In our journey of faith, we are blest with new insights. These new insights help us to live our faith in a vibrant way.
I am so thankful to Archbishop Rowen Willians, who reflected on the signs of Christ’s Church. From very early times we have used four signs to identify the Church, the community of faith. It is (1) One, (2) holy, (3) catholic and (4) apostolic. Each of these four signs of identification root us in the Church of the Scriptures and the early centuries.
But then he added a fifth: a repentant Church.
We do not stand as holy and perfect. We do not have it made and are no longer in need of conversion. We want to stand in contrast with people who are very satisfied and secure in the way they believe in a supernatural power. They stand too confident in their own abilities and insight.
But when the Church practices repentance, when it walks as a repentant church, it takes responsibility for its failure to live the gospel message of Jesus. It takes ownership of its exploitation and abuse of power. It is a Church that holds its sins in its own hands as it walks through history.
A repentant Church is one which knows how much it needs the power of God to change its bad practices and exclusion of others. It needs God to turn away from violence and war-making. It asks God to wash our hands of all the greedy things we have done and our refusal to share our riches with the poor and marginalized of this world.
A repentant Church walks with the prophets of the Old Testament who railed against the selfishness and greed that they experience in the Jewish society and the neglect of the poor, the widows and the alien in their midst. A repentant Church can feel the heat of the prophets’ voice calling for a change in social arrangements of their own society.
We bring with us the long history of slavery (over three centuries), where black working people from Africa were exploited and enslaved on North and South American farms. Canada also has some practice of slavery in its history. We are not unscathed on this matter. We repent of our terrible history and work towards justice and full equality of all peoples. This may cause much social discomfort but a repentant Church works to correct the wrongs of the past.
A repentant Church is trying to come to grips with the overuse of the earth, and all the harm that our unbridled exploitation has caused the earth. We are actively trying to hear the pains of the earth when we humans have heated the atmosphere, poisoned the waters and caused plants and animals to decline rapidly. We are trying to listen to the pain of the earth.
We have only just begun but we turn to our God, seeking the strength, the wisdom and the insight to make things right. We are asking for the Holy Spirit to move and empower us and be redeemed of our past sins and human failures.
A repentant Church is one seeking the new life that only God can give us. It embraces all the pain of past sins and turns towards God for forgiveness , new life and justice. A repentant Church is not trapped in the darkness of the past but embraces the painful recovery of God’s life and God’s self-giving peace.