The Power of Repentance- Fr Matthew the Poor

Taken from ‘ Words For Our Time: The Spiritual Words of Matthew the Poor’ published by Ancient Faith Publishing

A distinguished woman from one of the most eminent families in Egypt once came here (she had never stepped into a monastery before) weeping for her daughter. She approached me with swollen, red eyes requesting confession. She said,“I have an only daughter who is going down the wrong path. She is my only hope in this world, and if she ends up in the wrong place, I will kill myself, and my family’s reputation will be destroyed.”

I silently prayed within myself,“What can I possibly do, O Lord?” I had a feeling that she was here to expiate her guilt (I don’t know if you will understand my meaning); her daughter was turning out bad, so she wished to mitigate her responsibility. So I asked her, “Are you ready to repent?”

She replied,“I’m speaking to you about my daughter.”
I said,“But I’m speaking about you.”
She asked,“What do you mean?”
I told her,“I don’t have much to say, because my comments are terse and direct. I only ask you, are you ready to repent?”
She looked at the ground and finally understood, and she wept. “Please tell me how.”
I asked her,“Do you believe in the Lord Jesus?”
She said,“I believe, but help my faith.”
I told her, “Faith in Christ is a very great thing. To believe in Him is the grandest act.”
“Oh, please tell me how to have faith in Christ, and I will do it!”I told her,“If you believe in Christ, not only will you be saved, but your daughter will return to you.”

She said,“Then tell me how!”

I responded, “How can I explain faith in Christ? It’s like this: imagine you’re standing on the third story of a building, and I am on the ground and say to you, ‘Jump!’ Would you? I don’t think so. But now put Christ in my place, and He tells you,‘Jump!’ as He’s standing below with open arms. Would you?”

She just gazed at me in amazement, then began to think deeply about it until she grasped the significance of the concept. “I would jump!”

Faith transcends logic. When we follow Christ, we’re no longer limited by our thinking and calculations. Two and two do not necessarily make four, but can make eight, ten, or a thousand in Him. “But I don’t have enough money in my pocket to feed my wife and children. Will you just tell me,‘Believe in God’?”

Yes, I will tell you to believe in God. The man who does so will find enough money and to spare to feed his family. These are not mere words I am saying; these aren’t mere empty theories! These are actual events I’ve witnessed during my lifetime, as well as circumstances in the lives of my confessors, who have been through the most extraordinary experiences.

Let us return to our lady. I told her, “Look, if you go back to your house, remain in your own room and stop going out everywhere, and take hold of your Bible and pray, your daughter will forsake her path and return to you.”

She said,“Are you sure?”
I answered,“On my life.”

She went back home, took her Bible, and began a genuinely spiritual life. She had never read her Bible before. She had been all about parties and entertainment, and naturally her daughter turned out like her; from where else could the girl get her behavior? She just took her mother’s behavior to the extreme, and one error followed another.

Well, one day while her mother was in her room, the girl came knocking but without answer; she then entered and found her mother with red eyes.“What are you doing, Mother?” “Nothing, my daughter.” The girl found a Bible in sight and realized her mother must hav been praying. She began spying on her; and after a week, the girl came to her mother weeping and threw herself into her arms, saying, “Mother, I want to live like you! I want to repent like you!”

She responded, “I have nothing to do with you. Repent on your own.” This was from my direction; I had told her,“Do not speak a word to her. Leave her to Christ, and He will be able to pull her in; but you won’t be able to.”

The girl threw away her (what is it called?) miniskirt and sat looking for a long time among her mother’s clothes until she found a long dress that reached a ways below the knees; and she went to the church, confessed, and took Communion.

The mother came back to me beaming with joy, saying,“It happened, Abouna; the miracle really happened!”

Yes, it happened; why shouldn’t it? And it happened without any strife, and without following any formula or any laws. The mother repents, the daughter repents. The father repents, the whole family repents. The priest lives a good life, the entire church lives a life of repentance. That is how it goes. The king of Nineveh repented, then the whole city repented—and God had mercy on Nineveh, a city that has become an example to the world for all generations.