“Metanoite (change your way of thinking) and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15)

(analysis)

 

Introduction

 

Jesus said: “Metanoite.” How in particular situations we are to change our way of thinking and believe in the Gospel is briefly shown in several model situations following.

 

If we are to change our way of thinking, we first need to realize that our natural thinking is wrong, whereas the thinking based on the Gospel is right. Jesus demands of us two things: to change and to believe. What am I to change? My way of thinking. If I am to change it, I must know why to do so; I must be aware that it is bad and I must also know what is the good way of thinking. If I just forsook the bad thinking, there would then be a vacuum whereinto I would receive another, equally bad or even worse thinking. However, in the Gospel Jesus puts before us new models of thinking. These are completely antagonistic to our natural thinking which is based on its own truth and its own good, which respects neither the conscience nor the revealed God’s Word and which, moreover, does not even reckon with eternity. If we are to change something, we have to know that the original thing is bad and the new thing is good. But this is still not enough. I need the strength to make the change. In other words, I need God’s help. The question is, how to obtain it. I need to get into communion with God. How to do so? I realize that God sees me and in this light I confess my sins and humble myself before Him. This is the basis of the change – the basis of repentance. Here I am given the light and the strength to call the truth as the truth and the lie as the lie. Here I am given the strength to forsake the bad thinking and to receive the good one – founded on the Gospel. The change of thinking brings along the change of spirit, too, which is behind this thinking.

 

Instead of the spirit of hatred there comes the spirit of love for my neighbour.

Instead of the spirit of self-pity there comes the spirit of compassion for my neighbour.

Instead of the spirit of envy there comes the spirit of well-wishing towards my neighbour.

Instead of the spirit of criticism there comes the spirit of justification of my neighbour.

Instead of the spirit of grumbling there comes the spirit of praising God.

Instead of the spirit of depression there comes the spirit of humility.

 

At the beginning, the process of the change of our thinking always requires the denial of oneself (Mt 16:24), that means the denial – paralysation – of the old self in us with its fat or stony heart. This heart is the source and the root of evil thoughts. Therein is also the place for a strong manipulation by the spirit of lie. The old self believes in the lie and refuses the truth. Therefore the change of thinking presupposes both a new heart and a new Spirit (see Ezek 36:26). Unless we receive both through faith, our thinking will further be motivated by the spirit of the world, by human lie and cunning and not by the Spirit of God and by God’s Word.

 

A comparison between the pagan meditation and the Gospel’s metanoia: Metanoia is a way of truth and leads to eternal life. Pagan (buddhist) meditation is a way of self-deceit and leads to eternal perdition.

 

Metanoia (3 steps)

 

1) Entering God’s presence. I need to realize that God sees me and penetrates my whole being, and I open myself to Him through faith. (In God’s presence I realize a particular sin from the past which humbles me and causes pain in my soul. “My sin is ever before me.” /Ps 51:3/ Through this elementary humiliation I will get the light so as to confess even some sin from the present time /anger, envy, criticism, grumbling... which is the fruit of the mechanism of the old self in us/.)

 

2) False thinking (its exposure).

 

3) The thinking of the Gospel (its adoption).

The mechanism of the old self (of our corrupted nature):

a)      When somebody hurts you, the automatic reaction is anger or self-pity.

b)      When somebody is successful, the automatic reaction is envy.

c)      When somebody makes a mistake, the automatic reaction is criticism.

d)      When you suffer misfortune, the automatic reaction is grumbling against God or depression.

 

Jesus says: “Metanoite (change your way of thinking) and believe in the Gospel.” How are we to change our thinking in these situations?

 

ad a) When somebody hurts me, the automatic reaction is anger or self-pity.

 

Somebody points truthfully to my incorrect behaviour and says it in a manner which is hard to accept. Moreover, he adds his attitude – an untrue commentary. The automatic reaction to the rebuke is anger or self-pity.

 

How to perform metanoia here:

ad 1) I enter God’s presence. I realize my guilt. If in this particular case I feel completely innocent, I recall another sin and for this sin I now humble myself before God. I remain silent when somebody swears at me or criticizes me.

ad 2) False thinking: feelings of anger and self-pity, concentration on the faults of others and criticism of those who now judge me.

ad 3) The thinking of the Gospel: I separate myself from angry and self-pitying thinking as well as from the spirit that is behind it. “My God, I believe that You allowed this and that You thereby seek my good. It either serves for purification of my sins, or I am thus to obtain a grace for the one who is rebuking me or for somebody else, or You want to grant unto me some knowledge or undeserved gift. My God, I thank You for this pain that is now purifying me.”

