Repentance: what ???
Words don’t have fixed/static meaning. They are shaped by their use. Repentance is one of these words. The original meaning (metanoia) didn’t refer to a change in the sphere of behavior but to that of mind, to the way we think. Jesus asked his disciples to speak with people not about their life (that would have been judgmental) but about their thinking; that they need to change how they think about life, reality, God etc. Nowadays repentance has come to mean changing how you live, what you do. It has become this huge industry of cosmetic changes to our life. No wonder the result is perceived, rightly so, as being hypocritical and shallow.
Mark again doesn’t give us details as to what this change of mind (metanoia=repentance) is. Change your mind about what? All he says is they went out and asked people to change their thinking. How about their lives? Isn’t it important how they live, doing what’s right? Isn’t it true though that right thinking leads to right living? If we don’t change our thinking, working on our living would be just cosmetic change.
What are we called to do? What are we doing? Are we continuing the mission Jesus set out for us or we have come to create our own? The gospels, Mark in this case, is calling us to reevaluate what we do.
Created about 4 years ago
