Repentance that Changes Us

This is a devotional for Wednesday from DYNAMIS (http://www.dynamispublications.org/), an Orthodox Christian daily devotional. The text is Joel 2:12-26; the commentator is discussing the relation between fasting and repentance in light of God's call to His people:

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Joel 2:12-26 (3/2-3/15) First Vesperal Reading, Wednesday of the Week of Forgiveness
Fasting III ~ Repentance that Changes Us: Joel 2:12-26, SAAS, especially vs. 13: "...rend your hearts, and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils."

Fasting can be viewed, at bare minimum, as limitations imposed on types and quantities of food, sleep, and other pleasures. But as Father Georges Florovsky noted, "Asceticism does not exist of prohibitions. Asceticism is activity, a 'working out,' a perfection of one's self....inspired by the task of inspiration." Thus, fasting may direct attention to sinful deeds, but we benefit most when it prompts us to repudiate the evil thoughts that precede sinful acts, when both thoughts and acts are repugnant to God. The Prophet teaches us to rend the heart when turning to God the Lord.

The significance of evil thoughts is twofold: 1) the inward corruption they work in the heart, and, of course, 2) the resulting sinful acts and consequences that follow from wicked thoughts. Do remember that among the consequences that follow our evil thoughts and actions are the Divine judgments that befall us. Through His Prophet Joel, the Lord kindly invites us to heartfelt repentance and promises to "...restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar..."

(Joel 2:25). We pay a heavy price for unrestrained evil thoughts and passions. Like locusts, they eat up our hearts and souls, a process Saint Gregory of Nyssa summarizes: "...man was a thing divine before his humanity got within reach of the assault of evil...then, however, with the inroad of evil...afflictions broke in upon him." Our passions rise from their natural state and turn into a destructive swarm of marauding insects, eating our hearts - wrath, fear, cowardice, impudence, depression and indulgence, hatred, strife, merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery and brutality together with brooding over injuries. These turn into a ravenous plague within us. Joel likens these swarming passions to conquering nations who desolate and mock 'the good land' we inherit in Christ (vs. 17). The image of God in us becomes despoiled! But the Lord promises to drive away the desolating adversary (vs. 26) and restore those things necessary for life (vs. 24).

Thus, our loving Lord connects fasting with repentance: "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning; rend your heart and not your garments" (vss. 12,13). He holds up repentance, as one would an icon of promise, to encourage us. Let the Priests sound the trumpet, God's people gather, and even newly-weds set aside their nuptial joys. Let God's People weep for both inward and outward sins crying to God, "O Lord, spare Your people, do not give Your inheritance to reproach..." with godless powers ruling over us (vss. 15-17).

God declares that He will turn His "...face away from [our] sins, and blot out all [our] iniquities" (Ps. 50:9). He desires not the death of sinners but that we should repent and live. He describes Himself as "...merciful and compassionate...longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils" (Joel 2:13). The Lord is inviting us to embrace the coming Great Fast, and "...be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you" (vs. 21).

Joel declares God's promises: "He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain" (vs. 23). So let us sow well in our hearts. He will "restore to [us] the years" eaten away by our sins (vs. 25). As Metropolitan Hierotheos says, "Repentance...in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God." Repentance is the promise of Great Lent. Let us pursue it diligently and we shall be able to "...praise the name of the Lord [our] God for what He has so wondrously done unto [us]" (vs. 26).