Repentance

Repentance is the first step on the road to recovering our relationship with God and realizing our original self. Sins, attachments, and mistaken views must be acknowledged as such; then it is possible to turn away from the old life and set out on the new path of faith. Since accumulated sins and delusions form a barrier obscuring the presence of God, repentance is a condition for God to forgive the sin and eradicate illusion, that the divine Presence may once again grace the penitent’s life.

Repentance begins with words of contrition uttered in prayer—heart-felt and accompanied by tears. The forgiveness, release and insight that follow should awaken the will to make amends for previous wrongdoing and lead to changing the direction of one’s life.

Father Moon teaches that repentance goes beyond expressing remorse for one’s individual sins. People are more than just individuals; each human being contains within him or herself the fruit of history, and furthermore each represents his or her society, nation and world. Therefore we should repent for more than just our individual selves; we should repent for our ancestors’ sins, our nation’s sins, and the world’s sins. Going deeper still, when we recognize how distant we are from the divine ideal, and how much God suffers, longing to embrace us in His bosom but unable to reach our hearts, we can repent for that as well. Thus, repentance becomes a journey of self-discovery that penetrates ever deeper into the depths of the soul.