 

Note: In a family or in a community, after a conflict situation there is a need of a prayer in common, wherein each confesses his sin aloud before Jesus and receives forgiveness. Thus even the mutual relationships will be renewed.

 

ad b) When somebody is successful, the automatic reaction is envy.

 

If somebody else is doing good, if he is doing the will of God, it is good for him, for me as well as for others. When I start to give thanks to God, the sin in me does not want to joy in the objective truth because this truth is not connected with my “self”. Even in good deeds my ego wants to win glory and appreciation.

 

Therefore, I need to understand that envy is the greatest absurdity and the greatest stealer of the Spirit. Where to get the motive power towards the change?

 

The greatest value for me is my personal relationship with Jesus. Without this foundation no change of thinking makes any sense. Some psychologizing on the basis of Jung or Freud or various theories of successfulness are just part of the rule of the darkness because they build on the old self. They have not the least significance for a Christian.

 

So the foundation on which I stand and the greatest value for me is my relationship with Jesus. In this situation I therefore need to get it clear – is my aim Jesus or self-deceit?

 

Metanoia:

ad 1) Entering God’s presence. In God’s light I admit that envy is a sin and that I have opened myself to this spirit and sinned. I remain in grief over this sin or over other sins, too.

ad 2) False thinking is envious thinking. The Word of God convicts us of envy. “You envy and cannot obtain.” (Jam 4:2) “Love does not envy.” (1Cor 13:4)

ad 3) The thinking of the Gospel: I confess my sin of envy and I want to separate myself from it. The opposite of envy is unselfish love for my neighbour: “My Lord, I wish my neighbour to have even more success, to have even more blessing and to do even greater good deeds to Your glory and to the benefit of other people. Please, grant to him that all people may love him, that he may be a good example for them.” If in this way you stand against the old self and its system of envy, the Lord will fill your heart with peace and He will also give you the light of understanding.

 

ad c) When somebody makes a mistake, the automatic reaction is criticism.

 

When I see a mistake of my neighbour, I automatically criticize him in my thoughts.

 

Metanoia:

ad 1) I enter God’s presence.

ad 2) False thinking: the very fact that I criticized my neighbour. The words of the Lord convict me: “Who are you to judge your brother?” “The judgement belongs to God.” (cf. Rom 14:4.10; Deut 1:17)

ad 3) The thinking of the Gospel: “My God, forgive me that I judged my brother. I am a greater sinner than the one whom I have now condemned.” Next I try to recall whether I myself have ever committed such a mistake or a similar one and I humble myself by the consciousness of my own guilt. With genuine pain I also realize how many people I automatically condemned in my thoughts, and even in words. I truthfully pronounce in spirit the petition of the “Our Father”: “Father, forgive us (me and my brother) our trespasses.” And I repeat this petition until the spirit of criticism and pride leaves.

 

ad d) When I suffer misfortune, the automatic reaction is grumbling against God or depression.

 

Both are the reaction of our old self, that is a reaction in darkness. When something bad happens, it is necessary to learn to thank and to see not the misfortune but the fact that something far worse could have happened from which God saved me as well as the fact that He thus wants to say something to me and save me from something worse. When I start to thank God, I will get light and peace as well as the strength to accept that all. Here I believe in God’s almightiness, that God is able to turn every evil into good. However, in this particular situation I am not only to see the earthly values but I am also to learn to perceive in truth the eternal ones. A German priest W. Busch tells a testimony about a miner who suffered partial paralysis in a shaft disaster. At first he blasphemed against God, but when he was converted and received the Lord Jesus as his Saviour and Lord, he thanked God with all his heart for this accident. A few days before his death he said: “My God, thank You that You allowed this accident to happen to me. If it had not happened, I would go with both my healthy legs right to hell. My God, for all eternity I will praise You for it.”

 

Metanoia:

ad 1) I enter God’s presence.

ad 2) False thinking: reproachful and grumbling thoughts or depressions.

ad 3) The thinking of the Gospel: I confess my false attitude as a sin of unbelief and I separate myself from grumbling thoughts. If I start to thank God, He will soon give me His light and His peace and many times He will almost miraculously reveal to me that behind the accident there was my concrete guilt and that He permitted it only to make me stop on the path of wilfulness and to prevent me from an even greater temporal and thereafter also eternal harm!

