Emphasis Preaching Journal

This is a Sunday historically related to the theme of repentance, when candidates for Baptism held on Easter in the ancient church scrutinized their lives. An African theologian of that era, Clement of Alexandria, tells us why we need to examine our lives critically in this way, to repent, for we are all addicts: "Repentance, then, is an effect of faith. For unless a man believes that to which he was addicted to be sin, he will not abandon it..." (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 353).