Concerning Repentance

5. Against Weighing All Sins as Equal

But they deny that communion ought to be restored to those who have fallen through prevarication. If they excepted only one crime, that of sacrilege, to which they denied pardon, harshly indeed, yet they would seem to be refuted only by divine sentences, though they would agree with their own assertions; for the Lord excepted no crime, He who forgave all sins. But since they think, after a certain Stoic fashion, that all sins are to be weighed in equal measures, and assert that he who, as they say, has stolen a cock, is equally to be forever debarred from the heavenly mysteries as he who has strangled his father; how do they charge men as guilty of a single crime, when they themselves cannot deny that it is most unworthy that the punishment of a few should extend to many?

6. Whether Denying Pardon Truly Honors God

But they say that they show reverence to the Lord, to whom alone they reserve the power of remitting sins. Nay rather, they do injury to none more than to Him, in that they wish to rescind His commands, and to give back the office committed to them. For since the Lord Jesus Himself said in His Gospel: Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever ye retain, they are retained: who then honors Him more, he who obeys His commands, or he who resists them?

7. The Church's Twofold Power to Bind and Loose

The Church observes obedience in both respects, so that she both binds and looses sin: heresy is unmerciful in the one, disobedient in the other; it wishes to bind what it does not loose: it does not wish to loose what it has bound; in which it condemns itself by its own judgment. For the Lord willed the right of loosing and of binding to be equal, since He granted both on equal terms. Therefore he who has not the right of loosing, has not the right of binding either. For as, according to the Lord's own sentence, he who has the right of binding has also that of loosing: so the assertion of these men strangles itself; so that, because they deny to themselves the right of loosing, they ought also to deny that of binding. How then can the one be lawful, the other not lawful? To those to whom both have been granted, either it is manifest that both are lawful, or it is certain that neither is lawful.

To the Church both are lawful, to heresy neither is lawful; for this right has been granted to priests alone. Rightly, therefore, does the Church claim this, which has true priests: heresy cannot claim it, which has not the priests of God. But by not claiming it, it pronounces of itself, that since it has not priests, it ought not to claim to itself the priestly right. Thus by shameless obstinacy we discern a shamefaced confession.

8. The Holy Spirit as Source of the Power to Forgive

Observe also this, that he who has received the Holy Spirit has received both the power of loosing sin and of binding it. For so it is written: Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted; and whosesoever ye retain, they are retained. Therefore he who cannot loose sin does not have the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the office of the priest, but the right of the Holy Spirit consists in loosing and binding sins; how then do they claim the gift, of whose right and power they distrust?

9. Mercy Weighed Against Novatian's Severity

What! That they are even more insolent. For since the Spirit of God is more inclined to mercy than to severity; what He says He wills, this they do not will: what He wills not, this they do; since it is the part of a judge to punish, of a merciful one to forgive. It would be more tolerable, Novatian, for thee to forgive than to bind; for in the one thou wouldst assume, as it were, a sparing of the offender, in the other thou wouldst pardon as one compassionate of his affliction.

10. The Novatianists Condemned by Novatian's Own Logic

But they say that, the graver crimes excepted, they relax pardon for the lighter ones. This indeed was not the view of Novatian, the author of your error, who thought that penance should be granted to no one; with this consideration, doubtless, that what he himself could not loose, he would not bind; lest by binding he should make it be hoped that he could also loose. In this, therefore, you condemn your own father by your own judgment, in that you make a distinction of sins, deeming some to be such as you may loose, and others such as you think to be without remedy: but God makes no such distinction, He who has promised His mercy to all, and has granted the license of relaxing sin to His priests without any exception. But let him who has magnified the guilt, magnify also the penance; for greater crimes are washed away by greater weeping.

Thus neither is Novatian approved, who shut off pardon from all: nor are you, his imitators and yet his condemners; because you diminish the zeal of penance where it ought to be increased; since the mercy of Christ has taught that graver sins are to be sustained by greater supports.

11. Reserving to God What They Deny to Themselves

But what perversity is this, that you claim for yourselves what is granted as possible, and reserve for God, as you yourselves say, what is impossible? This is to choose for oneself the occasions of forgiving, and leave to God the material for raging. And where is that saying: But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: that Thou mayest be justified in Thy words, and mayest overcome when Thou art judged? That we may know, therefore, that God is more inclined to mercy than tenacious of severity, He Himself says: I desire mercy rather than sacrifice. How then can your sacrifice be acceptable to God, you who deny mercy; when He Himself says that He wills not the death of the sinner, but his correction?

12. Christ Came in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh

Whose interpreter the Apostle is, when he says: Because God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us. He does not say "in the likeness of flesh"; because Christ took up the truth of human flesh, not the likeness: nor does he say "in the likeness of sin"; because He did no sin, but was made sin for us: but He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, He took up the likeness of sin-bearing flesh; therefore likeness, because it is written: And He is man, and who shall know Him? He was man in flesh according to man, that He might be known: in power above man, that He might not be known; so also here He has our flesh, but He has not the vices of this flesh.

13. The Sinless Flesh of Christ, Born of a Virgin

For not as every man is, was He generated of the mingling of male and female: but born of the Holy Spirit and of a Virgin, He had taken up an immaculate body, which not only no vices had stained, but which even the concretion of generation or conception had not injuriously darkened. For we all are born under sin, whose very origin is in fault, as you have it read, David saying: For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. Therefore Paul's flesh was a body of death, as he himself says: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But the flesh of Christ condemned sin, which it did not feel in being born, which it crucified in dying; that in our flesh there might be justification through grace, where before there had been defilement through fault.

14. Christ's Intercession Against Novatian's Condemnation

What then shall we say to these things, but what the Apostle said: If God be for us, who can be against us? He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how has He not with Him also given us all things? Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God who justifies, who is he that condemns? Christ who died, yea rather who is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. For whom, then, Christ intercedes, these Novatian accuses. Whom Christ has redeemed unto salvation, these Novatian condemns unto death. To whom Christ says: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek; Novatian says: I am unmerciful. To whom Christ says: Ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is sweet, and my burden is light; upon these Novatian lays a heavy burden, and imposes a harsh yoke.

15. Christ's Warning on Confessing Him Before Men

How prone, then, the Lord Jesus is to mercy, although these things sufficiently instruct, yet let Him Himself also teach thee, who, when He wished to arm us against the assault of persecution, said: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And below: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven: but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

16. Christ Confesses All Without Denying All

Where He confesses, He confesses for all, He embraces all: where He denies, He does not deny all. For as He has it above: Whosoever shall confess me, him will I also confess, that is, every one: it would have been consistent that below also He should render it thus: But whosoever shall deny me. But lest He should seem to deny all, He added thus: But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny. He promises grace to all, He does not threaten injury to all. What belongs to mercy He magnifies: what belongs to vengeance He lessens.

17. Confirmed in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke

And thus it is written not only in that book of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus which is written according to Matthew: but it is read also in that which we find according to Luke; that you may know that neither has set this down without purpose.

18. No One Excluded Who Confesses Christ

We have said what is written, let us gather the sense: Whosoever, He says, shall confess me, that is, from whatever life, from whatever condition, whosoever shall confess me, shall have me as the rewarder of his confession. When it is said "whosoever," none is excluded from the reward, who shall have confessed. Not similarly is it said, "whosoever shall deny, shall be denied"; for it may happen that someone, overcome by torments, may deny God in speech, and yet adore Him in heart.

19. Denial Under Torment Distinguished from Willful Denial

Is the case the same of him who denies of his own will, and of him whom torments, not his own will, have bent to sacrilege? How unworthy would it be, that while the favor of the contest avails among men, it should be asserted not to avail with God! For often, in this worldly contest of athletes, even those who have been defeated, whose contests have been approved, the common crowd of men is wont to crown along with the victors; especially those whom it perceives to have been by chance excluded from victory by guile or fraud. Will Christ then suffer His athletes, whom He sees to have yielded for a while under grievous torments, to remain without pardon?

20. God Will Not Cast Off Forever

Will He not take account of the labor, He who does not cast away for ever even those whom He casts away? For David says: God will not cast away for ever; and shall we hear this heresy saying, against him: He casts away for ever? Nor, he says, will He forever cut off His mercy from generation to generation, nor will God forget to have mercy, cries the Prophet: and are there those who would bring in a certain forgetfulness of the divine compassion?

21. God's Relenting Toward Ephraim and Judah

But they say they assert these things for this reason, lest they seem to make God mutable, if he should forgive those with whom he had been angry. What then? Shall we repudiate the divine oracles, and follow the opinions of these men? But God is not to be judged by the assertions of others, but by his own words. For what more ready sign of his mercy can we produce than that he himself, through the prophet Hosea, immediately pardons—as though reconciled—those whom he had threatened as though angry? For he says: What shall I do to you, Ephraim, or what shall I do to you, Judah? Your mercy. And below: How shall I deal with you? I will make you like Admah, and set you as Zeboiim. In his very indignation he lingers, as it were with a fatherly affection, over how he should hand over the erring one to punishment: even though the Jew deserves it, God still deliberates within himself.

But immediately he who had said: I will make you like Admah, and as Zeboiim—which two cities, from their neighborhood to Sodom, drew a like share in its destruction—says: My heart is turned within me, my repentance is stirred up together: I will not do according to the fury of my wrath.

22. Divine Indignation as a Path to Repentance

Does it not appear that the Lord Jesus is indignant with us when we sin for this reason, that he may convert us by the terror of his indignation? His indignation, therefore, is not the execution of vengeance, but rather the working of absolution; for thus he said: If you turn and groan, you shall be saved. He awaits our groans, but temporal ones, so that he may remit perpetual ones; he awaits our tears, so that he may pour forth his mercy. Thus in the Gospel, moved with compassion by the tears of the widowed mother, he raised her son. He awaits our conversion, so that he too may return to grace—grace which, if no fall had crept upon us, would have persevered in us; but because by our sins we incur offense, he is indignant, that we may be humbled; we are humbled, that we may be more worthy of mercy than of punishment.

23. Lamentations on God's Reluctant Humbling of Sinners

Let Jeremiah surely teach you, saying: For the Lord will not cast off forever; for when he has humbled, he will have mercy according to the abundance of his mercy: for he has not humbled with his whole heart, nor cast off the sons of men. This indeed we read in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and from this, and from the other things that follow, we observe that he humbles all the bound of the earth under his feet for this reason, that we may avoid his judgment. But he does not humble the sinner with his whole heart even unto the earth, seeing that he raises up the needy from the earth, and lifts the poor from the dunghill; for he does not humble with his whole heart who reserves himself for pardon.

24. The Lapsed Who Confess Daily Though They Once Denied

But if he does not humble every sinner with his whole heart, how much more does he not humble with his whole heart him who has not sinned with his whole heart! For as he said of the Jews: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; perhaps also of some of the lapsed he may say: These have denied me with their lips, but with their heart they are with me. Punishment overcame them, but perfidy did not turn them away. But some deny pardon without cause to those whose faith the persecutor confessed to such a degree that he sought to overthrow it with torments. They denied once, but confess daily; they denied in speech, but confess in groanings, confess in wailings, confess in tears, confess with free voices, not compelled. They yielded for a time to the temptation of the devil, but afterward the devil also withdrew from those he could not claim as his own.

He yielded to their tears, he yielded to their repentance: those whom he had invaded as strangers he lost as his own.

25. The Parable of the Unwilling Captive's Return

Is not this the case, as if someone were to lead away captive the people of a conquered city? The captive is led away, but unwilling: he strives into foreign lands by necessity, yet does not migrate in his inmost affection; he carries his homeland with him in mind, and seeks the means by which he may return. What then? When such a one returns, is there anyone who would persuade that he should not be received—with lesser honor, indeed, but with more eager zeal, lest the adversary have something to insult over? If you forgive the armed man, who was able to fight, do you not forgive him in whom faith alone was fighting?

26. The Devil's Complaint and Heaven's Joy at Repentance

If we should inquire the opinion of the devil himself concerning such lapsed ones, does he not seem to say: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me? For how is he with me, who does not withdraw from Christ? They seem to worship me without cause, who keep the teaching of Jesus; but I thought they were teaching mine. They condemn more, while they abandon what they had discovered. Certainly Jesus glories the more in these, while he receives those returning. All the angels exult; for there is greater joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, than over ninety-nine just who need not penance. From me in heaven, from me on earth, a triumph is taken.

