Wherefore I have often admonished you, most beloved brethren, and again and again I admonish and adjure you, that whoever recognises that he has been cast forth from the shore of continence by the storm of lust into the deep sea of dissipation, and has suffered the shipwreck of chastity, should swiftly seize the confession of sins as though it were the plank of a broken ship: so that through it he may escape from the abyss and the depths of dissipation, and reach the harbour of penance; where at length, in a safer place, he may fix the anchor of hope, and may be able to repair his lost salvation. For it is fitting that each one should lament over himself as though over a dead man, and pour out great mourning over his extinguished soul. And just as a mother is wont to bewail with all her heart over her only dead son;
so ought the whole weight of sorrow to be poured out over our one soul that has been slain by the sword of sin: if perchance it may be roused to life by the warming of tears and the heat of faith. Above all, as I have often admonished, let every sinner beware and take heed that he does not give alms for his crimes in such a way that he does not forsake those very crimes, fearing that word which the Apostle spoke: 'If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, but have not charity, it profits me nothing' (1 Cor. 13:3). 2. The almsgiving of the sinner. But someone says: How shall he be judged not to have charity, who bestows so much upon the poor? To him I reply:
How does he keep charity toward others, who slays himself, who acts cruelly against his own soul? For the Holy Spirit does not lie, who says, 'The soul that sins, it shall die' (Ezek. 18:20). For if, as often as we commit adulteries or murders, we kill our own souls, what does it profit us that we are kind to others, while in our own selves we are found to be ungodly? By giving alms we feed another's flesh, and by committing crimes we cut the throat of our own soul. And therefore, as I have often admonished, let us give alms for our greater sins in such a way that we never return to those very crimes. One must not trust in health, nor in age.
He who is uncertain of his own life is always slow to seek the remedy of his salvation. Oh, if only the time of penance were so ordered while it lies within one's power, as it will be longed for when it is lost! 3. Conclusion. Let us, then, to whom it is still granted, even though under an uncertain brevity, to cure our stains, to wash our faults, to make amends for the past, to provide for the future, and to make things undone out of things done, labour with all our strength, that what we live may be added to true life, that what we live may profit not for death but for salvation. Let our groanings be so effective that they search out sins in the very bones, and pursue crimes in the very marrow.
Let weeping leave nothing untouched, let the sorrow of healing penance leave nothing uncured, that may rise up against us on the day of scrutiny, that after the old ages may suddenly appear as a new charge of an evil conscience of the mind. Let us hasten to offer to the Lord an amended life before it is taken away. Here let us extinguish death by dying to sins; here let us gain the gift of life for life, and let us not reserve ourselves for the remedies of penance in the time of old age. For he who said, 'The sinner, on whatever day he is converted and groans, all his iniquities shall be delivered to oblivion' (Ezek. 18:21-22), the same also said, 'Delay not to be converted to the Lord' (Sir. 5:8). If that promise made you secure;
let this warning make you anxious: and hear the Scripture saying, 'Remember, my son, that death does not tarry' (Sir. 14:12); and that other word, 'Say not: The mercy of God is great, He will have pity on the multitude of my sins. For mercy and wrath are with Him, and His anger looks upon sinners' — that is, upon those who persevere in sins (Sir. 5:6-7). For if we heed these things faithfully and diligently, and flee to the medicines of penance without any delay, we can both escape perpetual punishment, and happily attain to the eternal rewards; with the help of our Lord, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 261. An admonition concerning those who ask for public penance. 1.
