We all carry personal ashes- grief, addiction, regret, exhaustion. The forgiveness we withhold. The people we quietly despise. And we carry collective ashes -the injustices we lament and the systems we quietly benefit from and prefer not to see.
The same Jesus who was transfigured so magnificently that day taught us that the ones God calls beloved and even speaks through are not limited to a few famous prophets on a mountain a long time ago. Jesus says God’s beloved ones are all around us, wherever we are, every day, if only we’re given eyes to see our human sisters and brothers as the bearers of God image, God’s image that they truly are.
We start by imagining ourselves as more than a bunch of broken-hearted, or just plain broken people. Can we imagine that we are salt? That we are capable of shining? And when we do that, can we imagine that we are salt for others or light for others?
When someone has nothing to prove to us and doesn’t need our approval to validate them, our souls rest a little easier, and we really can see the world a little more clearly for what it is.
Repentance is what happens when we dare to ask, what if the world is more generous than I thought. What if power works differently than I assumed? What if love is not scarce? Repentance is a reorientation towards capital T Truth, and this is why repentance changes everything once you know how to see it.