約伯倫理 第 1460 章 第 2/2 段

But since John urges us to great works, saying: Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance (Matt. 3:8; Luke 3:8), and again: He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner (Luke 3:11); it is now plainly given us to understand what it is that the Truth says: From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away (Matt. 11:12). These latter words of the sentence must be searched out by us with great care. For it must be asked how the kingdom of heaven can suffer violence. For who inflicts violence upon heaven? And again it must be asked, if the kingdom of heaven can suffer violence, why has it endured that same violence from the days of John the Baptist, and not also before?

But since the Law says: If anyone shall have done this or that, let him die the death, it is clear to all who read that it struck each sinner with the penalty of its severity, but did not lead him back to life through penance. But when John the Baptist, going before the grace of the Redeemer, preaches penance, that the sinner who is dead through fault may live through conversion, assuredly from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And what is the kingdom of heaven but the abode of the just? For the rewards of the heavenly homeland are owed to the just alone, that the humble, the chaste, the meek, and the merciful may come to the joys on high.

But when someone, whether swollen with pride, or defiled by the crime of the flesh, or inflamed with anger, or made impious by cruelty, after his faults returns to penance and receives eternal life, he enters as it were into a place belonging to another, being a sinner. Therefore from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away; for he who enjoined penance upon sinners — what else did he teach but that violence should be done to the kingdom of heaven? Let us then reflect, dearest brethren, on the evils we have committed, and let us wear ourselves down with ceaseless lamentations. Let us seize by penance the inheritance of the just which we have not held through our life. Almighty God wills to suffer such violence from us.

For he wills the kingdom of heaven to be seized by our weeping, which is not owed to our merits. Therefore let no quality of our evils, no magnitude of them, break us away from the certainty of hope. That venerable thief affords a great confidence of pardon — who was venerable not from that whence he was a thief; for he was a thief by cruelty, venerable by confession. Consider therefore, consider how incomprehensible are the bowels of mercy in almighty God. That thief, dragged with bloodstained hands from the jaws of the highway, was hung upon the gibbet of the cross; there he confessed, there he was healed, there he was found worthy to hear: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). What is this? Who can suffice to declare, who to estimate, so great a goodness of God?

From the very punishment of his crime he came to the rewards of virtue. For this reason indeed almighty God permitted his elect to fall in certain lapses, that to others lying in fault, if they rise up to him with their whole heart, he might restore the hope of pardon, and open to them through the lamentations of penance a way of loving-kindness. Let us therefore exercise ourselves in lamentations; let us extinguish with tears and with worthy fruits of penance the faults we have committed. Let not the seasons granted us for pardon perish; for we who now behold many already healed of their iniquities — what else do we hold but a pledge of the mercy on high?