Nothing is lost to Christ, when those who had come to me with weeping return to the Church with desire; and by their example even some of mine are endangered, who have learned that there is nothing here, where men are enticed by present rewards; and very much there, where groaning, tears, fasting are preferred to my banquets.

27. The Good Samaritan and the Wounded Traveler

Do you Novatianists, then, exclude these? For what else is it to exclude, but to deny hope of pardon? But the Samaritan did not pass by the half-dead man left by the robbers; and he healed his wounds with oil and wine, pouring in the oil first to soothe him; he placed the wounded man upon his own beast, in which he carried all his sins; nor did the shepherd despise the straying sheep.

28. The Refusal to Be a Neighbor in Mercy

But you say: Touch me not. You say, wishing to justify yourselves: He is not our neighbor—prouder than that lawyer who desired to tempt Christ; for he said: Who is my neighbor? He asks; you deny—like that priest who went down, and like the Levite who passed by, him whom you ought to have taken up to be cared for, and did not receive into hospitality, for whom Christ paid down two pence, whom Christ commands you to become neighbor to, that you may show mercy to him. For he is a neighbor whom not only a like nature has joined, but mercy also has united. You make yourself a stranger to him by pride, exalting yourself, vainly puffed up by the mind of your flesh, and not holding the Head. For if you held the Head, you would perceive that he for whom Christ died is not to be abandoned by you.

If you held the Head, you would perceive that the whole body grows unto the increase of God through the bond of charity, by being knit together rather than dissolved, and by the redemption of the sinner.

29. The Sick Need a Physician, Not the Healthy

When, therefore, you take away all the fruit of penance, what else do you say but this: Let none of the wounded enter our inn: let none be healed in our Church? Among us the sick are not cared for: we are healthy, we have no need of a physician; because he himself says: The healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill.

30. The Great Supper and the Wedding Garment

Therefore, Lord Jesus, come wholly to your Church, since Novatian excuses himself. Novatian says: I have bought five yoke of oxen, he who does not take up the sweet yoke of Christ, and places upon his own neck a heavy burden which he cannot bear. Novatian has held your servants, by whom he was invited, and, having treated them with contumely, has killed them, defiling them with the stain of a repeated baptism. Send, then, to the highways, and gather together good and bad; bring in the weak, the blind, and the lame into your Church. Bid your house be filled; bring all in to your supper; for whomever you have called, you will make worthy, if he follows. That one indeed is cast out who does not have the wedding garment, that is, the garment of charity, the veil of grace. Send, I say, to all.

31. The Woman Who Touched Christ's Garment

Your Church does not excuse herself from your supper; Novatian excuses himself. Your household does not say: I am healthy, I seek no physician; but she says: Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved. Indeed, the likeness of your Church is in that woman who came up behind and touched the hem of your garment, saying within herself: If I but touch his garment, I shall be saved. This Church, then, confesses her wounds; this Church desires to be healed.

32. Christ's Sickness in the Least and the Keys of the Kingdom

And you, indeed, Lord, desire to heal all, but not all wish to be healed. Novatian does not wish it, who thinks himself to be healthy. You, Lord, say that you yourself are sick, and in the least of us you feel our infirmity, saying: I was sick, and you visited me. Novatian does not know how to visit that least one, in whom you desire to be visited. You say to Peter, excusing himself, lest you should wash his feet: Unless I wash your feet, you shall have no part with me. What fellowship, then, can these have with you, who do not accept the keys of the kingdom, denying that they ought to forgive sins?

33. Peter's Seat and the Power to Forgive Sins

This indeed they confess rightly of themselves; for they do not have the inheritance of Peter, who do not have the seat of Peter, which they tear apart with impious division: but this is shameless, that they deny that sins can be forgiven even in the Church, when it was said to Peter: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven; when even the vessel of the Lord's election himself says: But to whom you have forgiven anything, I forgive also; for what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the person of Christ. Why then do they read Paul, if they think he erred so impiously as to claim for himself the right of his Lord? But he claimed what he had received, he did not usurp what was undue.

34. The Powers Christ Gave His Disciples on Earth

The Lord wishes his disciples to be able to do very much; he wishes those things to be done by his little servants in his name, which he himself did while placed on earth. Indeed he says: And greater things than these shall you do. He gave them the power to raise the dead. And though he himself could have restored to Saul the use of sight, yet he sent him to Ananias, his disciple, that by his blessing the eyes Saul had lost might be restored to him. He also bade Peter walk with him upon the sea, and because he wavered, he reproved him at once, for having diminished the grace of the gift by the smallness of his faith. He also gave to his disciples that they should be the light of the world through grace, he who himself was the light of the world. And because he was about to descend from heaven and ascend into heaven, he raised Elijah to heaven, intending to restore him thence to earth at the appointed time.

Being about to baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire, he sent before him the sacraments of baptism through John.

35. Casting Out Devils and Healing in Christ's Name

He gave, finally, all things to his disciples, of whom he says: In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. He gave all things, then, but in these there is no power of man, where the grace of the divine gift flourishes.

36. One Mystery in Penance and in Baptism

Why then do you lay on hands, and believe it to be a work of blessing, if perhaps some sick person should recover? Why do you presume that some can be cleansed of the devil's filth through you? Why do you baptize, if it is not lawful for sins to be forgiven through a man? In baptism, surely, there is remission of all sins: what does it matter whether priests claim this right for themselves through penance, or through the laver? There is one mystery in both.

37. The Grace of God at Work in Penance

But you say that in the laver the grace of the mysteries operates. What in penance? Does not the name of God operate there? What then? Where you wish, you claim for yourselves the grace of God; where you wish, you repudiate it? But this is of insolent arrogance, not of holy fear; that those who wish to do penance should be a source of disgust to you. You cannot, it seems, endure the tears of those weeping. Your eyes cannot bear the vile clothing, the filth of the sordid; my dainty ones, with proud eye and swollen heart, saying each with indignant voice: Touch me not, for I am clean.

38. No One Is Clean Before God

The Lord indeed says to Mary Magdalene: Do not touch me; but he did not say, because I am clean, who was clean: do you dare, Novatian, to call yourself clean, who, even if you were clean in works, would become unclean by this one word alone? Isaiah says: O wretched man that I am, and pierced in heart; because though I am a man, and have unclean lips, I dwell also in the midst of a people having unclean lips! And do you say, I am clean, when nothing is clean, as it is written, not even an infant of one day? David says: And cleanse me from my sin, whom indeed the merciful grace of the Lord often justified: are you clean, when you are so unjust that you do not show mercy; that you see the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? For before God every unjust man is unclean.

What indeed is more unjust than that you should wish your sins to be forgiven you, while you yourself do not think they should be forgiven one who asks? What is more unjust, than that you should justify yourself in that in which you condemn another, when you commit graver sins?

39. Christ's Baptism by John to Fulfill Righteousness

Finally, the Lord Jesus, about to celebrate the remission of our sins, when John said to him: I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me! Answered: Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. And the Lord indeed came to a sinner, though he himself had no sin; and he willed to be baptized, though there was no necessity for him to be cleansed: who could bear you, who think that you have no need to be cleansed through penance, because you say that you are cleansed by grace, as though it were now impossible for you to sin?

40. Who Shall Pray for Him? Not No One

But you say: It is written: If a man sin against a man, they shall pray for him to the Lord: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him? First, as I have already said above, I would allow you to object with this, if you did not grant penance only to willful transgressors. Yet what difficulty does this question bring? For it is not written: No one shall pray for him: but, Who shall pray, that is, who that one might be who could pray in such a case, is asked, not excluded.

41. Psalms and Prophets on the Word Who

Finally, you have in the fourteenth psalm: Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest in your holy mountain? For it is not that no one, but the approved shall dwell: nor does this say that no one shall rest, but that the elect shall rest. That you may know this is true, not much later in the twenty-third psalm he says: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? That is, not just anyone from the common crowd, nor someone of plebeian baseness; but one of outstanding life and singular merit. And that you may know that when "who" is said, "no one" is not understood, but "someone" is signified, when he had said: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? He added: He that has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not taken his soul in vain. And elsewhere: Who is wise, and shall understand these things (Hosea XIV, 10)? Does he say that no one shall understand?

And in the Gospel: Who is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the Lord shall set over his household, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? And that you may grasp that he spoke of one who indeed exists, not of one who does not exist, he added: Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. And that saying too I think was spoken thus: God, who is like unto you? Not surely "no one"; because the Son is the image of the Father.

42. Moses' Intercession for the Golden Calf

Likewise, then, it must be understood: Who shall pray for him? That is, someone of singular life ought to pray for him who has sinned against the Lord. The greater the fault, the greater the intercessions that must be sought. For it was not just anyone from the common crowd who prayed for the people of the Jews, but Moses, when, forgetful of their faith, they worshiped the head of a calf. Did Moses err? Indeed he did not err, who both merited and obtained what he asked. For what would such devotion not obtain, when he offered himself for the people, saying: And now if you will forgive their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book of life? You see that he did not, like a dainty intercessor full of squeamishness, take counsel for himself lest he incur offense—which Novatian says he fears—but rather, mindful of all, forgetful of himself, he himself was not afraid to give offense, that he might strip and free the people from the danger of offense.

43. Jeremiah's Prayer for Jerusalem's Sin

Rightly, then, it is written: Who shall pray for him? That is, one such as Moses, who offered himself for sinners: one such as Jeremiah, to whom, though he was a prophet, when it had been said by the Lord our God: Do not pray for this people; yet he prayed, and obtained pardon. Finally, moved by the prophetic intercession and entreaty of so great a seer, the Lord speaks to Jerusalem; since she too had done penance for her offenses, saying: O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul in anguish, and a troubled spirit cries to you: hear, O Lord, and have mercy. And he commands the garments of mourning to be laid aside, and the groans of penance to be cast off; for thus it is written at the end of the book: Put off, O Jerusalem, the robe of your mourning and affliction, and put on the beauty of the glory that is given you from God forever.

44. Seeking Worthy Intercessors for Grave Sins

Such intercessors, therefore, are to be sought in the gravest offenses; for if just anyone from the people prays, they are not heard.

45. Sin Unto Death in the Epistle of John

Hence not even that question of yours can carry any weight, which you take from the letter of John saying: He who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, let him ask, and God will give him life; because he sins not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he should pray for that; for he was not speaking to Moses and Jeremiah, but to the people, who ought to employ another intercessor for their sins: for whom it is enough if he prays to God for lighter offenses, and thinks that the pardon of graver offenses should be reserved for the prayers of the just. For how would John say that one should not pray for a graver offense, who had read that Moses had prayed and obtained, where there was a willful transgression: who also knew that Jeremiah had prayed?

46. Pergamos: The Doctrine of Balaam and Promised Pardon

How would John say that one should not pray for a sin that was unto death, when he himself in the Apocalypse wrote the command to the Angel of the Church of Pergamos? You have there those holding the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat of things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication; so too you have those holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans: likewise do penance; but I come to you quickly. You see that God, who requires penance, promises pardon! Finally, there too he says: He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches: To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna.

47. Stephen's Prayer for His Persecutors

Did not John himself know that Stephen interceded for his own persecutors, who could not bear to hear the name of Christ; when concerning those very ones by whom he was being stoned he said: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge? The effect of this prayer we see in the Apostle; for Paul, who kept the garments of those stoning Stephen, not long after was by the grace of Christ made an apostle, who before had been a persecutor.

48. Whosoever Believes Shall Have Eternal Life

Therefore, since the discourse is about the general epistle of John, let us inquire whether the writings of John himself in the Gospel agree with your interpretation. For he writes that the Lord said: For God so loved this world, that he gave his only-begotten Son; that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. If, then, you desire to recall someone who has fallen, do you exhort him to believe, or not to believe? Surely to believe. But he who believes, according to the Lord's saying, shall have eternal life. How then will you forbid prayer for him to whom eternal life is owed? Since faith belongs to divine grace, as the Apostle teaches concerning the distributions of graces, that to another is given faith in the same Spirit; and the disciples say to the Lord: Increase our faith. He, then, who has faith, has life: he who has life, is surely not excluded from pardon. Whosoever, he says, believes in him, should not perish.

