Humble Repentance

Evil is real. That’s a basic truth that we hopefully agree with, one that our faith teaches. We tend to think of evil as external – as something outside of us, out in the world. The current war in Ukraine might be a good example and a painful reminder of that. But the Christian faith teaches, just as the Jewish faith before it, that human beings also must recognize that there is evil within our hearts. We heard about this idea just last Sunday, when Jesus said the fruit we bear in our lives is a reflection of what is within us. And so, because each of us has within us a mixture of some good and some evil, the idea of repentance is central and essential to our lives of faith – to recognize and turn away from that which has crept up within us that is not Godly and not in accord with what God calls us to.

The season of Lent, that we begin today, is the season of repentance par excellence. But even here there is a danger, one which Jesus talks about in our Gospel today. Even the desire to repent can become an opportunity for pride and for boasting, especially when we do it not for God but for others to see us. Isn’t there a little bit of that in how we typically approach Lent: “Oh, look at me and what I’m giving up! See these great and pious things that I am going to do to show my faithfulness!” I know that’s true in my life. Even our practice of coming to receive ashes – a good sign of our repentance – can be, if we are not careful, a temptation to feel self-righteous, to show off our penitence, and maybe even to think ourselves a little better than others.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that repentance is good – our works of fasting, prayer, and giving alms are good – but at the heart of them must be a spirit of humility. Do you remember the parable of the publican and the Pharisee in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18? It could well be another passage to reflect on for Ash Wednesday. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector go to the temple to pray. But the Pharisee prays boastfully, thanking God that he is not like other people, that he prays and fasts much better than others, including the tax collector next to him. For his part, the tax collector only lowers his head and asks God to forgive him, and Jesus says that because of his humility he went away justified before God, while the Pharisee did not.

The Pharisee and the Publican by John Everett Millais (1864)

Friends, let’s make sure that’s we begin this Lent with that same spirit of humility. Our praying and fasting and almsgiving are good, we need to do them; but as Jesus says, we also have to guard against the temptation to take pride in them, as if we want others – or even just ourselves – to be convinced of our repentance. Maybe God isn’t so concerned with what we are giving up, or what we are going to do this Lent – in fact, maybe he prefers we keep those things to ourselves, since they are really just between us and him, anyway. Maybe he’s much more concerned with whether we’re doing whatever it is we are doing with a humble attitude. Maybe that’s the best way, in the end, to recognize what is not Godly within us, to repent of the evil present in our hearts, and to show God in these forty days how much we truly desire to return to him.