Why public penance is sought. The garment of the penitent. Supplication. As often, most beloved brethren, as we see any of our brothers or sisters seeking public penance, we can and ought, by God's inspiration, to kindle within ourselves a great compunction of divine fear. For who would not congratulate and rejoice, and give as many thanks as he can to God, seeing a sinner angry against his own sins, crying out with public voice; so that what he was wont to defend with a most shameless face, he begins wholesomely to accuse? For now he has begun to join himself to God; and therefore he no longer wishes to be the defender, but the persecutor of his own sins. And because God holds sins in hatred;
immediately, as soon as any careless person begins to hate his own sins, he is both separated from his crimes and joined to God. And indeed he who has publicly received penance could have done it more secretly; but, I believe, considering the multitude of his sins, he sees that he alone cannot suffice against such grave evils; therefore he desires to seek the help of the whole people. Just as it is wont to happen that when someone's vineyard has been left deserted through neglect, he asks his neighbours and those near him; and gathering a multitude of men on one day, what he could not do by himself alone, aided by many hands he repairs what had been laid waste: so, therefore, he too who wishes publicly to seek penance is recognised to gather, as it were, a collected aid:
so that, aided by the prayers of the whole people, he may be able to pluck out the thorns and briars of his sins: so that in it a harvest of good things may, with God's help, be able to rise up; and the vineyard of his heart, which was accustomed to yield not grapes but thorns, may begin to display the sweetness of spiritual wine. And this too, most beloved brethren, is not idly to be considered, that he who receives penance is covered with sackcloth. And because sackcloth is woven from the hairs of goats, and goats are seen to bear the likeness of sinners; he also who receives penance publicly professes himself not a lamb but a kid, crying out and saying by the very things themselves: See me, all you peoples, and for me, wretched one, pour out all the tears of piety;
and acknowledge that such as I am outwardly, such am I within. For now I no longer wish to display myself outwardly as though righteous, and to hide iniquities or robberies within my soul. Now, like that publican, bowed down to the earth, I do not dare to lift my eyes to heaven (Luke 18:13); but I humbly offer the wounds of my sins to be cured by that heavenly Physician. And therefore I ask that you all supplicate His mercy for me; that He may deign to cure the festering sores of my sins to the very quick, and to call them back to true health. For I fear lest there be fulfilled in me that which the Lord said concerning hypocrites: 'They come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves' (Matt. 7:15):
and therefore, as I have already said, such as I know myself to be within, such do I show myself without. And because up to now I adorned myself outwardly with precious garments, while within, in my soul, I was steeped in the leprosy of sins; therefore, clothed in sackcloth and seeking penance with my whole heart, I ask that by your prayers I may be worthy to be freed from the paralysis of my sins. Wherefore again and again I entreat, that since, by God's inspiration in you, you know how to weep with those who weep, your piety may be stirred to weeping and groaning for the remission of my sins: for I believe that before that most merciful Judge your holy prayers can obtain pardon for me. 2. That it is inhuman not to be moved by this prayer. Nor does God despise the Church's prayers for a penitent.
Truly I say, most beloved brethren, that if there is anyone who does not have compassion on one thus seeking penance, nor strives with his whole heart to supplicate God, he is to be judged too inhuman and impious. And because the Lord said, 'All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise; for this is the Law and the Prophets' (Matt. 7:12): let us too hasten to render to others with our whole heart and whole mind that which we wish to be done to us by others, when we resolve to seek public penance. For what did we wish, when we deserved to come to the remedy of penance, except that all the people should intently entreat the divine mercy for us?
What, then, we desire to be done to us by others, this we ought also to render to others with perfect charity; because of that which is written: 'Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved' (James 5:16); and that other word: 'A brother that helps his brother shall be exalted' (Prov. 18:19). If, then, we are willing to do these things faithfully with perfect charity, we can and ought most certainly to believe that the ineffable mercy of the Lord will deign to hear us. And because He Himself said, 'If two or three shall consent upon earth, whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done for them' (Matt. 18:19);
can it be that the gracious and merciful Lord, who promises to hear two or three, should not hear a whole people interceding for the pardon of one penitent? Far be it from us to think this lightly of His ineffable mercy. For with our whole heart we ought to believe that He hears us when we supplicate with kindly and devout spirit for our penitent brethren — He who invites us to ask Him; as He Himself said in the Gospel, 'Ask, and you shall receive' (John 16:24). And attend to this, brethren, that he who asks for penance supplicates to be excommunicated.
Finally, when he has received penance, being covered with sackcloth, he is cast forth outside. For he asks to be excommunicated because he judges himself unworthy to receive the Eucharist of the Lord. And for this reason he wishes for a time to be made a stranger to this altar, so that he may be worthy to attain with a secure conscience to that altar which is in heaven. Therefore he wishes with great reverence to be removed from the communion of the body and blood of Christ, as one guilty and impious, so that through that very humility he may at length some day be worthy to approach the communion of the most holy altar. 5. Yet the penitent should not therefore be idle from good works. Wine and meat are forbidden him.
