“Let no one despair of his/her salvation...Are you a tax-collector? You can become an evangelist.(1) Are you a blasphemer? You can become an apostle.(2) Are you a thief? You can pillage paradise(3)...There is no evil that is not undone by repentance. Imagine a spark that has fallen into the ocean. Could it survive or continue to be seen? As a spark is to the ocean, so is wickedness in relation to God’s compassion - rather, God’s compassion is much greater, for the ocean while vast, has a measure, God’s compassion is infinite.” - St John Chrysostom The Healing of Healers, pg 52.
The thought that it is not possible for us to be forgiven, welcomed, and embraced, comes from the evil one deceiving us into thinking there is no hope for us, leading us to despair, deterring us from vulnerability of repentance. There is always hope, always a way to improve ourselves, always a way to grow - with Christ.
When we choose to repent before God and neighbor, there is freedom there. The freedom to become better, to change the way we live, to mature, to love more deeply.
If we do not choose to repent, we will stay within the box of our own self-definitions, our own self-judgment. We limit ourselves; a self-imposed prison as if we could never change (‘I’m this kind of person’ ‘This is how I am’ etc). God wishes us to be free in His love, we must choose to live a life of repentance in order to live freely.
Just as the Church is home for us, we can be a presence of ‘home’ for our family, friends, strangers, and ‘enemies’ who may feel unworthy of, or think they do not need: love, acceptance, and belonging. To become ‘home’ for our neighbor we must look inward and work on ourselves, continuously and consciously choosing the way of repentance. Then everyone around us will feel embraced and the freedom to grow, change, and mature with Christ.
As our life matures in repentance with Christ, let us strive to have compassion as vast as the ocean. Then other people will naturally experience us as ‘coming home’ in every interaction… they will feel Christ’s love.
