And not only is repentance the most essential of all messages, it is the most unpopular as well.  And it does not need much imagination to see why. For repentance inevitably means an upheaval in one’s soul.  It is like a surgeon’s knife cutting out all the bad.  It goes too deep for people’s comfort and is too far-reaching in its effects for their liking.  Of its necessity, however, there can be no doubt.  “Repent”, said John on the banks of the Jordan.  “Repent”, said Our Blessed Lord as he began his ministry in Galilee (Matthew 4:17).  And before his Ascension he charged his Apostles, “…that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name” (mark that, in his name) “to all nations…” (Catholic edition RSV, Luke 24:47).

In order to justify – or rationalise – their refusal to listen to God and to repent, people will believe anything.  They will equate sin with crime or with such serious offences as they themselves have never committed.  Or they will regard sin as so normal and natural an element in anyone’s life as not to be sin at all.  That is a very old expedient which St John the Apostle dealt with bluntly, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (Catholic edition RSV, 1 John 8-10, our emphasis).