By: Canon Georgette Forney
Repent, and be baptized can be scary and strange words to hear in 21st century America, but they are the only words that can really help someone.
Our culture is full of the people who are hurting. The reasons people hurt are as numerous as the people themselves; part of their pain is due to evil that has been inflicted upon them and part is due to their own bad choices and accompanying consequences.
Society encourages them to find help in a variety of ways that can temporarily relive their pain but rarely gets to the root of their real problem. Resources like self-help books, alcohol, shopping, gambling, and pornography numb the pain. Philosophies that allow you to blame others or declare yourself the victim try to reassign the pain. Sadly, these “fixes” sooner or later wear out and the unresolved pain is back, starting the continuous loop of pain and new attempts to numb it.
Nothing can permanently remove this pain but the strange and scary action of repentance.
Once we repent, the door opens to receive forgiveness, which is symbolized by baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In one verse, Peter provides a better lifelong solution to address people’s pain than all the self-help books and medications ever produced can offer.
Given the fact that the idea of “repenting” is seen as an old-fashioned, “turn or burn” scare tactic, it is critical that the Church teach that repentance is wrapped in the gift of love. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus to be the repository for all that is repented. Our sins are laid on Jesus, who takes the penalty for us on the cross. That action is the meaning of love let loose through repentance!
I believe men and women involved in abortion especially need to hear the call to repent. So often the anniversary date of our abortion triggers our unresolved pain, and we either look for worldly fixes, as noted above, or someone serves as Peter and helps us see the blessing that happens when we repent