Faith, Repentance and Obedience.

        Saint Symeon and other saints provide practical instruction on renewal. They tell us that growth in spiritual life is not a hit or miss proposition involving unclear or unknown factors. Rather it is an assured promise and gift of God which entails specific knowledge and clear spiritual principles. God is always the source of life and salvation, the One who says: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). We are the joyful respondents to God’s renewing grace, the active recipients of His gracious gifts. God, like the golden sun, always shines His light upon all. He shines even when clouds and storms appear. It is up to us to open our inner world to God’s sunshine, to allow His sunbeams to burn away the dark clouds of sin surrounding the soul, and thus let the inner cosmos of the heart radiate with the brightness of God’s grace.

        The abiding center and focus of renewal is Christ Himself in Whom we know the Father and through Whom we receive the Spirit. Christ said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). And again: “I am the first and the last, and the One living; I died, and behold I am alive forever, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1:17). Christ and His Gospel is the foundation of the Church, the sacraments, our personal and family lives, all our Christian striving, and our hope of glory. Spiritual life and renewal result from the active response to Christ and the Gospel: that Christ died for our sins and that He rose from the dead granting new life to all. We call this active response: faith, followed closely by repentance and obedience. What is faith, repentance and obedience? When we reflect on these words, we begin to see how this integrated trilogy of response to Christ and the good news constitutes the nuts and bolts of Christian spirituality.

        Faith (pistis) can be defined according to objective content as well as personal disposition. Faith as content indicates the objective teachings of the Bible and the Church, as we have spoken above, which serve as basis for the renewal our minds. Faith as personal disposition, which is our concern in the present context, is defined by the personal act of trust not in something but in someone. Christian faith as personal disposition is intimate trust, existential commitment, unwavering reliance, abiding dependence on Christ as risen Lord, present and active in the Church and the world. Christian faith is not faith in faith as a subjective sentiment, a kind of admirable but shallow optimism, nor is it a leap into the unknown, because it involves the historical witness of Christ and a clear way of life. Christian faith is free trust and commitment to Christ, the supreme revelation of God, as well as to His presence and power, His truth and righteousness, His love and goodness, His mercy and compassion, His demands and promise of eternal life. This kind of faith as a way of life is the indispensable spiritual principle which, when activated, transforms us into Christ-centered believers and into a Christ-centered Church.

        According to the teaching of the Church Fathers, there is a formal faith we inherit from our parents called “thin” or “formal faith” (psile pistis) and there is a “living faith” (zosa pistis) which is an energizing divine force. Formal faith is an implicit faith which can range from a vague sense of belief in the existence of God to a deep but unexamined commitment to our ethno-religious group and all its traditions.  We do not denigrate formal faith but welcome it and seek to build on it. Living faith is a active gift of God, the workings of holy fire in our lives, a spiritual force which transforms human existence according to the beauty and goodness of Christ. Everyone has the capacity to move from formal faith to living faith by turning to God with one’s whole heart. “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). The essence of our faith response to God is but “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength . . . and your neighbor as yourself,” Christ said (Mk 12:30-31). As soon as we begin to act on our faith, feeble as it may be, God’s grace lifts it up, cleanses and empowers it, transforming it into living faith. By putting our faith to action, always by the grace of God, we ourselves become love and the Church becomes a community of love, overflowing with concern and love for a lost and suffering world. Living faith is the driving force of spiritual renewal.

        However, living faith is not activated without its close counterpart, repentance, the second indispensable principle of Orthodox spirituality. It is futile to speak of living faith without genuine repentance. Repentance is metanoia (literally, “change of mind”), a spiritual about face, a thorough conversion of the heart, which testifies to the stirrings of living faith. Repentance is not mere regret and tears over past sins, although these are salutary as well, but above all a new way of life according to Christ. The Church Fathers have called repentance “the mother of life,” “new birth,” “second baptism,” “renewal of the soul,” and “gateway to heaven.” The spiritual principle of repentance in its essence involves the conversion of the soul, an unceasing receptivity to the mystery of God, a forward movement of spiritual progress in the image and likeness of Christ, a decisive and abiding turning to God evidenced by a way of life pleasing to Him. The proof of true repentance is a changed way of life in Christ — and nothing else. God’s word through the Prophet Ezekiel is this: “Repent and turn from all your transgressions... and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit” (Ez. 18:30-31). again through the Prophet Isaiah: “Wash yourselves: make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good” (Is. 1:16-17). Christianity as a spiritual movement has its inception in the words of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). Repentance as unceasing receptivity of God and essential orientation to His kingdom serves as the context of spiritual renewal.

