Sunday, December 30, 2024 (January 12, 2025)
32nd Sunday after Pentecost; Sunday Before the Epiphany
Col. 2:8-12; Lk. 2:20-21, 40-52
Before the Lord appeared to the people and took on the work of our salvation, St. John the Forerunner was sent to make the people ready for accepting the Savior. Making them ready meant calling them to repentance.
Ever since then, repentance has been the way to our Lord and the gateway to faith in Him. The Savior Himself first called the people saying: “Repent ye, and believe the gospel” [Mk. 1:15]. If we seek salvation, we are moved to faith by repentance and to repentance by faith. Repentance is pressing us down by our sins and daunting us by the impartial Judgment of the Lord; but along comes the faith and points us at the Deliverer Who has taken away the sins of the world. In repentance we cleave to Him, and, having discharged the burden of sins through the Sacrament of confession, run after Him in joy, following the way of His commandments.
Thus, faith is both born of and supported by repentance. If your repentance is genuine and deep, then, driven by your sense of deliverance from sins, you will hold firmly onto your faith. Faith is alive through repentance; but without repentance it is lifeless and withering, like a sapling cut off from its root.