When "whosoever" is said, no one is excluded, no one is excepted; for he does not except one who has fallen, provided that he afterward believes rightly.

49. Faith and the Crown Restored to the Fallen

We have found that very many have reformed themselves anew after a fall, and have suffered for the name of God: can we deny to these the fellowship of the martyrs, to whom the Lord Jesus did not deny it? Do we then dare to say that life has not been restored to those to whom Christ restored the crown? As, then, after a fall a crown is restored to many if they suffer, so too faith is restored if they believe. Which faith is a gift of God; as you have it written: For to you it has been given by God, not only that you should believe in him, but also that you should suffer for him. Can he who has the gift of God perhaps not have pardon?

50. The Double Grace of Faith and Suffering

But there is not one grace only, but a double one, that everyone who believes may also suffer for the Lord Jesus. He, then, who believes has his own grace: but he has another, if his faith is crowned by sufferings. For Peter was not without grace before he suffered; but when he suffered, he acquired another. And many who did not have the grace to suffer for Jesus, nevertheless had the grace to believe in Jesus.

51. The Good Samaritan as a Figure of Mercy

Therefore it is said: That whosoever believes in him should not perish. Whosoever, he says, that is, from whatever state, from whatever fall, if he believes, let him not fear to perish. For it can happen that a certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, that is, having fallen back from the struggle of martyrdom into the desire of this life and worldly favor, wounded by robbers, that is, by persecutors, and left half dead, is found by that Samaritan of the Gospel, who is the guardian of our souls (for "Samaritan" means "guardian"), and he does not pass him by, but heals and cures him. 52. Perhaps he does not pass him by for this reason, because he recognizes something vital in him, from which he might be able to resume life. Does it not seem to you that he who has fallen is half dead, if faith still breathes something vital in him? For he who utterly casts God out of his heart is dead.

He, then, who does not utterly cast him out, but through the pressure of torments denied for a time, is half dead. But if he is dead, why do you tell him to do penance, who can no longer be cured? If he is half dead, pour in oil and wine, not wine without oil, namely that which both soothes and stings. Set him on your own beast, hand him over to the innkeeper, spend two pence on his care, be neighbor to him. But you cannot be a neighbor, unless you show mercy; for no one can be called a neighbor, except he who has cured, not he who has killed. But if you wish to be called a neighbor, Christ says to you: Go, and do likewise.

53. Faith in Christ as the Gain of Life

Let us consider another similar passage: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. What abides has surely already begun, and has begun from some offense; because before, he did not believe. Where, then, one believes, the wrath of God departs, but life comes. To believe in Christ, then, is the gain of life; for he who believes in him is not judged.

54. Mercy Preferred to Sacrifice

But they cite here that he who believes in Christ ought to keep his word; for thus, they say, it is written, the Lord saying: I am come a light into this world, that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness: and if any man hear my words, and keep them, I judge him not. He does not judge, and do you judge? He says: That whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness—that is, even if he has been in darkness, he should not remain in it, but amend his error, correct his fault, keep my commandments; for I have said: I will not the death of the sinner, but his correction. I said above: That he who believes in me is not judged; and this I keep: For I came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through me. I gladly forgive, I readily pardon: I prefer mercy to sacrifice; because through sacrifice the just man is commended, through mercy the sinner is redeemed.

I came not to call the just, but sinners. In the Law is sacrifice, in the Gospel is mercy: the Law was given through Moses, grace through me. What could be more evident than this?

55. Receiving Christ's Word Through Self-Correction

Finally, he also says below: He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him. Does it seem to you that one receives the words of Christ who has not corrected himself? Surely it does not seem so. He, therefore, who corrects himself, receives his word; for this is his word, that each one should call himself back from fault. You must therefore either exclude this saying of his, or, if you cannot deny it, you must acquiesce.

56. Keeping the Commandments by Ceasing to Sin

He too ought to keep the Lord's commandments, who ceases to sin, who renounces his offenses. You must not, therefore, interpret this saying as spoken of him who has always kept them; for if he had meant this, he would have added "always"; but by not adding it, he pronounced it of him who has kept what he heard: he heard, moreover, in order that he might correct his error: he kept, therefore, what he heard.

57. The Psalm's Promise of Mercy to All

How hard indeed it would be that he should be called to perpetual punishment who, even afterward, keeps the commandments of the Lord—let him teach you this himself, who did not deny pardon even to those who did not keep his commandments, as you have in the body of the psalm: If they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments; I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges: but my mercy I will not take away from them. To all, therefore, he promises mercy.

58. Mercy Tempered by Judgment and Chastisement

But lest you think this mercy is without judgment, there is a distinction between those who have shown perpetual obedience to the heavenly commandments, and those who have at some point fallen either through error or through necessity. And lest you think you are being confined by our argument, receive the judgment of Christ; for he says: If the servant knew his lord's will, and did it not, he shall be beaten with many stripes: but he that knew it not shall be beaten with few stripes. Both, then, if they believe, are received, because God chastises every son whom he receives: and whom he chastises, he certainly does not hand over to death; for it is written: The Lord chastising hath chastised me, and hath not delivered me over to death.

59. Paul's Moderate Correction of the Sinner

Finally, Paul teaches that those who have committed a sin unto death are not to be abandoned, but rather restrained with the bread of tears, and with tearful drink; yet in such a way that the sadness itself might be moderate. For this is what it signifies: You shall give them drink in tears in measure; that the sadness itself might have a measure, lest perhaps he who is doing penance be swallowed up by excessive sorrow, as he wrote to the Corinthians: What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity, and the spirit of meekness? But the rod itself is not harsh, since he had read: Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from death.

60. Delivered to Satan for the Flesh Not the Soul

What it means to come with a rod is taught by the invective against fornication, the accusation of incest, the reproof of the swelling pride of those who ought rather to have mourned, being puffed up; and finally the condemnation of the guilty man, that he might be removed from the fellowship of communion, and delivered to the adversary, not unto the destruction of the soul, but of the flesh. For just as the Lord gave the enemy no power over the soul of holy Job, but permitted licence over his flesh; so here too he is delivered to Satan unto the destruction of the flesh, that the serpent might lick his earth, but not harm his soul.

61. Paul's Weakness of the Flesh as Strength of the Spirit

Let our flesh, therefore, die to its desires, let it be captive, let it be subdued, and not fight against the law of our mind, but let it die subjected to a good servitude; as in Paul, who chastised his body, that he might reduce it to servitude; so that his preaching might become the more approved, in that the law of his flesh agreed and accorded with the law of his mind. For the flesh perishes when its wisdom passes over into the spirit; so that it may no longer savor the things of the flesh, but the things of the spirit. Would that I might see my flesh weakened! Would that I might not be dragged captive into the law of sin! Would that I might not live in the flesh, but in the faith of Christ! And therefore there is greater grace in the weakness of the body than in its health.

Finally, even Paul, whom he greatly loved, he was unwilling to free from the weakness of the flesh; and when Paul asked that the weakness might depart from him, he answered: My grace is sufficient for thee; for virtue is made perfect in weakness. And Paul is more pleased with himself in his weaknesses, saying: When I am weak, then am I powerful; for the strength of the soul is perfected by the weaknesses of the flesh. 62. We have explained Paul's meaning; now let us consider the very words, in what sense he said that he delivered such a one to Satan unto the destruction of the flesh; because our tempter is the devil. For he inflicts weaknesses on individual members, and is wont to move sicknesses upon the whole body. Thus he struck holy Job with a grievous ulcer from his feet even to his head, because he had received power over the destruction of his flesh, God saying: Behold, I deliver him to thee, only preserve his soul.

This the Apostle transferred in the same words, saying that he delivered such a man to Satan unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

63. How the Devil Destroys Himself Through Affliction

Great is the power, great the grace, which commands the devil to destroy himself. For he destroys himself, when the man whom by tempting he strives to supplant, he makes stronger out of weakness; because while he weakens the flesh, he strengthens the man's mind. For sickness of the flesh repels sin: but the wantonness of the flesh kindles fault.

64. Mocking the Devil Through Job's Endurance

The devil, therefore, is mocked, so that he wounds himself with his own bite, and arms against himself him whom he thought to weaken. Thus also he loved holy Job more, after he had wounded him: who, his whole body drenched in dire ulcers, endured indeed the devil's bite, but felt not its venom. And therefore it is well said to him: Thou shalt draw out the dragon with a hook, thou shalt mock him as a bird: thou shalt bind him as a sparrow for a child, putting thy hand upon him.

65. Turning the Serpent's Venom into Medicine

You see how by Paul he is mocked, so that, like that child of prophecy, he might put his hand into the serpent's den, and the serpent do him no harm, but he draws him out of his hiding places, and makes of his venom a spiritual antidote; so that what is poison becomes medicine: it is poison unto the destruction of the flesh, it becomes medicine unto the salvation of the spirit. For what harms the body, helps the spirit.

66. Christ Commands the Devil to Guard the Soul

Let the serpent, then, eat my earth, let him fix his tooth in the flesh, let him crush the body, let the Lord say also of me: I deliver him to thee, only preserve his soul. How great the power of Christ, that the guarding of a man should be commanded even to the devil himself, who ever wishes to harm! Let us, then, propitiate the Lord Jesus for ourselves: at Christ's command, even the devil himself becomes the guardian of his own prey, or against his will obeys the heavenly commands: and though savage, yet he complies with gentle commands.

67. The Serpent's Malice Turned to Grace

But why do I commend his compliance? Let him remain always evil, that God may always be good, who turns his malice into grace for us. He wishes to harm, but cannot, if Christ resists: he ulcerates the flesh, but preserves the soul: he devours the earth, but keeps safe the spirit. Finally it is written: Then the wolves and the lambs shall feed together: the lion and the ox shall eat straw: and the serpent, earth as bread: and they shall not hurt, nor destroy, in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. For this is the sentence of the condemned serpent: The earth shall be thy food. What earth? That, surely, of which it is said: Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return.

68. Not Binding the Fire of Desire Within

The serpent eats this earth, if the Lord Jesus is propitious to us, so that the soul does not sympathize with the weakness of the flesh, is not kindled by the vapor of the flesh and the heat of the members. It is good to marry rather than to burn; for there is a flame which burns within. Wherefore let us not bind this fire in the bosom of the mind, and the recess of the breast, lest we burn the garments of our inner self, and this outer vestment and carnal covering of our soul be consumed by the devouring flame of lust; but let us pass through the fire. And if anyone falls into the fire of love, let him leap over it, and pass through: let him not bind adulterous desire with the chains of thoughts, let him fasten upon himself no knots by the constant weaving of meditation; let him not gaze too often upon the form of a harlot woman, nor let a young girl lift her eyes to the face of a youth.

And if by chance she has looked, and been captured; how much more will she be captured, if she has looked with curiosity!

69. The Veil as a Guard of Modesty

Let custom, too, teach us. For this reason a woman veils her head, that even in public she may be secure in modesty: that her face may not readily meet the eyes of a young man, but be covered with the nuptial veil; lest by chance encounters she lie open to a wound, either another's or her own: but each is her own wound. But if she veils her head with a covering, lest rashly she either be seen, or see (for while the head is veiled, the face is hidden), how much more ought she to veil herself with the covering of modesty, that even in public she may keep her own secret!

70. The Glance and the Lustful Heart Distinguished

But granted, the eye should chance to fall upon her, yet let not the affection dwell there. For it is not a crime to have seen, but one must beware lest it become the origin of crime. The carnal eye sees, but let it press down the eyes of the heart, let modesty of mind remain. We have a moral and indulgent Lord; the prophet indeed said: I would not have thee gaze upon the form of a harlot woman; but yet the Lord said: Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. He did not say: If any man has seen, he has committed adultery; but: If any man has seen so as to lust, he did not condemn the glance, but sought out the affection. Good, however, is that modesty which is wont so to press down the very eyes of the body, that often we do not see even what we see.

For indeed we seem to look upon, in outward appearance, whatever meets us; but if the intention of the mind be not mingled in it, then even according to the office of the flesh our gaze vanishes; so that we see more with the mind than with the body.