        Because repentance involves free decision, a deliberate and conscious act of the will, which is to be affirmed again and again, it also amounts to a personal crisis, a coming to a crossroad where one must choose one way or the other. It is in this way that repentance energizes faith and, by God’s grace, transforms formal faith into living faith, as we said. In the setting of modern life, unless we wish to be enfeebled Christians burdened with an inferiority complex, we need to know and internalize the treasures of our faith, and more, to make our faith a personal matter, a personal decision, actualizing the gift of faith through repentance. Repentance is the answer to the problem of many Orthodox Christians being born and baptized in the Church but not truly converted to the life of the Holy Spirit. Repentance makes our knowledge of Christ existential. It gives us not merely intellectual, but experiential knowledge of God’s love. It brings us closer to the mystery of the living Christ. It stokes the fire of holy love. It brings us to the banquet of God’s kingdom where our loving Father, as in the case of the prodigal son, waits to welcome our homecoming with music and dancing in heaven.

        Finally, from the human side of things, there is the ground of renewal which is obedience (hypakoe), a word which in Greek literally means to listen well and to come under what is heard. This third spiritual principle is loving obedience and service to the Lord and His people. The essence of the principle of obedience is found in Christ’s words: “If one loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father and I will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23). Obedience is above all loving obedience to Christ and His truth, an obedience that unites us with Christ and grants the celebration of a perpetual Pascha in communion with Christ. Whoever asks for obedience, priest or parent, must oneself first be obedient to Christ and be ready to serve Him and others, being motivated by the example of Christ’s love and service. Otherwise, obedience is license for wrongdoing and abuse. Moreover, obedience to wrongdoers who violate the spirit and the truth of Christ, who in a word violate divine love, is to enable them in their wrongdoing, and thus to aid in the corruption of the larger fabric of the community.

        The Orthodox tradition in its many forms knows of active obedience and service, just as it knows of faith and repentance. Jesus challenged His hearers to be bold and take the kingdom by storm. Saint Paul compared himself to a runner and a boxer in training. The ancient ascetics, literally the “athletes” of Christian spirituality, invoked the axiom, “Give blood to get spirit.” This rule, correctly interpreted, is not a slogan for extreme asceticism as another “ism” — that is, strict observance of extreme rigors which harm the body and deny the goodness of creation — but a challenging call to take up the inner warfare of the heart, the deepest seat of good and evil. Christ said: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander [which] defile a person” (Mt 15:19-20).

        Orthodoxy breathes a heroic spirit over against our fallen nature and against the Devil and his works. Careful attention to the inner disciplines of the soul, such as inward vigilance and prayer, as well as to the outer disciplines of the body, such as fasting and good works, establish the firm ground for authentic obedience and renewal in Christ. Obedience is meant as a way not of control but of freedom for service, not of stifling self-righteousness but of wise and joyful use of God’s gifts, not of demeaning personal dignity but of presenting the soul as a pure virgin to Christ. True obedience taps the well of the heart and, by God’s grace, releases the energies and treasures of the inner person created in the image and likeness of God. The more perfect our obedience, the deeper our experience of Christ, and the more effective our service and witness for His glory.

        To conclude — the Church Fathers and saints teach no other way to the new life in Christ than centering on Christ and practicing the trilogy of faith, repentance and obedience, all working together as permanent dispositions of Christian life. Although the gate is narrow and the path difficult, so the Lord has said, the burden is also light and the yoke is easy (Mt 7:13-14; 11:30). Do you recall the icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent? Climb the ladder one step at a time. Christ looks down from heaven encouraging you and waiting to welcome you. The safe way is by way of deeds, not mere words, for words without deeds, as a spiritual elder has said, is like an unrepentant sinner expounding on virtue.

        Yes, life is a journey, a pilgrimage toward God.  It has many difficulties, many burdens. But let us focus on Christ. All of us possess the holy flame of God’s grace through baptism. Every person, clergy or laity, and every parish or regional Church can reach as high as inner yearning gives them motivation and strength. You are like a powerful light on a dimmer switch. The dimmer switch can be on, but so low that no light shines. Your task, as well as the task of all, is to turn on that switch to high in order that the grace of Christ may glow to its full power. If you desire it and seek it diligently, you can become all light and fire!