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Metanoia |
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Metanoia and its verb form metanoeo are found sixteen times in the Gospels and twenty-one additional times in the rest of the New Testament. Metanoia comes from two Greek words, meta, which indicates a change, and nous (“mind”). In reference to the spiritual life, it means a turning of the mind, a change of heart. As a theological concept, metanoia signifies something beyond the initial turning to Christ in Baptism, which is the first conversion of the individual. There is a second conversion, which is continuous. Throughout the Gospels, Our Lord calls those who will listen to a conversion; thus, following him requires a daily metanoia: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23; emphasis added). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this second conversion is “an uninterrupted task for the whole Church” (1428). It is uninterrupted in that it requires a daily examination of conscience and review of one’s life in relation to the Gospel and its message of repentance. It is for the whole Church in a twofold manner: First, the Church as a whole reaches out to sinners and invites them to be reconciled in Christ; second, the sinners as members affect the Church by their sins. The Pauline doctrine of the Mystical Body speaks to this issue: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. . . . If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:12, 26-27).
See: Conversion of the Baptized; Penance in Christian Life. |
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