St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

What does it mean to repent? It means to turn around. Instead of looking in the mirror all the time and thinking about our-selves - how we feel, what we want, how we can get ahead - we turn around and look out the window. There we see the path that God wants us to follow. We see things that we can do for our neighbor. We see ways to put our talents to work for something truly worthwhile, to glorify God and to bring lasting happiness to others. The view out the window is much better than the view in the mirror.

 

Alfred Nobel, the man who instituted and endowed the Nobel Peace Prize, was lucky enough to discover the view out the window before he died. He was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune by inventing powerful explosives and licensing the formula to governments to make weapons. One day Nobel's brother died. By accident, a newspaper printed an obituary notice for Alfred instead of the deceased brother. It identified him as the inventor of dynamite who made a fortune by enabling armies to achieve new levels of mass destruction.

 

Nobel had the unique opportunity to read his own obituary in his lifetime and get a glimpse of how he would be remembered: as a merchant of death and destruction. The newspaper's mistake forced him to turn around, to turn away from the mirror and look out the window, to see what impact his life was really having. That's when he decided to change directions. He took his fortune and used it to establish the awards for a-complishments contributing to life rather than death.

 

Repentance is important for all of us. That's why God is reminding us of it today. One of the ways the Church encourages us to give repentance its proper place in our life is by making an examination of conscience every night before we go to sleep. Christians have had this habit for centuries. It's a way to make sure that we never let a sin or a habit of selfishness take root in our hearts and obstruct God's plan for our life.

 

An examination of conscience is a prayer. An easy way to do this prayer is by following the simple formula of T-plus-3. The "T" stands for "Thanks". First, before we go to sleep, we thank God for whatever blessings were most apparent during the day. Then comes the "3".

 

This “3” stands for taking a quick look at how we lived our three most important relationships throughout the day. Did we live them as Christ would have you, or did we slack off?

 

The first relationship is with God. Did I pray today? Did I pay attention to God? Did I obey my conscience? 

 

The second relationship is with other people. Did I love my neighbor as myself? Did I do unto others what I would have them do unto me?

 

The third relationship is with our self. Did I give in to pleasure-seeking, laziness, procrastination, or irresponsibility?

 

As we review these three relationships we always find both victories to rejoice in and failures to repent from. That gives God a chance to heal and strengthen us for tomorrow.

 

Let us ask God to help us give repentance its proper place, so that he can do wonderful things in us.

 

That's a highly visible case of what it means to repent, to turn around.