71. Guarding Speech Against Kindling Desire

And if the flesh has seen this fire, let us not bind the fire in our bosom, that is, in the secret of the mind, and the hidden recess of the soul. Let us not entangle this fire in our bones, let us not cast knots upon ourselves; let us not mingle any speech with such a one, whence the adulterous fire might blaze up. The speech of a young girl is the knot of young men: the words of a youth are the bonds of love.

72. Joseph's Escape from Potiphar's Wife

Joseph saw this fire, when the woman desirous of adultery spoke to him; she wished to capture him with speech, she sent forth the snares of her lips, but she could not bind the chaste man. For the voice of modesty, the speech of gravity, the rein of caution, the guarding of faith, the discipline of chastity, loosed the woman's bonds. The shameless woman, therefore, could not catch him in her nets: she put forth her hand, and seized his garment, that she might bind him with a knot. The words of a wanton woman are the nets of desires, her hand is the knot of love: but neither by nets could the chaste mind be caught, nor by a knot: the garment was shaken off, the knot was loosed; and therefore, because he did not bind the fire in the bosom of his mind, he did not burn his own body.

73. The Mind Not the Flesh as Author of Guilt

Do you see, then, that it is our own mind that is the author of guilt? Thus the flesh is innocent, but for the most part the minister of sin. Therefore let not the desire of beauty overcome you. Many nets does the devil spread, many snares. The eye of the harlot is a snare for the lover. Our own eyes are nets to us; and therefore it is written: Neither be thou taken by thy eyes. We ourselves, then, spread nets for ourselves, in which we become entangled and enmeshed. We ourselves bind cords for ourselves, as we read: Each man is bound fast by the cords of his own sins.

74. Passing Through the Fire and Water of Youth

And therefore let us pass through the fire of adolescence, and the burning heat of youthful age; let us pass through the water, let us not remain in the water, lest the deep rivers enclose us. Let us rather pass through, that we too may say: Our soul has passed through the torrent; for he who passes through is saved. Finally the Lord speaks thus: If thou pass through the water, I am with thee, the rivers shall not enclose thee; and the Prophet says: I have seen the wicked exalted above the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not. Pass through worldly things, and you will see the heights of the wicked fallen. Moses too, passing through the worldly waters, saw a great sight, and said: Passing by, I will see this sight; for if he had been caught in the vices of the body and in the slippery pleasures of this age, he would not have seen such great mysteries.

75. Fleeing Fornication Without Carrying It Within

Let us too, then, pass through this fire of lust, which Paul, fearing—but fearing for us, he who by chastising his own body had made it so that he no longer feared for himself—says to us: Flee fornication. Let us flee it, then, as something following us, which follows not behind us but within us, following ourselves. Let us therefore watch carefully, lest while we flee it, we carry it with us. For we often wish to flee it, but if we do not utterly shake it from our mind, we carry it away rather than leave it behind. Let us therefore leap over it, lest it be said to us: Walk in the fire of your own flame, which you have kindled for yourselves. For as he who binds fire in his bosom burns his garments, so he who walks upon fire must necessarily burn his feet; since it is written: Shall a man walk upon burning coals, and his feet not be burned?

76. Feeding or Quenching the Fire of Lust

The fire is grievous, and therefore let us not give it the fuel of luxury. Lust is fed by banquets, nourished by delicacies, kindled by wine, inflamed by drunkenness. More grievous than these are the fomentations of words, which intoxicate the mind with a certain wine of the Sodomite vine. Let us beware, however, also of the excess of this wine; for when the flesh is intoxicated, the mind reels, the soul totters, the heart wavers. And therefore for both purposes a useful precept is given, by which Timothy is admonished: use a little wine because of your frequent infirmities. When the body is warm, it draws vapor; when the flesh grows cold with the chill of illness, your soul is refreshed; when your body suffers, your mind is sad, but your sadness shall turn into joy.

77. The Soul Preserved While the Flesh Is Afflicted

Do not fear, then, if your flesh is eaten, your soul is not devoured. Therefore David says he does not fear; because the enemies were eating his flesh, not his soul, as we read: While the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh; my enemies who afflict me, they themselves have grown weak and fallen. The serpent, therefore, works ruin only for itself; and so it is delivered to the serpent, he who has been struck down by the serpent, that he who was cast down might be raised up; and that the ruin of the serpent might become the resurrection of the man. But Scripture shows Satan to be the author of this bodily bruising and fleshly weakness, when Paul says: There was given to me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted. Thus, then, Paul learned to heal, in the manner by which he himself was healed.

78. The Rod and Gentleness of the Good Teacher

The good teacher, then, while promising one of the two, granted both. He came with the rod, because he removed the convicted man from sacred communion. And rightly is he said to be delivered to Satan, who is separated from the body of Christ. He came also in charity and in a spirit of gentleness, either because he delivered him over in such a way as to save his spirit, or because he afterward restored to the sacraments him whom he had before set apart.

79. The Old Leaven Purged, Not Cast Away

For indeed one who has grievously fallen ought to be set apart, lest a little leaven corrupt the whole lump; and the old leaven must be purged out, whether the old man in each individual, that is, the outward man with his deeds, or the people grown old, hardened together with sins and vices. And he said well "must be purged," not "must be cast away"; for what is purged is not judged wholly useless—it is purged for this reason, that the useful may be separated from the useless; but what is cast away is believed to have nothing useful in itself.

80. The Church's Tears Redeem the Fallen

Even then, therefore, the Apostle judged that he should be restored to the heavenly sacraments, if he wished to be purged himself. And he says well: Purge out; for as by certain works he is purged by the whole people, and washed by the tears of the people, he who by the prayers and weeping of the people is redeemed from sin, and is cleansed in the inward man. For Christ granted to His Church, that through all she might redeem one, since she deserved the coming of the Lord Jesus, that through one all might be redeemed.

81. Two Readings of Paul's New Lump

This is Paul's meaning, which the words render somewhat obscure. Let us consider the Apostle's own words: Purge out, he says, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. Either because the whole Church takes up the burden of the sinner, with whom she must have compassion, both by weeping and by prayer and by grief, and sprinkles herself as it were wholly with his leaven; so that through all, whatever is lacking in one performing penance may be purged by a kind of contributed admixture of manly mercy or compassion. Or as that woman in the Gospel teaches, who presents a type of the Church, in that she hides leaven in her meal, until the whole is leavened, so that all may be taken up clean.

82. The Leaven of the Pharisees Explained

The Lord taught me in the Gospel what leaven is, saying: Do you not understand that I spoke not of bread: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Then, he says, they understood that he did not say beware of loaves, but that they should beware of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This leaven, therefore, that is, the teaching of the Pharisees, and the disputation of the Sadducees, the Church hides in her meal, when she softens the harder letter of the law by spiritual interpretation, and breaks it as it were by a certain mill of her disputation, bringing forth, as it were from the husks of the letter, the inner secrets of the mysteries, and establishing the faith of the resurrection; by which the mercy of God is proclaimed, by which it is believed that the life of the dead is restored.

83. Christ Our Passover and the New Lump

Nor does this comparison seem absurd when applied to this place. For indeed the redemption of the sinner is the kingdom of heaven; and therefore let us all, good and bad, be sprinkled together in the meal of the Church, that we may all be a new lump. But lest anyone should fear that the admixture of the more corrupted leaven would discolor the mass, he therefore said: That you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened; that is, the mixture will render you such as was the pure sincerity of your innocence. Thus, if we show mercy, we are not darkened by another's sin, but we gain his redemption for our own grace, so that the purity that was, may persist. And therefore he added: For Christ our passover is sacrificed, that is, the Lord's passion has profited all, and has granted redemption to sinners who have repented of the crime committed.

84. No Envy at the Sinner's Return

Let us, then, feast on this good food, bearing penance, glad in redemption; for there is no food sweeter than benevolence and pity. Let no envy over the sinner saved be mingled with our feasting and gladness, lest one exclude himself from the Father's house, like that envious brother set forth in the Gospel, who grieved that his brother was received, whom he had rejoiced to see excluded forever.

85. Novatian's Grief Over His Lost Bishopric

You cannot deny, Novatians, that you are like him, you who, as you say, do not gather in the Church, because through penance a hope was granted to those who had fallen of returning. But this has been pretended in appearance. In truth it was Novatian, inflamed with grief over his lost episcopate, who composed the schism.

86. Removed by the Blotting Out of Sin

But do you not understand that the Apostle prophesied also of you, and says to you: And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who did this deed might be removed from your midst? Surely he is then utterly removed, when his sin is blotted out; for the Apostle does not say that he should be excluded from the Church, he who urges that he should be purged.

87. Paul's Mercy Versus Novatian's Severity

Since, then, the apostle has remitted the sin, by what authority do you deny that it should be remitted? Who is more reverent toward Christ, Novatian or Paul? But Paul knew the Lord to be merciful; he knew that the Lord Jesus was more offended by the severity of the disciples than pleased by their mercy.

88. Rebuking the Spirit That Excludes Mercy

Finally, when James and John said that they would call down fire from heaven to consume those who were unwilling to receive the Lord, Jesus rebuked them, saying: You know not of what spirit you are; for the Son of Man came not to destroy men's souls, but to save them. And indeed to them he said: You know not of what spirit you are, who were of that very spirit; but to you he says: You are not of my spirit, you who do not hold to my clemency, who reject my mercy, who exclude the penance which I willed to be preached through my apostles in my name.

89. The Reward Promised for Present Fruit

For in vain do you say that you preach penance, you who take away the fruit of penance. For men are incited to any zeal either by rewards or by fruits; but all zeal grows numb by delay. And therefore the Lord, that the devotion of the disciples might be crowned with present fruit, said that whoever had left all his own and had followed God, would receive sevenfold both here and in the future. He promised it here first, that he might take away the weariness of delay; he added "and in the future," that you might here learn to believe that rewards are also to be paid to you in the future. The recompense of present things, then, is testimony of things to come.

90. The Penitent's Tears and Pardon

If, then, someone having hidden crimes has nevertheless diligently done penance for Christ's sake, how does he receive these fruits, if communion is not restored to him? I would have the guilty one hope for pardon, ask for it with tears, ask for it with groans, ask for it with the weeping of the whole people; let him beseech that he be forgiven; and when his communion has been delayed a second and a third time, let him believe that he has supplicated too weakly; let him increase his weeping, let him return afterward more pitiable, let him hold the feet in his arms, kiss them with kisses, wash them with tears, and not let go; that of him the Lord Jesus may say: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; because she has loved much.

91. Extreme Penance and the Likeness of Death

I have known some who, in penance, furrowed their faces with tears, plowed their cheeks with continual weeping, laid their bodies down to be trodden underfoot by all; with mouth ever fasting and pale, presenting in their body, breathing still, the very likeness of death.

92. Sufficient Rebuke, Sufficient Pardon

Why do we wait for the dead to deserve pardon, they who inflicted death upon themselves while yet living? Sufficient, he says, for such a one is this rebuke which is given by the many; so that, on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps he be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. If the rebuke given by the many is sufficient for condemnation, sufficient too is the entreaty made by the many for the remission of sin. That moral teacher, both conscious of our frailty and an interpreter of divine mercy, wishes the sin to be forgiven, wishes consolation to be applied, lest sorrow, through weariness of long delay, swallow up the penitent.

93. Guarding Against Satan Through Forgiveness

Therefore the apostle forgave; and not only did he forgive, but he also wished charity to be confirmed toward him. He who is dear has no hardness, but gentleness. Nor did he alone forgive, but he wished all to forgive also, and said that he had forgiven for the sake of others, lest many should be too long saddened on account of one. If you have forgiven anyone, he says, I have too; for I also, for your sakes, in the person of Christ, that we be not overreached by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices. Rightly can he guard against the serpent, who can be not ignorant of its wiles, which are many for doing harm. It always wishes to harm, always to overreach, that it may bring death; but we must beware lest our remedy become its triumph; for we are overreached by it, if through excessive sorrow he perishes who could be freed through indulgence.

94. Severity for the Obstinate, Mercy for the Penitent

And that we might know that he speaks of one baptized, he added: I wrote to you in an epistle, not to mingle with the fornicators of this world. And below he added: But now I have written to you, not to associate with anyone called a brother, if he be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols. Those whom he has joined together for punishment, he willed also to belong together to pardon. But if any such there be, he says, with such a one do not so much as eat. How severe toward the obstinate, how indulgent toward those who ask! Against the former the injury of Christ is armed; for these the invocation of Christ pleads.

