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ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
Yet not inaptly can we also understand, in this diversity of hours, the ages of each individual man: so that the morning be man's time until infancy ends; then let the close of boyhood complete the third hour; the end of adolescence accomplish the sixth; the completion of youth perfect the ninth; the course of maturity accomplish the eleventh; and thereafter old age, tending toward its term, mark the sunset of the whole day. In whatever age of this present life, therefore, every unrighteous or impious man shall have been converted to God with his whole heart, at once he shall receive remission of all his past sins.
But whoever can find in the Gospel, or can teach, that after the end of the day any labourer was called to the vineyard, let him rightly hope and most surely preach to any wicked man who has not been converted in the present age, that the faculty of good work or the grace of remission is to be granted in the time of the age to come. Likewise, whoever shall show that to anyone not called before the end of the day to the working of the Lord's vineyard the penny was given at the Lord's command, let him rightly and fittingly hope that to any man not converted before the end of the present life the kingdom of heaven is to be conferred by the Lord's bounty. But if the reward of the penny received only those very men whom the pious labour of the day's work exercised in the vineyard, then after the end of the day;
we too, if we wish to attain to the penny of eternal life, let us labour in the Lord's vineyard in the present time; nor let us despise the command of Him who calls, if we do not wish to be excluded from the bounty of Him who rewards. For he who does not labour in the vineyard before the end of the day, when the day is ended will not be able to receive the penny: because then will not be the time when each one is mercifully called to the working of the vineyard, but the time when the reward is rendered for past labour. There, then, will be no pious calling, but just repayment. That penny will neither be given to the idle, nor to him who labours outside the vineyard. Now the Catholic who is unwilling to work well is idle: because faith without works is idle and dead in itself (James II, 17).
But he labours outside the vineyard who, being established in any heresy, does indeed pursue a zeal for good works, yet by believing wrongly for himself denies himself the effect of salvation. For the blessed Apostle Paul says that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. XIV, 23); and: Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. XI, 6). Each of the two, therefore, deprives himself of the penny; each makes himself a stranger to the fellowship of the labourers: the one indeed because, being placed within the Lord's vineyard, he was unwilling to be attentive to the zeal of labour; the other because he laboured outside at what, before the end of the day, he ought to have laboured at within the Lord's vineyard. And through this the former, because he did not labour at that whereby he might be saved;
the latter, however, because he did not labour there where he might receive the gift of salvation: and therefore, when the day is ended, neither is the former permitted to enter the vineyard, and from the latter the faculty of good work is taken away; because the wicked Catholic indeed had not the wedding garment at the Lord's banquet (which Paul intimates as to be dreaded by the faithful, saying: If so be that being clothed, we be not found naked (2 Cor. V, 3)); while the heretic scorned to come to that same banquet at the acceptable time. And therefore the former shall be cast out, and to the latter the faculty of entering shall not be given. Now, therefore, is the time that the chaff be changed into wheat; now the time that every wicked man hasten to become wheat out of tares, if he does not wish to be burned in the eternity of the inextinguishable fire.
For if anyone, rejecting the grace of the present time, in which the Lord deigned to come not to judge but to save sinners, believes that he must remain in his iniquities, he will find no mercy in the judgment to come: because neither in the time of winnowing will that winnower permit the chaff to be mingled with the grain, nor in the time of rendering account will the divine severity grant power over the talent to the slothful, useless servant; but as the inextinguishable fire will then consume the chaff, so eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth shall receive the wicked and slothful servant destined for the outer darkness.
For what else is it that that servant is commanded to be bound hand and foot, unless that in the hands the guilt of evil work, and in the feet the disposition of evil will, may be shown as to be punished? Holy Isaiah recognized the opportunity of this time, being divinely instructed, who does not cease to exhort us to conversion in these words: Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him be converted to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He is bountiful to forgive (Isa. LV, 6, 7). Now therefore the Lord is to be sought, while He can be found by those who seek. Now He is to be called upon, while He is near to him who calls.
Now the way of impiety, now the thought of iniquity is to be forsaken. Now is the conversion of the sinner necessary, whereby he can, by the benefit of divine remission, be freed from the guilt of all sin. Otherwise he shall not see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. XXVI, 13), if in this land of the dying he has not received the remission of sins. For the Saviour and judge of men Himself ordained this beforehand, that to those to whom He remits sins, He should remit them in this land. Wherefore to the unbelieving Jews He says: But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (Matth. IX, 6). This He said, not because He could not, if He willed, release the sins of this time for men passing out of this land:
but that men might recognize that the time of remission and of retribution has been immutably distinguished by the divine ordinance, and that human vanity should not vainly hope to hear what the divine truth would not promise. Hence it is that also to blessed Peter, that is, to His Church, He granted the power of binding and loosing on earth: that we might recognize that in the time of this life mercy is bestowed gratuitously in the remission of sins, while in the time to come a just reward is to be rendered to all according to the quality of their deeds; and that we might not doubt that now all sins can be remitted, and that now whatever sins have not been remitted shall then be exacted.
