now let us follow Christ as our leader unto humility. 2. The astrologers refer sin to the stars; the Manichaeans to the race of darkness; many to the devil. That serpent tells man, through the astrologers and the Manichaeans, not to confess his sin. Through the astrologers he speaks thus: 'Does man really sin? The stars are so positioned; it is necessary that man commit sin.' Therefore he says, through the astrologers, that the star brings it about that man sins; for man himself does not sin. Thus he turns his blasphemies against God. For God is the Creator of the stars; and while man is unwilling to accuse himself in what he has done, he accuses God, by whom man was made. Likewise through certain Manichaeans he suggests thus: 'It is not you who sin; the race of darkness sins; you have no sin.'
He says these things to the soul, and lifts it up into pride, so that it thinks it does not sin. This is not to take away sin, but to double it. Likewise many flee from the confession of sin in such a way that they accuse Satan himself, and say that they have done no evil. And when some are chastised, and it is said to them, 'Why did you do this?' they answer, 'Because the devil did it.' For there is nothing from which the devil rejoices more than when a man says that the devil himself brought it about that he sinned. For when he says, 'The devil did this,' he does not accuse himself; and while he refuses to confess his sins, he does not deserve to receive pardon. He answers therefore and says, 'The devil did this,' as though the devil had really dragged him, or done him violence. For the devil can persuade and solicit;
he cannot compel at all. 4. The devil persuades, he does not compel to sin. It is free to man to consent. And therefore, since by the help of God it is in your power whether you consent to the devil, why do you resolve to obey him rather than God? For if the devil alone gave counsel and God were silent, you would have something you could plead in excuse. But since Christ and your own conscience contradict you, and through the divine Scriptures you hear in the church what you ought not to do—why do you choose death and forsake life, and prefer to follow the devil unto lust, rather than to obey Christ who invites you to eternal life?
I ask you therefore, dearest brethren, why does Satan seduce unto sinning, when God has placed it in man's power not to consent to Satan? For there is, as it were, on the right hand God commanding, on the left hand Satan seducing, and man set in the middle. Why does he incline his heart toward the devil? Why does he not rather lift it up toward God? For the devil harms not by compelling, but by persuading; nor does he extort consent from us, but asks for it. Let us not help the devil, and we conquer. He indeed gives counsel; but, with God's help, it is ours either to choose or to reject what he suggests. 5. Excuses in sins. They do not take away sins, but their medicine. Attend to yet another thing.
When a man says that he was seduced by Satan, when he says that he was seduced, he confesses in part; yet nevertheless he denies that he did it, and says, 'I did nothing; the devil did it.' He tried to cast forth that saying of Adam: for Adam wished to excuse himself by the woman; the woman wished to excuse herself by the serpent. But the Lord God, who gave free will to man, and had strengthened him by His precept against the serpent's venom, did not listen to these excuses; because the woman had also been given for this reason, that she might be taught by the man, not that she might teach the man;
and thus the will of both had been so constituted, free will had been so fashioned, that if he were unwilling to consent to the serpent, the serpent would depart confounded in its own falsehood, and man would remain established in the Lord his Creator. These are the very evil words which we have mentioned: because now too the serpent wishes to persuade to the excuses of sins. Then he brought about what you should accuse; but now he wishes to bring about what you should excuse. God was ready to grant pardon to the one confessing, as into an open bosom; you make excuses—you close the bosom, you shut in the sin, you shut out the pardon of sin. Behold what you have done: not that the sin should be taken away, as I said just now, but that the medicine of sin should be barred. God was going to heal you through pardon, if you would confess;
you seek someone to excuse you by; but He does not seek someone to punish in your stead. 6. Confession is the beginning of health. Say therefore with a devout heart what I said a little before: 'I said, O Lord, have mercy on me.' Why did he add, 'I said'? On account of the Manichaeans, who say, 'It is not you who sin.' Cry out, 'I said, O Lord, have mercy on me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee' (Psalm XL, 5). God heals you; only confess your wound. You lie under the hands of the physician; patiently implore His aid. He soothes, He burns, He cuts; bear it with even mind; only heed nothing except that you may be healed. But you will be healed if you show yourself to the physician: not because He does not see, if you hide yourself; but confession itself is the beginning of health.