95. Destruction of the Flesh as Chastisement

But lest anyone perhaps be moved by this, because it is written: I have delivered such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and say: How could it pertain to pardon, when all his flesh had perished; since it is manifest that man is redeemed in both, saved in both: neither the soul without the flesh, nor the flesh without the soul, since they are joined to each other in the fellowship of the deeds they have done, without fellowship either of punishment or of reward? Let him have this answer for himself, that "destruction" signifies not the complete consumption of the flesh, but its chastisement. For just as, dead to sin, one lives to God: so the enticements of the flesh perish, and the flesh dies to its own desires, that it may revive to chastity and other good works.

96. The Earth's Renewal as a Figure for Flesh

And what more fitting example could we take than from the mother earth? For that very earth from which we were taken, once cultivation and tending are set aside, appears deserted; and it dies, whether as regards the vineyards with which the field is planted, or the olive trees; yet it does not lose its own vigor, as it were a kind of soul of its own. Then, when cultivation is resumed and seeds are entrusted to it, by which it is judged suitable, it rises up more fruitful with produce. It is therefore not foreign to the case if our flesh too is said to perish in this way; so that it should be believed rather to be held in check than consumed.

Although not a few things profitable for the exhortation to penance have been written in the book above; yet since a good many more can be added, lest we seem to have left the banquet of our words as it were half-eaten, let us pursue the feast we have begun.

2. The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

For penance must be performed not only with care, but also promptly: lest perhaps that householder of the Gospel who planted a fig tree in his vineyard, come; and seeking fruit on it, if he does not find it, say to the keeper of the vineyard: Cut it down. Why does it even occupy the ground? And unless the keeper of the vineyard intervene, saying: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and put in a basket of dung: and if indeed it bear fruit, well; but if not, then after this you shall cut it down.

3. Manuring the Field for Greater Fruit

Let us therefore also dung this field which we possess, and imitate diligent farmers, who are not ashamed to satisfy the earth with rich manure, and to sprinkle the field with foul ash, that they may gather more abundant fruits.

4. Scriptural Examples of Ashes and Restoration

And how we should dung, the Apostle teaches, saying: And I count all things as dung, that I may gain Christ; who through ill fame and good fame deserved to please Christ. For he had read that Abraham, while confessing himself dust and ashes, found the grace of God through utmost humility. He had read that Job, sitting in dung, recovered all that he had lost. He had read, as David prophesied, that God raises up the needy from the earth, and lifts up the poor from the dung heap.

5. Confession as the Plowing of the Field

Shall we, then, not blush to confess our sins to the Lord? It is a shame for each one to disclose his own crimes: but that shame plows his own field, uproots enduring thorns, cuts away briars, brings to ripeness fruits which he believed were among the dead. Follow him who, by plowing his field well, sought eternal fruits. We are cursed, he says, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure; we are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world. If you too plow thus, you will sow spiritual things. Plow, that you may remove sin, that you may gain fruit. He plowed, that he might root out of himself the disposition of a persecutor. What more could Christ have conferred upon us for the pursuit of correction, than that he converted him, and gave us out of a persecutor a teacher?

6. The Novatianist Appeal to Hebrews

Although, then, they are refuted by so clear an example both of the Apostle himself and of his writings, they still wish to resist, and they claim that the authority of an Apostolic sentence favors them, alleging what is written to the Hebrews: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they fall away, to be renewed again unto repentance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and holding him up to contempt.

7. Distinct, Not Contrary, Apostolic Teaching

Could Paul possibly preach against his own act? He forgave the Corinthian's sin through penance; how then could he himself reprove his own sentence here? Therefore, since he could not destroy what he had built up, we notice that he spoke not something contrary, but something distinct. For what is contrary attacks itself: what is distinct usually has a separate reasoning. But this is not contrary in such a way that the one should support the other. For since he had preached about the forgiving of penance, he ought also not to have kept silence concerning those who thought baptism should be repeated: and it was necessary first that our anxiety be removed, so that we might know that even after baptism, if any should sin, sin can be forgiven them; lest, being deprived of the hope of pardon, a vain opinion of repeating baptism should pervert them: then it was necessary, by reasonable argument, to persuade them that baptism ought not to be repeated.

8. The Hebrews Text Concerns Baptism, Not Penance

That it was said concerning baptism, the very words declare, by which he signified it to be impossible for those who have fallen to be renewed unto repentance; for through the laver we are renewed, through which we are reborn, as Paul himself says: For we are buried together with him through baptism into death, that as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. And elsewhere: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God. And elsewhere: Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's: for even the eagle, when it has died, is reborn from its own remains, just as through the sacrament of baptism, when we have died to sin, we are reborn to God, and reshaped. It therefore teaches one baptism, as elsewhere: One faith; one, he says, baptism.

9. Crucified With Christ in Baptism

This too is evident, that in the one who is baptized, the Son of God is crucified; because our flesh could not abolish sin, unless it had been crucified in Christ Jesus. For it is written, that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. And below: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old man was crucified together with him. And to the Colossians he says: Buried with him through baptism, in whom also you rose together. This was written so that we might believe that he himself is crucified in us; that through him our sins may be cleansed, that he himself may fasten our handwriting to the cross, he who alone can forgive sins. He himself triumphs in us over principalities and powers; since it is written of him: He put on display the principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself.

10. One Unrepeatable Baptism Like Christ's One Death

Therefore, what he says in this epistle which is written to the Hebrews, that it is impossible for those who have fallen to be renewed unto repentance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and holding him up to contempt, looks to this: that we should believe it was said concerning baptism, in which we crucify the Son of God in ourselves; that through him the world may be crucified to us, since we triumph, as it were, in a certain fashion, while we take on the likeness of his death, he who displayed and triumphed over principalities and powers on his own cross; that in the likeness of his death we too might triumph over the principalities whose yoke we lay down. But Christ was crucified once, died to sin once; and therefore there is one baptism, not several.

11. The Church's One Baptism Versus the Law's Many Washings

What of the fact that above he also mentioned the doctrine of baptisms? And because there were many baptisms in the law, he rightly reproves those who leave aside what is perfect and seek again the elementary teaching. He teaches us that we ought to know that all the baptisms of the law have been abolished, and that there is one baptism in the sacraments of the Church. He exhorts us, moreover, that leaving the beginning of the word, we should press on to what is perfect: And this, he says, we will do, if indeed God permits; for no one can be perfect without the favor of God.

12. What Is Impossible for Men Is Possible for God

I could indeed also say this to him who thinks this was said concerning penance; that the things which are impossible with men are possible with God: and God is powerful, when he wills, to forgive us sins, even those which we think cannot be granted. And therefore what seems to us impossible to obtain, it is possible for God to grant. For it also seemed impossible that sin should be washed away by water: indeed Naaman the Syrian did not believe that his leprosy could be cleansed by water. But what was impossible, God made possible, who bestowed on us so great a grace. Likewise it seemed impossible that sins be forgiven through penance: this Christ granted to his apostles, which has been transmitted from the apostles to the office of priests. Thus what seemed impossible has been made possible. But nevertheless, that it was said concerning baptism, that no one should repeat it, is persuaded by true reasoning.

13. The Prodigal Son Squanders His Father's Inheritance

For the Apostle would not come against the evident teaching of Christ, who, concerning the sinner performing penance, set forth the comparison of him who, having gone abroad, devoured all the substance received from his father by living luxuriously, and afterward desired his father's bread, when he was feeding on husks: and he deserved the robe, the ring, the shoes, and also the immolation of the calf, which bears the likeness of the Lord's passion, through which the heavenly sacrament is given to us.

14. Going Abroad as Separation From the Heavenly Jerusalem

It is well said that he went abroad, he who was separated from the sacred altars; for this is to be separated from that Jerusalem which is in heaven, from a certain civic and domestic dwelling place of the saints. Whence the Apostle also says: Therefore you are now no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God.

15. Squandered Substance as a Figure of Weak Faith

And he consumed, it says, his substance. Rightly did he consume it, whose faith limped in works: For faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And faith is a good substance, in which is the patrimony of our hope.

16. Hunger for the Father as a Spur to Prayer

Nor is it any wonder if he was perishing with hunger, he who lacked divine nourishment; driven by desire of which, he said: I will arise, and go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. Do you not perceive that it is clearly set forth to us that we are impelled to pray for the sake of meriting the grace of the sacrament? And this you wish to take away, on account of which penance is performed. Take from a helmsman the hope of arriving, and he will wander uncertain amid the waves. Take from a wrestler the crown, and he will lie listless in the stadium. Take from a fisherman the efficacy of catching, and he ceases to cast his nets. How then can one who suffers the hunger of his own soul pray to God more earnestly, if he despairs of the sacred nourishment?

17. Confessing a Sin Unto Death Before God

I have sinned, he says, against heaven and before you. He confesses indeed a sin unto death, lest you should think that whoever is performing penance for any crime whatsoever is rightly excluded; since he who sinned against heaven, or against the heavenly kingdom, or against his own soul, which is sin unto death, sinned also before God, to whom alone it is said: Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you.

18. The Father's Gifts as Signs of the Sacraments

He earns pardon so quickly that, while he is still far off and coming, his father runs to meet him, gives him a kiss, which is the mark of sacred peace: orders the robe to be brought forth, which is the wedding garment, without which one is excluded from the wedding feast: gives a ring for his hand, which is the pledge of faith, and the seal of the Holy Spirit: orders shoes to be brought for him; for one who is about to celebrate the Lord's Passover, about to feast on the lamb, ought to have his foot protected against all the incursions of spiritual beasts, and the bites of the serpent: he orders the calf to be killed; because Christ our Passover is sacrificed. For as often as we receive the blood of the Lord, we proclaim the death of the Lord. Therefore, just as he was sacrificed once for all, so as often as sins are forgiven, we receive the sacrament of his body, that through his blood the remission of sins may come about.

19. The Command to Restore Even the Gravest Sinners

Therefore it has been most evidently commanded by the preaching of the Lord that, even for those guilty of the gravest crime, if they perform penance with their whole heart and with open confession of sin, the grace of the heavenly sacrament is to be poured back upon them. Whence it is certain that nothing remains to you for excuse.

20. The Objection From Matthew's Text on Blasphemy

It has been reported to us, however, that you are also accustomed to object this, that you say it is written: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. By this very example your entire contention is destroyed and dismissed; for it is written: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Why then do you not forgive? Why do you bind chains which you do not loose? Why do you tie knots which you do not release? Forgive the rest; deal with those whom you think, on the authority of the Gospel, to be bound forever for sinning against the Holy Spirit.

21. The Charge That Demons Were Cast Out by Beelzebub

And yet let us consider whom it binds, going back over the earlier part of the reading itself, that we may grasp it more clearly. The Jews were saying: This man casts out demons only in Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Jesus answered: Every kingdom divided against itself will be destroyed, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand; for if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then shall his kingdom stand? But if I cast out demons in Beelzebub, in whom do your sons cast them out?

22. Comparing the Savior to Satan as the True Blasphemy

We see this expressed clearly about those who said that the Lord Jesus cast out demons in Beelzebub, to whom the Lord thus replied, that Satan's inheritance would be in those who compared the Savior of all to Satan, and who placed the grace of Christ within the kingdom of the devil. And that we might know that he spoke of this blasphemy, he added: Offspring of vipers, how can you speak good things, since you are evil? These, then, who say such things, he denies belong to pardon.

23. Simon Magus Rebuked Yet Called to Repentance

Finally, Peter said to Simon, who, corrupted by the practice of the magic art, had thought that the grace of Christ, given through the laying on of hands and the infusion of the Holy Spirit, could be purchased with money: You have no part nor lot in this faith; because your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, if perhaps this thought of your heart may be forgiven you; for I see you are in the bond of iniquity, and in the bitterness of gall. Do you see that he condemns, by apostolic authority, this man blaspheming the Holy Spirit through magical vanity; and all the more because he did not have a pure conscience of faith: and yet he did not shut off from him the hope of pardon, whom he invited to repentance?

