What are the important obligations of the believer who repents?

First : He or she thanks God for His blessings, His mercy, and His salvation, so that he may have the boldness to seek forgiveness.

Second : To admit that he is a sinner and unable to enjoy the holy life without God’s mercy and free grace.

Third : To be merciful to those who sin against him and to forgive them, so that the Savior may open for him the way of salvation.

Fourth : The believer’s focus on heaven, his anticipation of the eternal wedding and his love for others, elevates all his inner being as on the wings of the Holy Spirit so that the person may know the heavenly Bridegroom, who prepares for him eternal glory. He also acknowledges his weaknesses, and the grace of God that is capable of transforming the heart from corruption to incorruption and from an earthly heart to a new heaven, and from humans to angels.

Repentance to God and confession before Him in our private rooms and in the presence of a priest are the beginning of a change in one’s way of life, both at the inner level as well as the external behavior. It is a transformation in which we acknowledge the richness of God’s love, and hence offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, in which we acknowledge our weaknesses and wickedness, confident in His salvific work and His ability to raise use from corruption to an angelic life that is acceptable to the Father . This is how are continuously cleansed in the spirit of hope. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23).

St. John Chrysostom says, “Repentance is the evangelical path through which the soul passes to the kingdom ,” and, “Therefore, beloved, when you commit sin, do not wait for another man to accuse you but, before you are accused and indicted, you yourself condemn what you have done. Then, if someone accuses you later on, it is no longer a matter of your

doing the right thing in confessing, but of your correcting the accusation which he makes … Peter certainly sinned gravely in denying Christ. But he was quick to remind himself of his sin and, before anyone accused him, he told of his error and wept bitterly (Matt. 26:69–75; Mark 14:66–72). He so effectively washed away his sin of denial that he became the chief of the apostles and the whole world was entrusted to him.”¹⁴³⁸