Rejoice, for the End of Repentance is Near!

Repent…what is that all about?  I’ve been hearing it a lot lately, between my Intro to Hebrew Bible class and my Intro to Christian History class.  I went to a Sufi teaching last night hoping for talk of Divine Love, and instead heard more about repentance.  All this talk about repentance is bringing me down.  Is God trying to tell me something?  If so, why would she choose a word that makes me stop listening? 

My reaction when I hear that word is to wonder if the speaker/author has the slightest idea what he or she is talking about.  There seems to be an implication that if we sufficiently “repented” then all of our problems would be solved, and if our problems aren’t solved then we haven’t repented sufficiently.  This seems somewhat circular, a bit uncompassionate, and I have my doubts that it’s a correct interpretation of reality.

I looked up the etymology of the word repent, and it turns out that it means “feel sorrow for what you’ve done” and in early usage was synonymous with “regret.” How on earth can you feel enough regret to get yourself happy again?  At some point, don’t you have to stop regretting and move on? 

Furthermore, it is true that negative life situations reflect a lack of regret and people with good life situation have done nothing worthy of repentance? Really?  Some of the people who should be the most repentant, like for example the CEO’s involved in the banking scandals that have punctuated the past 20 years, are living the good life while hard working people have been outsourced and their IRA’s devalued. How will regret on the part of the average citizen who is suffering in our current economy make his or her situation better? 

The idea of repentance is nice, though, to the extent that it’s empowering.  If  you can do something—anything—to bring about an improvement in your painful life circumstances, you feel more control over your life.  If I just feel sorry enough, and adhere to this dogma, it all gets better.  Ok, I can do that.  Or can I?

What if, instead of repenting we rejoice?  What if we stop feeling regret about everything we’ve done wrong and start noticing what we’ve done right?  What if instead of looking for evidence of our unworthiness and we look at the many ways we bless, and are blessed by, the world around us?  Is it possible that we might find evidence that we are the love we wish to see in the world?  Could the feeling that comes along with that recognition motivate us toward more lovingkindness toward one another?

All I can say for sure is that when I focus my attention on the many ways in which I have been blessed, and the ways in which I bring blessings into the world, I am much more likely to keep up the good works.  What about you?