“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. . . . Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:7, 10)
Can we do anything which affects life in heaven? Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that the angels in heaven rejoice when any one of us repents of our sins. Our repentance causes rejoicing in heaven, good reason for any of us to be willing to repent. We can bring about goodness in heaven! In this same spirit, Archimandrite Aimilianos tells us how our repentance causes God to be resurrected!
By holding on so tightly to our sense of self, we choked God, strangling him, and put him to death. ‘But,’ you might ask, ‘can God die?’ He can die to us. He can be dead to each and everyone of us. ‘But can He rise again?’ Yes, when you change your mind, when you repent. When you do this, God comes to life within you, He rises up within you, and then you celebrate the Resurrection of Christ: you are baptized again, born again, and you give him the right to take away your passions and lead you to a place of freedom. (THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE, p 21)
When we live in sin, God is dead to our hearts. When we return to God in repentance, we resurrect God in our hearts. The same joy which is in heaven is also the joy in our hearts!
Fraternized 