REPENT!

Well, not really.

“Metanoia,” the word translated “repent” in the Christian scriptures really means, “change your mind.”   That has such a different connotation.  When I hear “repent,” I often think I’m being told to stop my sinful behavior.  While I could certainly benefit by decreasing my sinful behavior, that translation does not get to the beauty of what is being expressed. “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand”  really means, “Change the way you see the world.  The Kingdom of Heaven is here.”   I think it is Cynthia Bourgeault who understands “metanoia” to mean, “put on the larger mind” or “put on the mind of Christ.”  See the world as God sees the world.  This is a much richer understanding of metanoia than “stop your bad behavior!”

Richard Rohr offers a reflection on metanioa in his meditation for today.  He is reflecting on Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

This central message at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel tells us what we have to do to “turn our lives around.”  It would seem to imply that status quo thinking is hardly ever aiming in the right direction.  Both societies and individuals tend to be too self-protective and too self-aggrandizing; but many individuals are self-rejecting too.  “Business as usual” in any individual or any culture will normally not get you there.  It circles around smallness.

The Greek word metanoia, usually translated “repent,” quite literally means to “change your mind,” to turn around and operate differently.  Given that, it is rather amazing that Christian history has largely become a protection of the status quo—through its complicity with war, the upper classes in most of its history, and with people who do not like change at all.  You would have thought Jesus had said “stay the same” instead of “change”!

Of course, this change is only possible if we have experienced the next verse and “believed some good news.”  We will all be protectors of the status quo until we deeply accept that we are deeply accepted, which is one of the most difficult surrenders possible.  On that basis alone do we have the courage to build a new and larger future for ourselves and for the world.