And yet, most beloved brethren, this very man who so faithfully seeks penance with a compunct and contrite heart ought so to be secure of the intercession of the whole people, that, exercising himself with all his strength in good works, he may with God's help be solicitous for his own salvation: lest perhaps he say in his heart, 'Behold, the whole people has supplicated for my iniquities; now therefore I both can and ought to be secure.' Far be it that he who does penance should have this even in thought, not to say in speech: but with God's help, as much as he can, let him so trust in the prayer of others that he strives to exercise himself, whether in fastings, or in almsgivings, or in prayers, in humility and charity, or in holy work;
also by visiting the sick, by recalling the discordant to concord, by receiving pilgrims, by humbly washing the feet of the saints who journey, by abstaining from detraction or evil-speaking. Let him not take wine, if his infirmity permits: but if he cannot do this on account of old age or on account of a pain of the stomach, let him hear the Apostle saying, 'Use a little wine for your stomach's sake' (1 Tim. 5:23). For there are some penitents who wish to be reconciled quickly for this reason, that they may take meat. It is certain that he does not receive penance with sufficient compunction, who, with no infirmity compelling, either desires or presumes to take meat.
And therefore even the reconciled penitent, wherever, whether at his own or another's banquet, he is able to find vegetables or pulse or small fish, ought not to take other meat. I say this for the reason that — what is worse — there are some penitents who both take meat with great greediness, and sometimes drink wine even to drunkenness. For our poor little body must be sustained with great caution, lest through drunkenness and gluttony it again entice us to commit such sins, so that what we seemed to have done as penance profits little or nothing.
So, then, with God's help let us labour with all our strength, that whatever of the wounds of our sins is, by God's mercy, brought back to health, may not again through negligence be wounded. May He deign to grant this, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 262. On Penance. 1. The effect of penance. It should be measured to the offences. Crimes liable to public penance. The rationale of public penance. In a certain place the divine word says: 'On the days of your solemnities afflict your souls' (Lev. 16:29). Why did He say this? Because fastings and vigils and holy afflictions waste the humbled bodies, but purify the stained hearts;
they subtract strength from the limbs, but add brightness to the consciences. Nonetheless, by the contrition of the soul the crimes of pleasures are redeemed, and by the exercises of the hard cross the joys of the flesh that once deceived us are punished: and thus by present mortification the sentence of future death is forestalled; and while the author of the fault is humbled, the fault is consumed, and while the outward affliction of voluntary strictness is inflicted, the offence of the dread Judge is appeased; and a small labour discharges huge debts, which the eternal fire could scarcely have consumed. Treating, then, the cause of our salvation, let us do within us what physicians are wont to do about us.
If some hurt or complaint is felt in the outer skin of the body, the treatment of a gentler medicine is applied: but if the wound is hidden in the bones, or sunk deep in the vitals, the hidden malady demands a harsher and more violent medicine. A similar reasoning must be applied in the sickness of the inner man. If perhaps the faults are light — for example, if a man has sinned either in speech, or in some reprehensible desire, or with the eye or the heart — the stains of words and thoughts are to be cured by daily prayer, and to be wiped away by private compunction.
But if anyone, interrogating his own conscience, has committed some capital crime — as if he has attacked and betrayed his faith by false testimony, or violated the sacred name of Truth by the rashness of perjury; if he has stained the true tunic of baptism, and the beautiful silken robe of virginity, with the mire of defiled chastity; if he has slain in himself the new man by the killing of a man; if through augurs and diviners and enchanters he has handed himself over captive to the devil: these and suchlike offences cannot be wholly expiated by common and moderate or secret satisfaction; but grave causes require graver and sharper and public remedies:
so that he who has ruined himself with the destruction of very many, may in like manner redeem himself with the edification of very many. For a man deceives himself, if, when he feels the disease burning within him in the marrow, he draws a soft ointment over the surface of the body. 2. Tears are to be added on account of the intent of one's only soul. Why the soul is 'only.' Nor let works of mercy be lacking. These chief evils, therefore, need a mighty roaring and groaning and a fountain of tears: and through tears one must cry out with the prophet, 'I roared with the groaning of my heart' (Ps. 37:9); and, 'Every night I will wash my bed' (Ps. 6:7); and again, 'For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping' (Ps. 101:10).