This too the blessed David recognized by the revelation of the Holy Spirit—to whom, as he himself testifies, the Lord had made manifest the uncertain and hidden things of His wisdom (Ps. L, 8)—before he should depart out of this world, he asks for the remission of sins, saying: Forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go hence and be no more (Ps. XXXVIII, 14). Surely the blessed prophet would not so anxiously ask that remission of sins be bestowed on him before the end of the present life, if he knew that after this life either repentance would profit anyone, or that the remission of sins would then be granted by the divine gift to those doing penance.
Indeed, after this life, although there will be repentance of the wicked, yet to them the remission of sins will not be given, but that very repentance will breed increases of punishment. For it will avail toward the heaping-up of eternal torment; where the hardness of the perverse heart, which before the end of the present life shall not have been abolished by wholesome confession, shall be gravely burned without end by the avenging flames, and be more grievously punished by its own repentance. For what is worse than thus to be worn down by perpetual repentance over the past, so that the penitent can never be freed from the torment of the crime he has committed?
For this will not be considered in a man who ends the present life in his evil works: namely, that because his evil works will seem to have ended, his torments should at some time also end; but there will be regarded in him the perversity of the wicked will, which the wicked man loves and holds even to the end of the present life, although he loses unwillingly the very life which he lives most wickedly. For he who does not care to change his evil will before the end of the present life, doubtless shows that he so loves his iniquities that, if he could live here without end, he would wish to remain in his iniquities without end. Therefore no wicked man shall be spared for this reason, that he can no longer fulfil the evil desires of his will;
but he shall be tormented without end for this reason, that as long as he could sin here, he did not cease from sinning. And on this account no end of punishment shall be given to the wicked, because before he ended the course of this life, he set no end to his crimes. For although whoever here was unwilling to be converted while he lived could not prolong his evil life as long as he wished, yet the same life, if he willed, he could have changed for the better, before he ended his evil life unwillingly, destined to abide without end in the evils of Gehenna. Therefore, that those who end the present life in evil manners and works should be tormented in this eternal burning, pertains to the justice of the just Judge who renders to each one according to his works.
Whose repayment is certainly not unjust, whereby it comes to pass that the wicked never lack punishment, whose will in this life was unwilling to lack sin. For such men delight more to sin than to live; nor do they sin in order that they may always live, but for this reason they desire always to live here, that they may never cease to sin while they live. But no one ends the present life secure, unless before he finishes life he departs from iniquity; lest he then vainly wish to bewail his crimes, when he can in no way avoid the torments. Not vainly, therefore, is repentance enjoined upon all in the present age, nor is conversion preached in vain in this life.
For here repentance finds the fruit of remission, if the sinner, while he lives here, lays aside the disposition of sinning. For the merciful and just Lord assigned the time of the present age solely to the benefit of remission; but He keeps the future for just retribution, wherein each one may receive what is worthy according to the quality of his belief and work, but not to be ended. Therefore now let every wicked man placed within the Church reject evil conversation, and hasten to seize the course of a good life, that he may be able to attain to eternal life. Now let every impious man lay aside the depraved opinion of faith, and not delay to come to the Church.
Now let every man procure for himself the merit of the right hand, if he does not wish to endure the torment of the left hand. Now let him walk the way of justice, that he may come to the fatherland in which he may have everlasting rest. Now let everyone who provokes God by evil works pass over to a good life, through which the propitious God is obtained, that he may receive eternal life, which God bestows on the good without end. Let no one despair of the mercy of God, considering the atrocity of any crime; yet let no one remain in sins under the hope of God's mercy, but with the confidence of one who hopes let him so seek without doubt the harbour of repentance, that the humility of the penitent may flee the deadly shipwreck of despair.
And let him so love the mercy of God, that he consider His justice with fear. Let him hope that all can be relaxed for himself if converted, yet let him think that nothing is to be remitted to one who is hardened. In this time let the wicked man change his life, and he will not find punishment. Let him flee guilt, and he will receive pardon. For in this time the benefit of remission is acquired, when the change of will is accompanied also by a change of merit. Now let everyone who labours and is burdened come to God who calls, to be refreshed; now let him take upon himself the gentle yoke and light burden of the Saviour; now let him learn from Him that He is meek and humble of heart, if he desires to find rest for his soul; now let him who is turned away run to conversion;
now let the wicked man depart from iniquity, now let the one who errs return to the way of truth. Now let him seek the mercy of the Lord who does not wish to suffer misery without end. Now let him seek eternal life who does not wish to die for ever. Now let him who does not wish to be condemned to everlasting punishment forestall the face of God in confession. For now repentance is fruitfully performed, now the remission of sins is granted to the penitent; now to the one converted the possession of the kingdom of heaven is not denied, in which one lives without end and rejoices without end: where neither does death take away life from those rejoicing, nor can grief take away joy from the living. For in whatever faith and work the end of this life shall have found each man, such retribution shall be given him, of which there shall be no end.
For just as everyone who shall not have been converted before the end of the present life, and shall have ended in his evils, will no longer have rest: so everyone who in this time, being obedient to the divine precepts, shall have been converted from his evils, if he shall have persevered in right faith and a good life within the Catholic Church unto the end, this one shall be saved. Amen.