Do Not Postpone the Time of Repentance

Christos E. Naslimes | October 1934 | Volos

(future Metropolitan of Magnesia, Church of the G.O.C. of Greece)

 

Great is the devil’s wickedness. After he convinces you to rebel against God, after he succeeds in making you trample upon His commandments and through this means snatches you away from the divine embrace and makes you his own slave and captive, he then takes care to ensure that you never repent and escape from his dominion.

He resorts to schemes and forges bonds in order to keep you securely bound at all times. And while the evil one, before you sin, presents sin to you as something small, light, excusable, with the purpose of casting out from your heart the fear of God, afterwards, once you have sinned, he stirs up great turmoil in your conscience and presents the committed sin to you as far more exaggerated than it truly is; and while then he told you it was minor, deserving of no punishment (perhaps even of praise), easily healed, reminding you of God’s infinite compassion toward the repenting sinner, now that you have committed the sin, he presents it to you as a great and lofty mountain, worthy of the utmost punishments and of no forgiveness. It is his own craft, by which he attempts to drag you into despair, so that you may think that your repentance is unacceptable before God and thus, being in despair, to continue on the path of evil, fulfilling the devil’s will.

But no! You, who had the misfortune to be deceived by the evil suggestions of the devil and to fall into sin, must not listen also to this most destructive of his suggestions—that supposedly your sin, because it is grievous and mortal, will not be heard by God if you repent. No, give no heed to the despairing image of your sin, which the crafty one often presents to you, in order to shake the remaining powers of your soul, intensifying the pangs of your conscience; but take courage, strengthen your weakened morale, and hasten at once to cleanse the defilement of your soul with the warm tears of repentance, for God is long-suffering and full of compassion, and receives graciously the one who comes to Him and abundantly bestows His mercy.

Hasten, we say, at once, and do not postpone the time of your return, for no one in the morning can guarantee that he will reach the evening, nor in the evening that the morning will find him. Death often comes suddenly and unexpectedly, and its sickle reaps without distinction the elderly, the young, and infants. And what shall be your lot if death finds you unrepentant? Where do you hope your soul will be placed to find rest after a sinful and corrupt life?

Ah, my brother, be careful also here, where the deceitful enemy of your soul often tries to convince you to postpone the time of your repentance. Realize the snare he sets for you, and do not abandon today—which is yours and certain—and postpone the great and saving work of repentance for tomorrow, which is not yours and is uncertain. For if tomorrow does come, being deluded, you will postpone it for the day after tomorrow, and then for the next, and so on; constantly postponing the time of your repentance, you do nothing else but deceive yourself and mock God, promising fruits of repentance and a pure life. And one day you will reach the last day of your life, which will have no tomorrow, and you will depart bearing the heavy burden of your sins, unable to ascend to the great and difficult height of heaven.

“Do not wait to return to the Lord, and do not delay from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will go forth, and in the time of vengeance you will perish,” says the Spirit of God through the Wise Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 5:7).

Because you are young, you presume that you will live many years and seasons so as to reach extreme old age; and thus calculating, you allow the precious time of your youth to be spent in sin and you designate the final days of your life, in old age, as the time for repentance. But O fool, who has deceived you, promising you longevity? Who has deluded you by saying that certainly and without doubt the thread of your life will reach old age and will not be cut while you are still young? What deceiver and impostor has taught you such destructive and deadly doctrines? No one else but the enemy and adversary of your soul, the devil. He it is who, through various deceitful and false reckonings, tries to mislead you into thinking that he will let you repent in old age—if you now serve him.

But by God! Do not believe him. Do not allow your best time to be offered as a sacrifice to the devil, for the virtue of youth, besides being more easily achieved, is also more worthy of reward, because it is accomplished with greater perfection, whereas the virtue of old age becomes all the more toilsome, deficient, and almost impossible. Do not let sin take hold of you in your youth, for over time it will dry up and utterly uproot all that is good and fruitful which God has planted in your soul; it will sow its own thorns, and thus make you a fruitless and thorn-bearing tree, fit to be cast into the furnace of unquenchable fire.

Do not deceive yourself by thinking that after a life full of sins and impieties you will be able to follow a life of repentance worthy of divine gifts, for the long-standing evil habit, which has become a second nature, will hinder you. But neither should you mock God by dedicating to Him the useless remnants of your earthly life, for in doing so you will provoke His wrath; and beware lest your life be suddenly cut off while you are still young—and then, alas! Wretched will be your position before the Throne of divine Justice, for you will receive a sentence of destruction. This is confirmed by God Himself: “Do not wait to return to the Lord, and do not delay from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will go forth, and in the time of vengeance you will perish” (Wisdom of Sirach 5:7).

 

Source: Κῆρυξ τῶν Ὀρθοδόξων [Herald of the Orthodox], no. 184, Oct. 22/Nov. 11, 1934.