Let no one despise this humility; it was the greatest king who did and said these things. It is fitting, therefore, just as there is loud lamentation over a dead man, so to make great mourning over an extinguished soul. And just as a bereaved mother is wont to bewail with broken heart over the loss of her only child: so it befits one to be afflicted over one's own only soul, but with the hope of restoration. Concerning which 'only one' the prophetic word says, 'Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword; and my only one from the hand of the dog' (Ps. 21:21). Why did he say 'my only one'? Either because it is to be loved as an only one, or because it alone and single, before the heavenly tribunal, with all consolations removed, is to render its account.
So, I say, it is necessary to pour out the whole weight of sorrow over this only soul, pierced through by the sword of crimes; if perchance, quickened by the fountains of tears, it may be roused to life by the heat of faith. Compunction is to be kindled, prayers are to be strengthened by the remembrance of the future judgment, and to be aided by works of mercy. The sentence of the prophet is to be heard, but heard with the ear of obedience, when he says, 'Take, O king, my counsel, and redeem your sins with alms' (Dan. 4:24). The example too of that man in the Gospel is to be heard, as though truly written for our redemption: 'Behold, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor' (Luke 19:8):
concerning whom we have heard the Lord in the Gospel saying, with ineffable condescension and charity, 'What you have done to one of the least of these, you have done to Me' (Matt. 25:40); which words commend to us with heavenly authority the effect of almsgiving. 3. And even the poor can accomplish these things. Why God permitted the poor. But perhaps, when we speak of almsgiving, narrow poverty takes fright. It is not so, beloved. Let it rather remember that the tiny altar was preferred to the treasures of the rich: because our God is fed not only by the abundance of the giving, but by the goodwill of the giver. And I think, beloved, that our God so permitted the poor to be in this world, that in the poor He might test the faith of the rich;
or that in mercy toward the poor He might show mercy to the rich: so that to those who abound the occasion of good work and of their redemption might not be lacking, that another's want might enrich the benevolent wealthy man, and that each more opulent one might receive vast gains from the needy; and by a wondrous and supreme commerce, while temporary mercy is bestowed upon the needy by generosity, thence an eternal treasure might be repaid. Let us, then, direct our acts, and whatever we can, and whatever we are able, let us confer upon the exercises of good will, upon the pursuits of justice and mercy. 4. After this life there is no place for works of mercy. The merits of the blessed are their garments. A poor man can enrich another for himself.
Let us run while we have the light of life, before the darkness overtakes us (John 12:35): because already in that age it will not be permitted to provide for amendment and redemption, as the divine word says, 'For in death there is no one who is mindful of You' (Ps. 6:6). Therefore, just as there no loss of merits will be feared; so there no remission of sins will be granted; there no license of exercising good work will be conceded. Shall anyone be able there to feed the hungry, where there will be no necessity of eating, where neither the impious amid the flames of hell, nor the pious amid the delights of paradise, will lack food and drink?
Shall it there come to pass that one clothes the cold, where the care of covering the body will altogether cease, where under that cold, of which the prophet says, 'Before the face of His cold, who shall stand?' (Ps. 147:17) — where he will be forever naked who here has lost the wedding garment; where the evil man will be clothed with the darkness of a stained conscience, but the good with the mantle of immortality and blessedness; where merits will be garments: as the Lord says, 'The just shall shine as the sun' (Wisd. 3:7); and the prophet, 'Let your priests be clothed with justice' (Ps. 131:9); or that other, 'The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing' (Ps. 44:10)?