 

A remedy for purity of heart

 

In the sphere of impure thoughts, images and feelings behind which there either already is an unclean spirit or one is just opening the door for him, Jesus’ word says: “Cut it off!” (cf. Mt 5:29-30). It is necessary to radically cut off such a thought that would intend to abuse hand or foot on the way of finishing a sin, and also to pluck out from our inward such a look – an impure image – and throw it away (ibid.). It is painful but it is for our good as well as for the good of our neighbours. Naturally, to make this step of faith – this painful cutting off and throwing away – we need to have the strength, we need to have the Spirit of God. If we have wholly opened ourselves to the spirit of the world and to false ideologies and philosophies, then even if we know what to do, we will not do it anyway.

 

A remedy against laziness and depressions

 

This remedy is Jesus’ word: “Arise!” (Mk 2:9; Mt 9:5) When you are to get up in the morning so that you can pray and then fulfil your duties, you have to get up in time.

 

How important it is to realize in one’s life the word “Arise!”, especially when one has opened oneself to sadness and depression, behind which is the spirit of lie holding and paralysing man so as to make him avoid fulfilling his duties. How important it is in physical and psychical paralysations to be able to arise in the right time and to stand up in a true prayer. Then it is necessary to lift up hands – this is the next act of self-denial, then in spirit to overcome sadness and to stand in God’s light, before God to confess my sin and neglected duties and immediately to begin with the change.

Jesus said to the paralytic: “Arise and walk!” “And he arose and walked.” This refers to everyone.

 

“Agere contra” and a spiritual cemetery

 

One first has to bring this “agere contra” principle into practice in a prayer. For example: If I am to stand in the faith in God’s power, first it is necessary to realize the powerlessness of the Church in the present time, to perceive in truth the human misery and lability. Further, it is necessary to realize how systematic is the work of those who are building up the kingdom of darkness – they are working day and night, with extraordinary zealousness, discipline and craftiness. Looking at the children of light, these most usually spoil whatever can be spoiled, they are always making stops, doubting, envying one another, grumbling, full of fear to do whatever step of faith... Realizing this truth leads almost to depression. Practical metanoia here looks as follows: I either kneel down or stand up, I lift up my hands and begin to call on God with my heart, or sometimes even with my mouth, and I remain in the thought: My God, I believe that with You nothing will be impossible. I believe that You will this spiritual cemetery revive to life which is the Catholic Church (the new Israel) today. What am I to do? To prophesy (see Ezek 37:1-9), to give space for the Holy Spirit. I am to stand in faith over these spiritual bones and corpses and to cry unto God, so that the Holy Spirit may transform this spiritual cemetery of the Catholic Church into God’s warriors – Christ’s witnesses (cf. Ezek 37:10-11; Acts 1:8). Now with my heart and spirit I am crying unto God for spiritual resurrection.

 

“Agere contra” and the Decalogue

 

God explicitly demands: “You shall have no other gods...” (Dt 5:6-10) Nowadays the Church is full of idolatry and occultism, but, contrary to that, I believe in the internal purification to come. My God, You will do it (cf. Ezek 37:14), You promised it.

 

God says: “Thou shalt not kill.” The reality is millions of children killed – abortions. Their blood is crying to God for vengeance. But I am crying, too: “Lord, please, forgive the killing mothers and give them the grace of conversion.” In this position of faith before God’s face, in the light and power of God’s Spirit I am standing in faith, leant upon the Word of God.

 

God further commands: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” The reality in this sphere is catastrophic. Unclean spirits have caused mass demoralization of the former Christian world. However, contrary to that, I am now calling: “Lord, have mercy, save Your people! I believe that You will cast out the unclean spirits, that You will change the thinking and heal the souls through Your Word. Lord, I believe, even though everything is now rushing in the opposite direction, I do not doubt in this moment and I believe that You are almighty and that You will do it.”

 

The force of this “agere contra” law lies in the fact that I admit the truth which is very painful, but then I stand before God, enter His light, receive His word and defy by faith this mountain of darkness and evil and I believe that God will make the change because He is almighty.

 

Conclusion:

Jesus said: “Metanoite”. Here it has been briefly shown how in particular situations we are to change our way of thinking and believe in the Gospel.

 

Fr. Cyril J. Špi?ík ThD. Ing. OSBM

Fr. Markian V. Hitiuk ThLic. OSBM

Fr. Eliáš A. Dohnal ThD. OSBM

Fr. Metod?j R. Špi?ík ThD. OSBM

 

Pidhirtsi 1st December 2007