Several years ago I was cutting through the Plaza Mayor of Madrid, Spain. I stopped to admire the beautiful buildings and to take some pictures. As I did this, I overheard a conversation happening between two elderly men sitting at a table outside one of the many cafés. It was a chilly afternoon, both were drinking coffee and wearing a traditional Spanish cap on their heads. One of them stated loudly in a bitter tone, “Repent of what? I have nothing to repent of. My whole life I haven’t done anything wrong.”
As I restarted by walk across the magnificent plaza, I considered how fortunate I was that I was not the one having coffee with this man. I lie, I didn’t think that. I felt compassion for this man. His tone of voice and his words provided a glimpse of a hurting and hardened heart. A person who believes that he or she does not need to repent is a person who lives in daily torment.
To think that one has nothing to repent of goes against the heart of the Gospel. If we have no need to repent, if I have committed no sins, then what benefit was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? To think one has no faults is to ignore Saint Paul who writes to the Romans, “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” and to overlook Saint John who writes “if we say ‘we are without sin,’ we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The great English writer G.K. Chesterton noted that original sin “is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” He found that the reality of sin could be verified and validated simply by looking at the history of human beings. I find that the reality of sin can be verified and validated simply by looking at our personal story.
We are called to repentance since we turn away from God by our sins. This is why God has given “the world his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
Lent is a time of repentance. Lent is a time to recognize that we have sinned and to be reconciled to God. Lent is a time to rejoice in the salvation that God the Father offers us through His Son.
To recognize our need for repentance is to recognize the truth. Not recognizing the truth leads to the torment, bitterness and sadness the man at the café experienced. Recognizing the truth leads to peace, especially the truth that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” Only by ardently seeking God’s mercy and grace will we find forgiveness and live in peace.
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In