7 September, Monday — True Repentance

Monday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 5:1-8
Lk 6:6-11

“Get rid of all the old yeast”

In conversations I have had with different people recently, I received disgruntled comments about many Christians. What they shared was that they felt many Christians were ‘Christians’ only on Sundays, while living decidedly non-Christian lives the rest of the week.

Certainly, this is in big part a result of our fallen nature. We are imperfect, and regularly fall back into sin. We reflect, repent, and turn back to God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and doing penance.

Yet, there are many of us who choose to live our lives the same way as we did, BEFORE we became Christians. There is no true conversion, and the fact that our Lord suffered and died for us has not touched us.

It was this attitude that St Paul admonishes in his letter to the Corinthians today. We cannot proclaim to be a follower of Christ, and yet choose to live in sin.  What struck me today was when he used ‘old yeast’ as a parallel to our old livestyles and sinful ways. If we used the ‘old yeast’ from our old stock, we will get the same results; the flour would rise in similar ways. Flavours and textures would be the same. The solution to this? Simply throw away the old yeast and obtain new yeast.

What St Paul talks about also impressed upon me that it is extremely important to develop a close personal relationship with our God. This relationship presents a mirror for us to reflect daily about our own attitudes and behaviours.

We pray that our personal awareness may grow, and be unafraid to turn back to our God in repentance.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)

Prayer: We pray for an ability to recognise what it means to walk in Your way. Help us, Father, to to be unafraid to turn back to You.

Thanksgiving: We are grateful, Father, for Your constant mercy and compassion for us. Thank You for teaching us what it truly means when we call ourselves Christians.