“In those days, presents John the Baptist, proclaiming in the Judean desert,” Repent: the kingdom of heaven approaching! “(Mt 3.1 to 2).
Penance is not just mortification, it is not to stop eating something or to sleep on the floor. Penance in Greek is “metanoia”, a change in the person’s life. It is to change the mentality, the feeling, it is to change life.
Penance is a “turning inside out.” Better speaking, it’s a letting go inside out. This is what John the Baptist came to announce: “Do penance, turn inside out, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” If John the Baptist said this at that time, preparing the first coming of Jesus, imagine now, when we are on the verge of His second coming.
Your brother,
Monsignor Jonas Abib
Founder of the Canção Nova Community