The Daily Gospel

Repent

Repentance means realization of the evilness of sin. It means hating sin because of sin itself.

Repentance means realization of the importance of love. It means hating sin because of love.

The point being is that when a person repents he should be motivated by love. He refrains from doing evil things because he knew that it is not good for the others or for himself.

The point being is that a person repentance should not be motivated by fear. A person who refrains from sinning becaue he fears being thrown into hell is a person with very narrow faith. Such is not even faith at all.

The Bible should be read in its proper context and in relation with the entirety of the Bible. We find in the it several allusions to the wrath of God as if God is a blood thirsty person who would love seeing sinners burnt in hell.

Bear in mind that the OT understanding of God is a vengeful God, a punishing God and the Evangelists were simply coming from this sort of background hence they echoed the OT understanding of God.

But we must remember that God is love, all his actions are motivated by love. The only reason therefore why a soul is sent to hell is that God loves him.

DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Saturday, 27 October 2007 Saturday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time Today the Church celebrates : Bl. Emilina, St. Frumentius See commentary below or click here Saint Augustine : Answering God's call to repent at last Letter to the Romans 8,1-11. Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace. For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13,1-9. At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?' He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'" Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (in North Africa) and Doctor of the Church Confessions Bk. 8 (trans. F.J. Sheed) Answering God's call to repent at last Those trifles of all trifles, and vanities of vanities, my one-time mistresses, held me back, plucking at my garment of flesh and murmuring softly: "Are you sending us away?" And " From this moment shall we not be with you, now or forever?" And: " From this moment shall this or that not be allowed you, now or forever?" What were they suggesting to me, O my God?… I hesitated to shake them off and leap upwards on the way I was called: for the strong force of habit said to me: "Do you think you can live without them?" But by this time its voice was growing fainter. In the direction towards which I had turned my face and was quivering in fear of going, I could see the austere beauty of Continence honorably soliciting me to come to her and not linger, hands full of multitudes of good examples... "The Lord their God gave me to them. Why do you stand upon yourself and so not stand at all? Cast yourself upon Him and be not afraid; He will not draw away and let you fall. Cast yourself without fear, He will receive you and heal you"... This disputation within my heart was nothing other than a struggle between myself against myself… When my most searching scrutiny had drawn up all my vileness from the secret depths of my soul and heaped it in my heart's sight, a mighty storm arose in me, bringing a mighty rain of tears. That I might give way to my tears and lamentations, I rose and went out… I flung myself down somehow under a certain fig tree and no longer tried to check my tears, which poured forth from my eyes in a flood, an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And I spoke to you freely: "And thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord, wilt Thou be angry forever? Remember not our former iniquities." (Ps 6,4; 78,5)… And I continued my miserable complaining; "How long, how long shall I go on saying tomorrow and again tomorrow? Why not now, why not this very hour?" And suddenly I heard a voice from some nearby house, a boy's voice or a girl's voice, a sort of sing-song repeated again and again: "Take and read, take and read." I ceased weeping and immediately began to search my mind most carefully as to whether children were accustomed to chant these words in any kind of game, and I could not remember that I had ever heard any such thing. Damming back the flood of my tears I arose, interpreting the incident as quite certainly a divine command to open the book of the apostle Paul and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall… I returned hastily and took up the book and read what I had seen before: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence," (Rom 13,13). I had no wish to read further, and no need. For in that instant, with the very ending of the sentence, it was as though a light of utter confidence shone in my heart, and all the darkness of uncertainty vanished away. Manage your subscription directly clicking HERE ---------------------------------------- The DGO is sent every day to more than 255.000 subscribers ! Do you want to help us maintain this free service? Daily Gospel is free of charge, it is not free of cost. 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