lord, forgive and help me!” These five words must be said either out loud or in a whisper, or mentally (depending on the situation)—say this prayer several times, or rather, until you sigh. This sigh signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit, which has forgiven us the sin for which we’re repenting at that moment.

Then every demonic action will fall away from us, and if it comes again after some time, then say this prayer again. This is the only way a man attains purity of heart and spiritual peace. The Lord says: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Mt. 5:8), and again: His place has been in peace (Ps. 75:3), that is, His dwelling place is in a peaceful soul. But in order to have such a good habit of repenting before God, it’s necessary to start practicing this when going to bed; that is, before lying down on your bed, you should think about how the day was spent. Crush and humble your feelings: Truly, this day has been spent in complete forgetfulness of God, and in any case say to yourself: “O Lord, do not forget me, who forgets You!” And sigh for your lack of faith and love of God. Remember how the day was spent and how you angered God and offended your neighbor… and then repent to God for the whole day, saying the above words—that is, “Lord, forgive me and help me!” With these words, a man acknowledges his infirmity and entreats grace-filled help from God, without which a man is nothing. There’s a Church hymn about this: Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build (Ps. 126:1). Thus, when you learn the habit of repenting to God before going to bed, this skill or habit will move to the middle of the day and then to the morning, and then to the very moment of sin—that is, you’ll catch yourself at the scene of the crime and repent to God.

Such repentance before God leads to perfection or to holiness without any special ascetic labors, as the Holy Fathers have said. God doesn’t require extraordinary feats from us, but only small and constant ones, said St. John Chrysostom.

This is what we have to say about repentance before God.

To be continued…