First, what did Jesus mean by "repent"? Many Christians read this passage to mean "confess one's sins" and many Catholics think of this passage to mean "confess one's sins to the priest" or even "confess one's sins to a priest very quietly and privately in a little dark box." Here is not the place to go into the historical origin and development of the sacrament of reconciliation, confession, private confession, and the confessional "box." The Greek word of the New Testament which gets translated as "repent" is the word "metanoia."