24. Those Who Divide the Church Share This Blasphemy

An answer, therefore, was given by the Lord to the blasphemy of the Pharisees; and therefore he denies to these the grace of his power, which consists in the remission of sins, who claimed that his heavenly power was propped up by diabolical support. He also asserts that those use a diabolical spirit who separate the Church of the Lord; so that he might comprehend the heretics and schismatics of all times, to whom he denies indulgence, because whatever sin exists concerning individuals, this exists concerning all together. For those alone wish to dissolve the grace of Christ who tear apart the members of the Church, for whose sake the Lord Jesus suffered, and the Holy Spirit was given to us.

25. The Good Tree and Bad Tree of the Church

Finally, that you may know he speaks of those who scatter, we have it thus written: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And that we might know this was said of them, he immediately added: Therefore I say to you: every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit will not be forgiven to men. When he says: Therefore I say to you: did he not clearly wish this to be understood by us above all else? And fittingly he added: A good tree makes good fruits, but a bad tree makes bad fruits; for a bad congregation cannot produce good fruit. The tree, therefore, is the congregation, and the fruits of the good tree are the children of the Church.

26. A Call to Return and the Precedent of Jewish Converts

And therefore return to the Church, if any of you have impiously separated yourselves. For he promises pardon to all who convert; because it is written: Everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Finally, even the people of the Jews, who said of the Lord Jesus: He has a demon; who said: He casts out demons in Beelzebub; who crucified the Lord Jesus, is called by Peter's preaching to baptism, that they might lay down the guilt of so great a crime.

27. Judas as a Warning Against Withholding Forgiveness

But what wonder is it, if you deny salvation to others, you who refuse your own, although they differ in nothing who seek repentance from you. For I think that even Judas could have not been excluded from pardon by such great mercy of God, if he had done penance not among the Jews, but before Christ. I have sinned, he said, in that I have betrayed innocent blood. They answered: What is that to us? See to it yourself. Is not this the same voice as yours, when even one guilty of a lesser sin confesses his own deed to you? What else do you answer, except this: What is that to us? See to it yourself. A noose follows this saying: with a punishment all the more savage the smaller the fault.

28. God's Promise Through Isaiah to Blot Out Iniquities

But if these men are not converted, at least you yourselves return, who have fallen by various lapses from the lofty summit of innocence and faith. We have a good Lord, who wishes to grant pardon to all, who called you through the prophet, saying: I am, I am he who blots out iniquities; and I will not remember: but you remember, and let us be judged (Isaiah XLIII, 25).

29. Peter's Warning to Simon Not a Denial of Pardon

Yet they raise a question about the words of the apostle Peter. Because he said: Lest perhaps, they think that Peter did not confirm that, to one doing penance, the sin would be forgiven. But let them consider of whom he speaks, that is, of Simon, who did not believe from faith, but was contriving deceit. Finally, the Lord also, to one saying to him, whose full sincerity he did not see: I will follow you, said: Foxes have holes. Him, therefore, whom the Lord before baptism forbade to follow, since he saw him to be deceitful; are you surprised if, after baptism, the apostle did not absolve one transgressing, whom he pronounced to remain in the bond of iniquity?

30. Comparing Peter's Words to God's Address to Jeremiah

But let this answer be given to them. I, however, say neither that Peter doubted, nor do I think so great a case ought to be strangled by the prejudice of a single word. For if they think Peter doubted, did God also doubt? Who said to the prophet Jeremiah: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord, and you shall give answer to all Judah, to those who come to worship in the house of the Lord, all the words which I have appointed you to answer them, do not take away a word: perhaps they will hear, and turn back. Let them say, then, that God also did not know what would happen.

31. The Same Idiom in God's Words to Ezekiel

But ignorance is not expressed by that word, but a frequent custom of this kind is noted in the divine Scriptures; because the manner of speech is a simple one. For indeed the Lord says also to Ezekiel: Son of man, I will send you to the house of Israel, to those who have provoked me, they themselves and their fathers even until this day, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, if perhaps they will hear and be afraid. Did he not know then whether they could or could not be converted? This manner of speech, then, is not always that of one who doubts.

32. The Greek Word Tacha in Poetic Usage

Finally, the very wise men of the world, who place all their glory in the precision of words, what we might perhaps say in Latin, in Greek τάχα, did not everywhere place it to express doubt. Thus they say that their first poet said: Ἦ τάχα χήρα ἔσομαι, that is: Soon shall I be a widow. And elsewhere: τάχα γάρ σε κατακτανέουσιν Ἀχαιοὶ πάντες ἐφορμηθέντες. For he would not doubt that one man could easily be overthrown by all rising up together at once.

33. The Father's Perhaps in the Parable of the Vineyard

But let us make use of our own examples rather than those of others. Finally, you have it in the Gospel that the Son himself said of the Father (when he had sent servants to his vineyard, and they had killed them), that the Father said: I will send my most beloved Son, perhaps they will respect him. And elsewhere the Son says in his own person: You know neither me, nor my Father. For if you knew me, you would perhaps know my Father also.

34. Peter's Certainty in the Power to Forgive Sins

If, then, Peter used those words which God used without prejudice to his own knowledge, why should we not accept that Peter too used such expressions without prejudice to his own faith? For he could not doubt concerning the gift of Christ, who had given him the power of loosing sins; especially since he ought not to leave room for the cunning of heretics, who wish for this reason to strip men of hope, that they may more easily induce belief in the repetition of baptism among those in despair.

35. The Apostles' Teaching on Pardon and Covering Sin

But the apostles, having received this according to the teaching of Christ, taught penance; they pledged pardon, they relaxed guilt, just as David also taught, saying: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. For he called both blessed, both him whose iniquity is remitted through the laver, and him whose sin is covered by good works. For he who does penance ought not only to wash away his sin with tears, but also to cover and hide his former offenses with more corrected deeds, so that sin may not be imputed to him.

36. Ephraim's Weeping as a Model of Repentance

Let us, then, cover our falls with later deeds, let us cleanse them with weeping; that the Lord our God may hear us groaning, just as he heard Ephraim weeping, as it is written, God saying: I have heard, I have heard Ephraim weeping. And he expressed the very words of Ephraim lamenting, saying: You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like a calf not taught. For a calf plays, and abandons the manger; and so Ephraim, like a calf, was not taught, placed far from the manger, because he abandoned the manger of the Lord, and following Jeroboam, worshiped calves, which prophecy had indicated would happen through Aaron, that the people of the Jews would thus fall. And therefore, doing penance, he says: Convert me, and I shall be converted; for you are the Lord my God. For at the last of my captivity I did penance; and after I knew, I groaned over the days of confusion, and I was made subject to you; for I received reproach, and I have shown you forth.

37. The Day of Confusion When Christ Is Denied

We note how penance is to be done, with what words, with what tears; so that the day of sin may be called a day of confusion; for it is confusion, when Christ is denied.

38. A Converted Heart and the Promise to Ephraim

And therefore let us submit ourselves to God, and let us not be subject to sin: and reviewing the memory of our offenses, let us blush as at a reproach; not proclaim it as some sort of glory, as certain people boast over conquered chastity, and trampled justice: and let such a conversion come about, that we who did not know God may ourselves now show him forth to others: and may the Lord, moved by such a conversion of ours, answer: From my youth Ephraim is a beloved son to me, a child in delights; because since my words are in him, I will surely remember him; therefore I have hastened toward him, I will have mercy on him with mercy, says the Lord.

39. The Lord's Promise of Mercy to Sinners

But what mercy he promises us, he shows further on, saying: I have satiated with drink every thirsting soul, and I have filled every hungry soul. Therefore I arose, and I looked, and my sleep was sweet to me. We note that the Lord promises his sacraments to sinners; and therefore let us all be converted to the Lord.

40. Isaiah's Call to Confess and Be Justified

But if these men are not converted, at least you yourselves return, who have fallen by various lapses from the lofty summit of innocence and faith. We have a good Lord, who wishes to grant to all, who called you through the prophet, saying: I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember: but you remember, that we may be judged (Isaiah XLIII, 25). I, he says, will not remember: but you remember, that is: I do not recall those offenses, whatever they were, which I have forgiven you, as though they were covered by some kind of forgetfulness: but you remember. I, he says, will not remember, on account of grace; you remember, on account of correction: remember, so that you may know the sin has been forgiven; lest you glory as though innocent, lest by justifying yourself you make yourself more burdened: but if you wish to be justified, confess your offense. For a shamefaced confession of sins dissolves the bonds of crimes.

41. A Warning to the Unweeping and Undancing

You see what your God demands of you, that you be mindful of the grace you have received, and not glory as though you had not received it. You see with what promise of remission he calls you to confession: take care lest, by resisting the heavenly commands, you fall into the irreverence of the Jews, to whom the Lord Jesus says: We have sung to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not wept.

42. The Mystery of David's Dance Before the Ark

A common word, but not a common mystery. And therefore care must be taken lest anyone, deceived by a vulgar interpretation of this word, think that the slippery movements of theatrical dancing, and the follies of the stage, are commanded to us; these things are vicious even in youthful age: but he commanded that dancing which David danced before the ark of the Lord. For everything is fitting which is offered to religion; so that we should be ashamed of no service which serves for the worship and observance of Christ.

43. Paul's Spiritual Dance and the Dance of Baptism

Not, then, is that dancing praised which is the companion of delights and the comrade of luxury, but that by which each one lifts up an unsluggish body, nor allows his limbs to lie sluggish upon the ground, nor to grow numb with slow steps. Paul danced spiritually, when he stretched himself out for us, and forgetting the things behind, reaching forward to the things before, strove for the prize of Christ. You too, when you come to baptism, are advised to raise your hands, to have feet swifter, by which you may ascend to eternal things. This dancing is the companion of faith, the comrade of grace.

44. Penance and Grace Through John and Christ

This therefore is the mystery: We have sung to you—indeed a new song of the Testament—and you have not danced, that is, you have not lifted up your soul to spiritual grace. We have mourned, and you have not wept, that is, you have not done penance. And therefore the people of the Jews was forsaken; because it neither did penance, nor accepted grace. Through John is penance, through Christ is grace. This latter the Lord gives as it were of himself; the former he announces as it were a servant. Therefore the Church keeps both, that she may both attain grace, and not cast away penance; for grace is the gift of him who bestows it, penance the remedy of him who offends.

45. Jeremiah's Lament and the Remedy of Penance

Jeremiah knew that penance was a great remedy, which he undertook in his Lamentations on behalf of Jerusalem, and he brings her in as speaking: Weeping she wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks, nor is there any to comfort her among all who love her. The ways of Zion mourn. And he added: Therefore in these things I weep, my eyes have grown dim with weeping, because he who comforted me has gone far from me. We observe that he judged this to be the most bitter heap of his evils, that there was none to comfort the mourner. How then do you take away that very consolation, you who deny the hope of penance being relaxed?

46. The Inner Disposition of True Penance

But let those who do penance hear how they ought to do it, with what zeal, what affection, what intention of mind, what shaking of the inmost bowels, what conversion of heart: See, he says, O Lord, that I am in tribulation, my belly is troubled with my weeping, my heart is turned within me.

47. The Bodily Signs of Mourning and Penance

You have learned the intention of the soul; learn also the faith of the mind, and the bearing of the body. They sat, he says, upon the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion kept silence, and put dust upon their head, they girded themselves with sackcloth, they brought down the princes to the ground, the virgins of Jerusalem failed in tears, my eyes have grown dim, my belly is troubled, my glory is poured out upon the earth.

48. The Repentance of Nineveh as a Pattern

Thus too the people of Nineveh wept, and escaped the destruction of the city that had been announced; for so great is the medicine of penance that God seems to change his sentence. It is in your power, therefore, to escape: the Lord wishes to be entreated, wishes hope to be placed in him, wishes to be besought. You are a man, and you wish to be entreated, that you may forgive—and do you think that God forgives one who does not entreat him?

49. Christ's Tears Over Jerusalem

The Lord himself wept over Jerusalem, so that, because she herself was unwilling to weep, she might come to pardon through the Lord's tears. He himself wishes us to weep, that we may be able to escape, as you have it written in the Gospel: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves.

50. David's Tears and the Choice of Mercy

David wept, and deserved that the divine mercy should remove the death of the perishing people; when, three options being set before him, he yet chose that one in which he would experience the greater mercy of the Lord. Why do you blush to weep for your sins, when God has commanded even the prophets to weep for the peoples?

