Archbishop Ioannis of Albania issued a message for Holy Wednesday and the Bridegroom Service, highlighting the profound spiritual meaning of repentance and the relationship between humanity and God.
As he characteristically emphasises, “Let us have the courage to repent”, noting that “repentance is not merely sorrow for what we have done”, but “the restoration and renewal of our relationship with God”.
Through the striking contrast between the repentant sinful woman and Judas, he emphasises that “we should be ashamed of sin and have the courage to repent”, while warning that pride leads to a dead end since “the repentance of the proud… leads to sorrow and despair”. In meaningful and pastoral terms, he calls on the faithful to follow the path of humility so that “through repentance, we may have communion with the living God”.
Read below the message:
May we have the courage to repent!
On the third and final day of the Bridegroom Service, certain important spiritual themes come to the forefront. During the previous two days, we reflected on various matters, each of which has many aspects requiring considerable time to fully explore. Today, I would like to focus on two particularly significant themes: the repentant sinful woman and Judas’s betrayal. These two people are entirely different, as are their spiritual states. They are set in contrast: a sinful woman found salvation, while one of the apostles lost it.
These examples lead us to reflect on some fundamental questions in life. What is sin? What is repentance? What is the infinite love of God? And what is freedom?
Let us start by considering the concept of sin. In the Orthodox Church, sin is not just breaking a rule; it is something deeper and more serious. Sin is the rupture of a relationship when a person breaks their relationship with God. By destroying this relationship, we harm our very existence because being good and becoming like God is an ontological issue, not merely a moral one. Our very being is altered and distorted. This is why sin is so grave. Yet God has also given us the gift of repentance, which is of the utmost importance.
In the Orthodox Church, repentance is more than just sorrow for what we have done. It is a profound and decisive transformation of our entire way of life and way of thinking. It does not merely mean acknowledging that we have made a mistake and then ‘paying the price’ to atone for it. Repentance restores and renews our relationship with God.
As Saint John Chrysostom says, people often have the courage to sin but are ashamed to repent. In reality, the opposite should be true: we should be ashamed of sinning and have the courage to repent. However, the devil reverses these values: he encourages people to sin and then makes them feel ashamed to prevent them from repenting.
If we repent, there is no shame. The proud are ashamed to repent, but the humble quickly recognise their error and repent. Through repentance, they attain salvation, as happened with the woman in today’s Gospel passage: She poured costly myrrh on the Lord’s body and wiped His feet with her hair. Many of those present, including disciples, considered it a great waste of money that could have been given to the poor. Yet she performed this act for God. The Lord said that the poor would always be with us, but what this woman had done would be remembered forever. Wherever the Gospel is preached, her act will also be proclaimed.
Why did the Lord praise this act so highly? Because this woman repented deeply, setting an example of repentance for us all. In the Psalms of David, we find the important phrase: ‘I will pour out my sorrow before God’ (Psalm 142:2). What does this mean? It means that when we truly break the vessel of our heart, hardened by sin and pride, and empty it before God, the sorrow of repentance is poured out before Him. This liberates us: sorrow departs from the soul and joy comes. The courage that accompanies repentance also brings joy.
True repentance is not despair; it is a sorrow that contains joy within it. The repentance of the proud, on the other hand, leads to sorrow and despair. Judas betrayed the Lord out of envy and greed, and he took his own life out of pride. The repentance of the proud makes a person think, ‘How did I come to this?’ and focus on themselves rather than God. This kind of repentance is demonic. True repentance springs from humility.
For this reason, today’s message is very important for all of us: we must be ashamed of our sins and have the courage to repent. If we break the vessel of our hearts and offer the noetic myrrh to Christ, he will forgive us and welcome us back.
Let us pray to God for this courage, so that we may continue on the path of repentance and have communion with the living God. Amen.
