God Sets Us Free From the Past
Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) had an argument with one of his theology
students with regard to the issue of whether all sins are forgiven during a
confession. The student believed that only those sins that one named during the
confession were forgiven. Metropolitan Hilarion claimed that all sins, named
and unnamed alike, were forgiven during the confession. The student set forth
to look for the proof of his opinion in the writings of the Holy Fathers, but
then he came back and admitted, «Yes, Your Eminence, you were right!»
If we confess our sins, it means that we have come to you, O Lord, in
order to demonstrate that we are not okay with this sin and are resolute in our
decision to fight it. The Sacrament of Confession loses its meaning if we
simply re-tell our past in an attempt to make God purify us to «free some space
for new sins», as some would jokingly call it. It is meaningless to submit a
report about our past lives to God because He already knows what we have done
and what kind of people we are. There is no repentance without a strong
commitment to correct our wrongdoings.
Therefore, we should come to the confession having seriously
reconsidered a previous stage of our lives. Let's tell God about it. Most
importantly, we should be careful not to get lost in details.
It is through the Sacrament of
Confession that we return to the Father's embrace and God accepts us. He removes
our torn garments of sin and puts on us the home clothes that we used to wear
as God's children. Indeed, we are at home! We must never by any means doubt
that. We ought to think better about God. He wasn't careless when He created
this world! God has revealed himself to us as the Heavenly Father who created
this world and every one of us with true fatherly love. God's plan about the
whole world and each individual cannot be incomplete. God's plan about the
whole world and each individual is the Kingdom of Heaven where God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15: 28). I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also (John 14: 2, 3), the Lord tells the Apostles
during the Last Supper, and He says it to each one of us.
However, this does not diminish the freedom of our will, of our choice.
We can say no to God's plan; we can reject it. We have the opportunity to go
away from God and we do go away from him by sinning. Sin is an act of treachery
and betrayal, a step in the wrong direction. Fornication has a wide spectrum of
meanings: it is more than just physical impurity in one's relationships.
Fornication means wandering, roaming about, losing one's way, which leads to
one's death. Nevertheless, our Heavenly Father is waiting for each of us!
Archpriest Demetrius Basalygo
CONVERSATION