In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 4, we read about the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. His first words were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
The first word Jesus uttered in His public ministry was "Repent." The word repent simply means "to change your mind." I suppose many people are puzzled by that today. I think a prevalent attitude today would sound something like this: "I don't need to change my mind! You need to change your mind!"
Unfortunately, many take on this attitude with God, and certainly with the Church. Folks don't want to conform themselves to the teachings of the Church (read: the teachings of Christ), they want the Church to change her teachings to conform to the way they think. This is even happening within the Church. To all those who think that way I say listen again to the first word of Jesus, "Repent!"
Father, help us to repent, to change our minds, to conform our minds to the teachings of Christ. Amen.
Amen Gus! Sadly, it is a word that I rarely hear from our Church leaders. The prevailing message appears to be that we are all going to heaven because of His infinite mercy.
I’m from the old school (pre-Vatican II) and fear that many are being led astray because they don’t know that we each have to discern when the “teachings of the Church” are not in keeping with “the teachings of Christ!”