Where, therefore, in place of a tunic for the bodies of the saints eternal light will shine, there it will be turned into a covering for the body, never to be put off through any ages; there the garment will pass over into a reward; there that angelic robe will no longer be a cloak, no longer a habit, but a nature. Shall the avaricious or the tight-fisted man be able there to do good to another out of his abundance, where his will shall not find even one drop for himself in the midst of the burning pool? For he will carry nothing away with him of those things which he believed he possessed as his own, as the prophet said: 'For when he dies he shall take nothing away, nor shall his glory descend together with him' (Ps. 48:18); and he shall hear amid unwearied torments, 'I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat;'
I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink' (Matt. 25:42). Let us understand what condemnation it will be to have despoiled the poor man, whom it is a most grievous crime not to have fed. To him, therefore, who now oppresses the slender and needy man without any consideration of the future judgment; to him, I say, as a certain writer said, there shall come a great time, when he will wish that the poor man had been left untouched by him and not despoiled, and he will hate that day. Intolerable will be the sorrow, if anyone should incur the causes of death from that whence he might have procured the joys of life. Do not, then, despise the needy man, who, though he be poor to himself, can make you rich. Let us seize, therefore, with fervent devotion, what we can out of the present age. Swiftly our days pass away;
would that they pass away well. Let us, then, seize what we can out of this world, giving thanks to Him who has so dispensed both lives, that the times of labours and struggles should quickly be ended; but the joys of honours and rewards should endure without end. SERMON 263. An admonition to those who think that it suffices them for eternal life if they have done no evil, even though they have refused to fulfil the good. 1. To abstain from evil does not suffice. There are many, most beloved brethren, who think that this alone suffices them for eternal life, if they have not done evil works. And therefore, if perhaps there are any who deceive themselves with this false security;
let them know most definitely that it suffices no Christian if he has only not done evil, unless, as far as he has been able, he has also fulfilled those things which are good: because He who said, 'Turn away from evil,' the same said, 'And do good' (Ps. 36:27). For He Himself in the Gospel terribly admonishes us, saying, 'Every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire' (Matt. 3:10). He did not say, that bears evil fruit; but, that does not bear good fruit. Hence you can recognise what hope he can have who has done evil, when he who has not done good is cut down and cast into the fire. Whence also the Lord Himself says, 'He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me' (John 14:21);
and that word, 'Why do you say to Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?' (Matt. 7:21 / Luke 6:46). 2. Whether he will be secure in the judgment who has not taken what belongs to another. But someone says: Even though I have not given of my own goods, yet I have not taken away the goods of others; I shall be able to be secure in the day of judgment. Attend diligently, and do not deceive yourselves with false security. For what is it that the Lord says? 'When the Son of Man comes in His glory, all the nations shall be gathered before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Then shall He say to those who shall be at His right hand: Come, blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink.'
But to those on the left He shall say: 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire; for I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink' (Matt. 25:31, 42). Attend diligently to what He said. For He did not say, Come, blessed, possess the kingdom, because you did not take the goods of others; but, because you distributed alms of your own goods. Just as, to those set on the left, He is not going to say, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, because you committed fraud; but, Because you did not give of your substance to the poor. I beg you, brethren, diligently attend to this sentence; and as I have admonished you, retain it also in memory.
If he is cast into the fire who did not give his substance to the poor, where, do you suppose, will he be cast who by whatever frauds has seized the goods of others? If he is cast into the fire who did not clothe the naked, do you see where he will be cast who despoiled the clothed? Therefore he who believes that it suffices him not to have done evil, even though he has not done good, I would that he should tell me, whether he wishes this from his own servant which he himself does to his Lord. For does he wish that his servant should neither do him good at all nor evil? For we all wish this, that our servants should not only not do the evils which we forbid, but should also fulfil the works which we command them.
For although your servant is gravely guilty if he has taken away your animals by theft, yet neither will he be without fault who was willing negligently to guard those animals. It is not just that we should do to our Lord what we are unwilling to have done by our servant. For we neither made our servants, nor do we feed them as it were out of our own substance; for our God both created and feeds both us and them: and yet we wish that servants, whom we ourselves did not make, should serve us with great diligence. Whence it is just that we acknowledge our lawful Lord, we who thus exercise dominion over our subjects. All this, brethren, we have said for this reason, that from our very servants we may recognise that it does not suffice us not to do evil, if we are unwilling to fulfil good. 3.