The Litany of Completion of the Divine Liturgy
The Remission of Sins
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
One of the requests of the "completions" that we are interpreting in the Sunday sermons of this summer also refers to our day being perfect, holy, peaceful and sinless. This can be realized by Christ's friends with His own Grace and their own synergy. However, this is not done by all of us, that is why we usually taste from the bitter cup of failure. We fail to keep God's commandments, to respond to His love and, of course, then our sorrow is great, the pain is deep.
This is the reason why we feel the need to pray to God to forgive us: "For the forgiveness and remission of our sins and transgressions, let us ask the Lord."
Sin is separation from God and deprivation of His Light. And whoever turns away from God, who is the true Sun of Justice, falls into darkness. Light is the holy life, darkness is sin. Being in the darkness of sin, man is a slave, he cannot speak, hear, breathe, he is enslaved to the devil, that is why Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete, writes in his Great Canon: "Take away from me the heavy burden of sin." Sinful man is a slave and a prisoner. This is how the "remission of sins" should be interpreted. The loss of the Light creates horrible situations, deprives man of real freedom, so we must free ourselves from the spiritual darkness.
Then, "transgressions" are sins not from a legal point of view, but from a spiritual point of view. It is not about a sin that is committed out of passion, that is, without the person understanding it very well, but about sins that are committed from the passions and with the consciousness of what we are doing, since many times we plan it with our freedom. We know from the early teaching of the Church that, when a sin is repeated many times, then it becomes a passion, that is, a power of the soul, such as desire, anger, becomes sick, and thus the person becomes bound and the sinful act is repeated.
For all this we ask God for forgiveness and remission. These two words "forgiveness" and "remission" must be examined from a medical point of view and not from an emotional and judicial point of view. God is not a judge who imposes punishments and seeks atonement, but is a Father who loves and wants the return of His beloved child. He is a doctor who heals the wounded man. The Parable of the Prodigal Son shows what the forgiveness and remission of sins is, that is, it is a relationship and communion with God, the return of man to the Church, where he feels the tender love of God, participates in a real feast and eats the Lamb of God, the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Church has placed everything correctly. She prays for us to God to live a Christian life, but when we fail to do so, she prays for our repentance. We rejoice that we are members of the Church, we praise God that we are Orthodox Christians.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
This is the reason why we feel the need to pray to God to forgive us: "For the forgiveness and remission of our sins and transgressions, let us ask the Lord."
Sin is separation from God and deprivation of His Light. And whoever turns away from God, who is the true Sun of Justice, falls into darkness. Light is the holy life, darkness is sin. Being in the darkness of sin, man is a slave, he cannot speak, hear, breathe, he is enslaved to the devil, that is why Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete, writes in his Great Canon: "Take away from me the heavy burden of sin." Sinful man is a slave and a prisoner. This is how the "remission of sins" should be interpreted. The loss of the Light creates horrible situations, deprives man of real freedom, so we must free ourselves from the spiritual darkness.
Then, "transgressions" are sins not from a legal point of view, but from a spiritual point of view. It is not about a sin that is committed out of passion, that is, without the person understanding it very well, but about sins that are committed from the passions and with the consciousness of what we are doing, since many times we plan it with our freedom. We know from the early teaching of the Church that, when a sin is repeated many times, then it becomes a passion, that is, a power of the soul, such as desire, anger, becomes sick, and thus the person becomes bound and the sinful act is repeated.
For all this we ask God for forgiveness and remission. These two words "forgiveness" and "remission" must be examined from a medical point of view and not from an emotional and judicial point of view. God is not a judge who imposes punishments and seeks atonement, but is a Father who loves and wants the return of His beloved child. He is a doctor who heals the wounded man. The Parable of the Prodigal Son shows what the forgiveness and remission of sins is, that is, it is a relationship and communion with God, the return of man to the Church, where he feels the tender love of God, participates in a real feast and eats the Lamb of God, the Body and Blood of Christ.
The Church has placed everything correctly. She prays for us to God to live a Christian life, but when we fail to do so, she prays for our repentance. We rejoice that we are members of the Church, we praise God that we are Orthodox Christians.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.