51. Ezekiel's Scroll of Lamentation and Woe

Finally, Ezekiel too was bidden to weep over Jerusalem, and he received a book, at the head of which was written: Lamentation, and song, and woe—two sad things and one delightful; since he shall be safe in the future who has wept more in this age: For the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of feasting. And the Lord himself says: Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

52. A Call to Weep Now and Rejoice Forever

Let us therefore weep for a time, that we may rejoice forever. Let us fear the Lord, let us come before him by confessing our sins, let us correct our lapses, let us amend our error; lest it be said of us also: Woe is me, my soul! For the reverent man has perished from the earth, and there is no one among men to correct.

53. Confession Forestalls the Accuser

Why do you fear to confess your iniquities before a good Lord? Tell, he says, your iniquities, that you may be justified. Even yet, to one guilty of a fault, the rewards of justification are set forth; for he is justified who has of his own accord acknowledged his own crime: indeed the just man, at the outset of his speech, is his own accuser. The Lord knows all things, but he awaits your voice; not that he may punish, but that he may forgive: he does not wish the devil to insult over you, and to accuse you for concealing your sins. Forestall your accuser: if you accuse yourself, you will fear no accuser: if you denounce yourself, even though you be dead, you shall live again.

54. Christ's Question at Lazarus's Tomb

Christ will come to your tomb, and if he sees Martha, that good woman of ministry, weeping for you, and Mary weeping who attentively heard the word of God, as does the holy Church which chose for herself the best part; he will be moved to mercy, when he sees at your death the tears of many, and he will say: Where have you laid him? That is, in what state of the guilty is he, in what rank of penitents. Let me see him whom you weep for, that he himself may move me by his tears. Let me see if he is already dead to the sin whose pardon is sought.

55. The Meaning of Come and See

The people will say to him: Come and see. What does "Come" mean? This: let the remission of sins come, let the life of the dead come, the resurrection of the dead; let your kingdom come even into this sinner.

56. Removing the Stone as a Figure of Sin's Burden

He will come, and will command the stone to be lifted, which the sinner's fall had laid upon his neck. He could have removed the stone by the command of a word; for when Christ commands, even insensible nature is wont to obey: he could, by the silent force of hidden operation, have moved the stone of the sepulcher—at whose passion, the stones being suddenly removed, very many tombs of the dead lay open: but he bade men remove the stone; in truth indeed, that unbelievers might believe what they saw, and behold the dead man rising: but in a type, that he might grant to us to lift the burdens of sins, certain masses of the guilty. It is ours to remove the burdens; it is his to raise up, his to lead forth from the tombs those freed from their bonds.

57. Christ's Call to Come Forth From Sin

Seeing therefore the heavy burden of the sinner, the Lord Jesus weeps; for he does not allow the Church alone to weep. He has compassion on his beloved, and says to the dead man: Come forth, that is: You who lie in the darkness of conscience, and in the filth of your sins, in a certain prison of the guilty, go forth, bring out your own offense, that you may be justified: For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

58. The Bonds Loosed and the Veil Removed

If you have confessed, called by Christ, the bars will be broken, and all your bonds will be loosed, even if the stench of bodily corruption is heavy. For he had four days, that man whose flesh stank in the tomb: but he whose flesh saw not corruption was three days in the sepulcher; for he knew not the faults of flesh, which consists of the substances of the four elements. However great, then, the stench of the dead man may be, it is all abolished, where the sacred ointment has given forth its fragrance: and the dead man rises again, and his bonds are commanded to be loosed—he who is still in sin: the veil is taken from his face, which had overshadowed the truth of the grace he had received. But because he has been granted pardon, he is bidden to unveil his face, to open his countenance: for he has nothing to be ashamed of, whose sin has been remitted.

59. Envy Against the Church's Restored Sinners

But amid so great a grace of the Lord, and so great a miracle of divine gift, when all ought to have rejoiced, the wicked were stirred up, and gathered a council against Christ: they wished also to kill Lazarus. Do you not rightly recognize that you are their successors, whose obstinacy you have inherited? For you too are indignant, and gather a council against the Church; because you see the dead in the Church come to life again, and raised up by the granted pardon of their sins. And so, as far as it is in you, through envy you wish again to kill those who have been raised up.

60. The Supper Where the Once-Dead Reclines With Christ

But Jesus does not withdraw his benefits, rather he amplifies them with an abundance of liberality: he carefully revisits the one raised up, and, rejoicing at the grace of the celebrated resurrection, comes to the supper which his Church prepared for him, at which that one who had been dead is found one among those reclining with Christ.

61. The Marvel of the Once-Dead Restored

Then all who see with pure gaze of mind marvel—those who know not how to envy; for such are the children the Church has. They marvel, as I have said, how he who lay in the tomb yesterday and the day before is one of those reclining with the Lord Jesus.

62. Mary's Ointment and the Members of Christ's Body

Mary herself pours ointment on the feet of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps on the feet for this reason, because one of the lowest was rescued from death; for we are all the body of Christ, but some perhaps are the higher members. The Apostle was the mouth of Christ, who said: You seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ. His mouth were the prophets, through whom he spoke of things to come: would that I too might deserve to be his foot, and that Mary might pour her precious ointment upon me, and anoint me, and wipe away my sin!

63. Every Sinner as Lazarus Restored by Faith

What therefore we read of Lazarus we ought to believe concerning every converted sinner: who, although he has a stench, is nevertheless cleansed by the precious ointment of faith: for faith has such grace that where before the light of day a dead man stank, there the whole house is filled with a good odor.

64. The Corinthian Church's Stench Turned to Sweetness

The house of the Corinthians stank, when it was written of her: It is heard that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles. There was a stench, because a little leaven had corrupted the whole lump. It began to smell sweet, when it is said: If you have forgiven anyone anything, I too. For what I have forgiven, I have forgiven for your sakes in the person of Christ. And so, the sinner being freed, there was great joy in her, and the whole house was filled with the sweetness of grace. Whence the Apostle, well aware that he had poured upon all the ointment of apostolic remission, says: We are the good odor of Christ unto God, in those who are being saved.

65. Judas Objects to the Ointment Poured Out

At the pouring out, then, of this ointment all rejoice, only Judas objects. So too now he who is a transgressor objects; he who is a betrayer finds fault: but he is himself rebuked by Christ, who does not know the remedy of the Lord's death, and does not understand the mystery of so great a burial. For the Lord suffered and died for this reason, that he might redeem us from death. This declares the most excellent price of his death, by which the sinner is absolved, and taken up into new grace; that all may come and marvel how he reclines with Christ, and, praising God, may say: Let us eat and feast; for he was dead, and has come to life again: he was lost, and is found. But if any unbeliever should object, why he eats with publicans and sinners, let it be answered him: They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

66. Showing the Wound of Sin to the Physician

Show, then, your wound to the physician, that you may be able to be healed. Even if you do not show it, he knows it: but he seeks to hear your voice from you. Wipe away your scars with tears. Thus that woman in the Gospel wiped away her sin, and the stench of her error, thus she washed away her guilt; when she washes Jesus' feet with her tears.

67. A Debtor's Gratitude for Much Forgiven

Would that you, Jesus, might reserve for me too the mud of your feet, which you soiled while walking within me? Would that you might offer me the dirt of your footprints to wipe away, which I by my own deeds have fixed upon your steps! But where shall I get living water, with which I might wash your feet? If I have no water, I have tears, with which, while I wash your feet, would that I might wash myself! Whence may it be granted me, that you should say of me: Her many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much? I confess that I owed more, and that more has been forgiven me, who was called to the priesthood from the din of forensic disputes and from the terror of public administration; and therefore I fear lest I be found ungrateful, if I love less, I to whom more has been forgiven.

68. The Woman Preferred Above Simon the Host

But not all can equal that woman, who was deservedly preferred even to Simon, who was giving the Lord a dinner: she who, to all who wish to earn pardon, gave instruction by kissing the feet of Christ, washing them with tears, wiping them with her hair, anointing them with ointment.

69. The Kiss, the Hair, and the Ointment Explained

In the kiss there is a mark of love; and therefore the Lord Jesus says: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. What do the hairs signify, but that you may know that, all the dignity of secular adornments being laid aside, indulgence is to be besought; that weeping you should prostrate yourself upon the ground, that lying on the earth you should move mercy? In the ointment too is expressed the fragrance of good conversion. David indeed was a king, and he said: Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. And therefore he deserved such grace, that from his family a virgin should be chosen, who by her own childbearing would bring forth Christ for us. Therefore this woman too is praised in the Gospel.

70. Christ Comes to the Tomb for the Weak

Yet if we cannot equal her, the Lord Jesus knows how to help the weak too, where there is none who can prepare a feast, who can bring ointment, who can carry with her a fountain of living water. He himself comes to the tomb.

71. A Prayer to Be Called Forth from the Tomb

Would that thou wouldst deign, therefore, to come to this monument of mine, Lord Jesus, and wash me with thy tears; since with my harder eyes I have not tears enough to be able to wash away my offences! If thou shalt weep for me, I shall be saved: if I shall be found worthy of thy tears, I wipe away the stench of all my offences: if I shall be worthy that thou weep a little over me, thou wilt call me from the tomb of this body, and say: Come forth, that my thoughts be not kept shut up within the narrow confines of this body, but may go forth to Christ, and dwell in the light; that I may not think on the works of darkness, but the works of light. For he who thinks upon sin is intent on shutting himself up within his own conscience.

72. The Servant Called Forth from His Chains

Call forth, therefore, thy servant. Although bound by the chains of my sins, having feet fettered, hands tied, and already buried by dead thoughts and works; at thy calling, I shall come forth free, and be found one of those reclining at thy banquet, and thy house shall be filled with precious ointment; if indeed thou hast deigned to redeem, thou wilt keep guard. For it shall be said: Behold, that one was not nourished in the bosom of the Church, not tamed from boyhood, but was snatched from the tribunals, led away from the vanities of this age, accustomed from the herald's voice to the psalmist's song, and remains in the priesthood not by his own virtue, but by the grace of Christ, and reclines among the guests of the heavenly table.

73. A Bishop's Plea for Compassion Toward Sinners

Keep, Lord, thy gift, guard the gift which thou hast bestowed even on one fleeing from it. For I knew that I was not worthy to be called bishop; because I had given myself to this age: but by thy grace I am what I am. And I am indeed the least of all bishops and the lowest in merit; yet because I too have undertaken some labor for thy holy Church, protect this fruit; lest thou suffer him whom thou hast called, though lost, to the priesthood to perish as a priest.

And first grant that I may know how to sympathize with sinners with inward affection; for this is the highest virtue, since it is written: And thou shalt not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin, and shalt not speak great things in the day of their tribulation: but as often as the sin of someone fallen is set forth, let me feel compassion; and let me not rebuke proudly, but mourn and weep; so that while I weep for another, I may weep for myself, saying: Thamar is more justified than I.

74. The Excuse of Youth Compared to Age

Perhaps a young girl has fallen, deceived and cast down by occasions which are the tinder of sins; we elders sin too. The law of this flesh fights against the law of our mind, and drags us captive into sin, so that we do what we do not wish. For her, her age affords an excuse; for me now none; for she ought to learn what we ought to teach. Therefore Thamar is more justified than I.

75. Avarice Confessed: Thamar More Justified Than I

We accuse someone of avarice; let us recall whether we ourselves have done nothing avariciously: and if we have, since avarice is the root of evils, and creeps secretly through our body as if beneath the earth, let each of us say: Thamar is more justified than I.

76. Anger, the Mote, and the Beam in the Eye

If we have been moved to anger gravely against someone, the layman has a lighter case than the bishop, in that he acted while moved; let us reconsider within ourselves, and say: That one is more justified, who is charged with a fit of anger, than I. For if we say these things, we guard ourselves; lest the Lord Jesus, or someone of his disciples, say to us: Thou seest the mote in thy brother's eye; but the beam that is in thine own eye thou seest not. Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from thine own eye, and then thou shalt see to cast out the mote from thy brother's eye.

77. Judah's Self-Accusation: Thamar More Justified

Let us not, therefore, be ashamed to say that our own fault is graver than that of him whom we think should be reproved; for Judah said this, who was accusing Thamar; and remembering his own fault, he said: Thamar is more justified than I. In this there is both a depth of mystery and a moral precept: and therefore it was not reckoned to his fault, because he accused himself before he was accused by others.

