Inquiring After
God by Repentance and Forgiveness
A Fire of Holy Longing - L. Gregory Jones
Summary
The journey of faith is a movement toward a friendship with
God that is driven by spiritual disciplines, namely, prayer that is fueled by
repentance and forgiveness.
Repentance puts our distorted self-knowledge into question,
Forgiveness cleanses from such distortions, Holiness where we can offer to God
the “fragrance of virtue rooted in truth”.
Introduction
- modern
people interested in spirituality but only on their own terms
- through
repentance and forgiveness, conjoined to other practices such as prayer,
we cultivate disciplines that cleanse our lives and enable us to
understand and love God more truthfully
- the
assurance of God’s grace, learned through the practice of repentance and
forgiveness, enables us both to learn the truth and, eventually, to learn
to love the truth.
- contributors
- Catherine
of Siena
- Bernard
of Clairvaux
- baptismal
catechumenate
- being
shaped into people who learn to desire holiness
1.
by reflecting on why repentance and forgiveness are necessary
to inquiring after God
2.
by exploring how repentance and forgiveness make a difference
3.
by displaying how practices of the baptismal catechumenate
initiate people into life with God and with others in Christian community
shaped by repentance and forgiveness
Authentic Self-Knowledge
- Catherine
of Siena
- transformative
relationship when one is inclined to be enlightened by the truth and to
savor it in friendship
- repentance
and forgiveness – the kind of humble prayer by which people come to
knowledge of themselves and of God
- Bernard
of Clairvaux
- seek
the One by whom they are themselves sought
- why
do we seek God? created in the
divine image
- desire
is unfulfilled except through friendship with God
- no
knowledge of ourselves apart from knowledge of God
- sin
and evil lead humans to wrong desires and failures in knowledge
- authentic
self-knowledge – “unlike” God, likeness of God forfeited
- light
of truth – our desire for God is awakened and renewed in
1.
the acknowledgment of the ways in which our desires have been
distorted
2.
our quests for knowledge have been corrupted by self-deception
3.
our lives damaged by the sin and evil we have done and have
been done to us.
- charity
– well that waters of our desire for God
- God’s
self-gift in Jesus Christ and the Spirit
- transforms
our desire from selfish acquisitiveness into that self-giving love
reflected in the indwelling love of Father, Son, and Spirit.
Journey of self-knowledge
- (1)
awareness of absence from God, our “unlikeness”
- estrangement
from God moves us to repentance
- if
only focus on absence – despair
- (2)
awareness of presence with God, our renewal of the divine image of God’s
Spirit learned through such practices as prayer and almsgiving
- if
only focus on presence – self-sufficiency
- “tears”
- kind
of baptism
- seeds
which enable us to “sow righteousness”
- lover’s
desire to be with the beloved
- leads
to a sober mind (Michael Casey) which moves us to strive always to be
pleasing to God and useful
- learning
/ unlearning
Three-fold movement of growth
1.
human beings respond to grace by acting through will-power and
self-restraint, compelling themselves to do what is right
2.
develop good habits and so learn that external constraints and
coercion are less necessary
3.
find good behavior is increasingly easy to practice and
delightful in itself
§
Result – virtuous living is the natural result of
cultivating a desire to know God
o
God is sought by good works (not works-righteousness)
o
active receptivity – living of repentance and
forgiveness transforms our desires
§
Growth – repentance / forgiveness / virtue
§
Role of friends - help in unlearn / learn proces
§
Practices – combat the dangers, temptations and enemies
on the journey