78. Against Rejoicing Over Another's Fall

Let us not, therefore, rejoice over anyone's sin, but rather mourn; for it is written: Rejoice not over me, my enemy, because I have fallen: for I shall rise again; because if I sit in darkness, the Lord will lighten me. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; until he justify my cause, and execute judgment for me, and bring me forth to the light, and I shall see his justice: and my enemy shall see, and shall be covered with confusion, she who says to me: Where is the Lord thy God? My eyes shall behold her, and she shall be trodden down as the mire in the street And not without cause, since he who rejoices at another's fall rejoices in the devil's victory. And therefore let us rather grieve when we hear that a man has perished, for whom Christ died, who does not overlook even the straw at harvest.

79. Gathering the Gleanings of the Harvest

And would that this straw in the harvest, that is, the empty chaff of my fruit, he not cast away, but gather, as someone said: Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers straw in the harvest, and gleanings in the vintage! That he may eat at least the firstfruits of his grace in me, even if he does not approve what comes after.

80. Hope for Pardon by Faith, Not Presumption

Therefore it is fitting for us to believe both that penance must be done, and that pardon is to be granted; yet let us hope for pardon as from faith, not as from debt owed; for it is one thing to merit, another to presume. Faith obtains, as it were, from a bond of writing: but presumption is nearer to arrogance than to petitioning. First pay what is owed; that thou mayest deserve to obtain what thou hast hoped for. Pay the good affection of a debtor, that thou make no substitution of debt, but by the reckoning of thy faith discharge the interest of the contracted obligation.

81. Prayer and Tears: A Debtor's True Wealth

He who owes to God has more resources for paying than he who owes to a man. A man demands money for money, which is not always at hand for the debtor: God requires affection, which is in thy power. No one is poor who owes to God, except him who has made himself poor. And if he has nothing to sell, he has what he may pay. Prayer, tears, fastings, are the wealth of a good debtor, and far more abundant than if one should bring money from the price of estates without faith.

82. The Widow's Two Mites and Ananias's Poverty

Finally, Ananias was poor, when, having sold a field, he brought money to the apostles; whence he could not even pay it, but entangled himself. Rich was that widow who cast two mites into the treasury, of whom it is said: This poor widow has cast in more than all. For God seeks not money, but faith.

83. Almsgiving Without Charity Profits Nothing

Nor do I deny that sin can be diminished by liberality shown to the poor; but only if faith commends the expenditure. For what does the giving of one's patrimony profit without the grace of charity?

84. Charity Given for Praise and Show

There are those who seek the outward show of generosity for boasting alone; that they may wish to be seen approved by the crowd for this, that they have kept nothing for themselves: but while they seek the reward of this present age, they do not store up that of the future; and because they have received their reward here, they cannot hope for it there.

85. Recalling Wealth Once Given to the Church

There are those who, having given their wealth to the Church under a tumultuous impulse of mind, not from a lasting judgment, afterward thought it should be recalled: for these neither the first reward is valid, nor the second; for the first had no judgment in it, and the second had sacrilege.

86. Regret Over Alms Already Given

There are those who have repented of having divided their wealth to the poor: but those who do penance ought not to repent of this alone, lest they do penance for their very penance. For very many, conscious of their sins through fear of coming punishment, seek penance, and when they have received it, are drawn back by shame of the public supplication. These seem to have sought to do penance for evils and yet do penance for good deeds.

87. Seeking Swift Restoration to Communion

Some ask for penance for this reason, that they may wish communion to be restored to them at once. These desire not so much to absolve themselves as to bind the priest; for they do not put off their own guilt by their fault, and they clothe the priest with it, to whom it has been commanded: Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine; that is, that the fellowship of holy communion is not to be shared with those unclean in their impurities.

88. Penitents Adorned Instead of Mourning

Thus you may see them walking about in changed clothing, those who ought to mourn and groan; because they have defiled that garment of washing and grace: and women loading their ears with pearls, bending their necks, which they ought rather bend to Christ, not to gold: who ought to weep for themselves, because they have lost the pearl which is from heaven.

89. Abstinence from the Sacraments Mistaken for Penance

There are also those who think this to be penance, if they abstain from the heavenly sacraments. These are harsher judges of themselves, who prescribe a punishment for themselves, and decline the remedy, when they ought rather to grieve at their punishment; because they are being deprived of heavenly grace.

90. Penance as Remedy, Not License to Sin

Others, having proposed for themselves the hope of doing penance later, think that license to sin has been extended to them; whereas penance is a remedy for sin, not an incentive to sin. For medicine is necessary for a wound, not a wound for medicine; because medicine is sought on account of the wound, not the wound desired on account of the medicine. Then, too, weak is that hope which is committed to time; since all time is uncertain, hope is not outlived by every time.

91. The Shame of Confessing to God and Man

Can anyone bear that thou be ashamed to ask God, who art not ashamed to ask a man? And that it should shame thee to supplicate God, from whom thou art not hidden; when it does not shame thee to confess thy sins to a man, from whom thou couldst be hidden? Dost thou shun witnesses and confidants of thy prayer, when, if satisfaction must be made to a man, it is necessary that thou court many, beseech them, that they deign to intervene; that thou prostrate thyself at their knees, kiss their footsteps, offer thy children, still ignorant of thy fault, as petitioners for their father's pardon? Dost thou disdain, then, to do this in the Church, so as to supplicate God, so as to seek for thyself the patronage of the holy people for entreaty; where there is nothing that ought to be shameful, except not to confess, since we are all sinners: where he is more praiseworthy who is more humble; he more just, who is more abject in his own eyes.

92. Tears That Move Christ to Forgiveness

Let mother Church weep for thee, and wash away thy fault with tears, let Christ see thee mourning, that he may say: Blessed are the sorrowful, for you shall rejoice. He loves that many pray for one. Finally, in the Gospel, moved by the tears of the widow, because very many wept for her, he raised her son. Therefore he heard Peter more quickly, that Dorcas might rise again; because the poor groaned over the woman's death. Therefore he forgave Peter himself at once, because he wept most bitterly. And thou, if thou weep most bitterly, Christ will look upon thee, and thy fault will depart. For the exercise of grief banishes the excess of crime, the pleasures of error. Thus while we grieve over what has been committed, we shut out what might be committed, and a certain discipline of innocence arises out of the condemnation of guilt.

93. David's Tears as a Model for Penance

Let nothing, then, call thee back from penance; this is common to thee with the saints: and would that such lamentation as the saints' were also to be imitated. David ate ashes like bread, and mingled his drink with tears; therefore now he rejoices the more, because he wept the more: Streams of water, he says, ran down from mine eyes.

94. John's Weeping Compared to the Woman Clothed in Purple

John wept much, and to him, having wept, the mysteries of Christ were revealed. But that woman, who, being in sins, and who ought to weep, rejoiced instead, and was clothed in purple and scarlet raiment, and adorned herself with much gold and precious stones, now mourns the calamity of eternal weeping.

95. One Public Penance, Like One Baptism

Rightly are they reproved who think penance ought to be done more often; because they live in luxury within Christ. For if they truly did penance, they would not think it should be repeated afterward; for as there is one baptism, so there is one penance, which nevertheless is done publicly; for we ought to repent daily of sin: but this refers to lighter faults, that to graver ones.

96. The True Difficulty of Genuine Penance

But I have found it easier to find those who have kept their innocence than those who have fittingly done penance. Or does anyone think that penance, where there is ambition to acquire rank, where there is the pouring out of wine, where there is the very use of conjugal intercourse? One must renounce the world: one must indulge sleep itself less than nature demands; one must be interrupted by groans, broken by sighs, set apart by prayers: one must live so as to die to this vital habit, that a man deny himself to himself, and be wholly changed: just as, they say, a certain young man, on account of a harlot's love, went abroad, and, his love having faded, returned, and afterward met his old beloved, who, when he did not accost her, wondered, thinking herself unrecognized, and meeting him again said: I am she; and he replied: But I am not I.

97. Denying Self and Dying to the World

Whence the Lord well says: He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For indeed they who are dead and buried in Christ ought not again, as if living, to determine anything of this world. Touch not, he says, neither taste, things which are all to corruption by the very use of them, because the very use of this life is a corruption of integrity.

98. The Value and Necessity of Repentance

Good, then, is repentance, which if it did not exist, all would put off the grace of washing until old age. To whom this answer suffices: that it is better to have something to mend, than not to have something to wear: but just as things once sewn together are made whole again, so things too frequently sewn come apart.

99. Adam, David, and the Captivity of Babylon

But those who put off repentance the Lord Himself has sufficiently admonished, saying: Do penance; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. We do not know, then, at what hour the thief will come; we do not know whether our soul will be demanded of us on the very next night. Adam, after his fault, God at once cast out of paradise; He did not delay: but at once separated him from delights, that he might do penance: at once He clothed him with a tunic of skin, not of silk.

100. For what is it that you put off for? Is it that you may commit more sins? Then, because God is good, are you therefore evil, and do you despise the riches of His goodness and patience? But the goodness of the Lord ought rather to lead you to repentance. Therefore holy David says to all: Come, let us adore, and fall down before Him, and weep before our Lord who made us.

But concerning the sinner who dies without repentance, since nothing else remains but to grieve heavily, but to weep, you have him himself weeping and saying: My son Absalom, my son Absalom. For he who is utterly dead is bewailed without any exception.

101. But concerning those who, exiles and wanderers from their fathers’ boundaries, which the holy law of Moses prescribed, become entangled in worldly errors, you hear him singing: By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, while we remembered Sion. For he introduces the groans of the fallen, that those still set in the very condition of present time and of things passing away ought to come to their senses; namely, by the example of those who, on account of the price of sin, had been led away into the wretchedness of captivity.

102. Now there is nothing that brings such deep sorrow, as for each one placed under the captivity of sin to remember whence he fell, and whence he came down; because he turned aside to corporeal and earthly things from that fair and beautiful intent of divine knowledge.

103. Thus you have Adam hiding himself, when he knew God to be present, and wishing, though sought, to lie hidden, and called by the Lord with that voice which would sting the feeling of the one hiding, that is: Adam, where are you? That is, why do you hide yourself? Why do you lie hidden? Why do you flee Him whom you desired to see? So grave a thing is the guilt of conscience, that without a judge it punishes itself, and desires to veil itself; and yet before God it is naked.

104. And therefore no one set in sin ought to arrogate to himself the authority or usurpation of the sacraments; because it is written: You have sinned, be still.

This is what David says in the present psalm: On the willows, he says, in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments; and below: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? For if the flesh fights against the mind, and is not made subject to the helm of the soul and the rule of the mind, foreign is the land which is not tamed by the exercise of the tiller, and therefore it cannot bring forth the fruits of charity, patience, and peace. It is better, therefore, to be still at such a time, when you cannot exercise the works of repentance; lest in penance itself something happen that will afterward need repentance. Which, if once usurped, and not lawfully celebrated, obtains not the fruit of the first, and takes away the use of the later one.

105. Assuredly, even when the flesh fights back, the mind ought to be intent upon God: and if works do not follow, let not faith desert; and if either the enticements of the flesh or the adversary powers assail, let the mind remain devoted to God. For then especially are we pressed hard, when the flesh yields: and there are those who press vehemently upon the wretched soul, seeking to take away every defense. Whence comes that saying: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

106. Whom David, pitying, calls: O wretched daughter of Babylon. Wretched indeed, because she is the daughter of Babylon, who has ceased to be the daughter of God.

Yet to her he invites the physician, saying: Blessed is he who shall hold, and dash your little ones against the rock, that is, he who dashes weak and slippery thoughts against Christ, who crushes all unreasonable motions by reverence and by discernment toward himself; so that if anyone is carried away by adulterous love, he may shut out the fire and the union with the harlot, and renounce his own zeal, that he may gain Christ.

107. We have learned, then, both that penance must be done, and that it must be done at that time when the wantonness of the fault grows cool: and that we, placed in the captivity of sin, ought to be more reverent, not usurpers. For if to Moses, eager to draw nearer, that he might drink in the knowledge of the heavenly mystery, it is said: Loose the shoe from off your feet; how much more ought we to strip the feet of our soul from bodily bonds, and to release all our steps from the entanglement of this world?