7. The severity of the one who corrects is gentle.—'The just man shall correct me in mercy, and reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head' (Psalm CXL, 5). What does this mean? It is better for me that, when the just man sees my sin, he correct me, not spare me, say that I have sinned, rage against my sin, that he may free me from sin. He seems to cry out harshly; but within he is gentle in mercy. Therefore he said, 'The just man shall correct me in mercy, and reprove me.' When therefore he reproves, and when he cries out, and when the just man rages, he is showing mercy; and all that is of a father's mercy, not of an enemy's savagery. But the more He is unwilling for you to die under sin, the more He loves, because He cuts.
For He does not wish that your remaining members waste away through the rottenness of sin. He brings forth the iron: but do not fear, do not grow pale; He is a physician. The iron is not borne against you, but against your wound. Therefore he says thus: 'The just man shall correct me in mercy, and reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.' 8. The flatterer's blandishment is the oil of the sinner. But what is the oil of the sinner, except the blandishment of a flatterer? If someone vehemently rebukes another, he seems to rage against his sin; and freely tells him the evils he has committed; and that other, if perhaps he imitates his rebuker, is angry together with him at his own sin. Wherefore it is said, 'Be angry, and sin not;
the things you say in your hearts, be pierced with compunction upon your beds' (Psalm IV, 5). Therefore let that man speak true things: perhaps he is corrected. But let another come to him, and flatter him, and say, 'Nay, you did commendably'—since 'the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does iniquity is blessed' (Psalm X, 3, according to the Hebrew); he melts away, he is called happy. He is a miser; and it is said of him that he keeps his own property. He avenges himself on an enemy, though it was said, 'Forgive, that it may be forgiven you' (Luke VI, 37); and he is called brave. Consider the rest in this way, how flatterers—that is, adulators—have deceitful words, have gestures of praise: that is the anointing of the sinner.
But let us hear the prophet saying, 'O my people, they that call you happy, the same lead you into error, and disturb the paths of your feet' (Isaiah III, 12). Therefore if someone's sin is freely spoken of by one man, and stroked over by another; if some third person should see it and be asked what was done, does he not usually answer thus: 'That man told him the truth, and did not flatter him'? What of that other? What did he do? 'He anointed his head, and departed.' But we, brethren, if we are truly spiritual physicians, and think more attentively about the remedy of your souls, ought not to stroke over anyone, neither ourselves nor you. Let us confess our sins, let us not excuse them: you did it, you are guilty; do you confess, and it is pardoned you. But if you say,
'It was not I who did it'—wherever you wish to excuse yourself with words, your sin remains in you, you are guilty of the sin: and not only of that sin which you committed, but also of this pride, because you were unwilling to confess. From which sin may the Lord deign to free us: who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 254. On the confession of sins, and on Penance. 1. The necessity of confession. How useful it is, and to whom. Holy Scripture often exhorts us to flee to the medicines of confession, not because God has need of our confession—to whom all things are present that we think, speak, or do—
but because we cannot otherwise be saved, unless we, doing penance, confess what we, being negligent, wickedly committed. Whoever accuses himself in his sins, him the devil cannot accuse again on the day of judgment: provided, however, that confessing he wash away by doing penance the things he did, and does not again renew what he has done. 'Confess your sins one to another,' says the apostle James, 'and pray for one another, that you may be saved' (James V, 16). Likewise the blessed Apostle: 'For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (Romans X, 10). But Solomon also said concerning the confession of sins: 'He who hides his crimes shall not be directed; but he who shall confess and forsake them shall obtain mercy' (Proverbs XXVIII, 13).
It is a great medicine of salvation not to repeat the things we have impiously done, nor to reopen the scars of former wounds. And as John the Evangelist says, 'If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity' (1 John I, 9). Likewise also the Psalmist says: 'I said, I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord; and Thou hast forgiven the impiety of my sin' (Psalm XXXI, 5). 2. The penance of the damned is fruitless. A twofold torment. The weeping of the penitent should be twofold. Fruit worthy of penance. Let the sinner confess while living the things he has done; for confession is not fruitful among those below, nor is penance profitable unto salvation.
Behold, now is the time of salvation; behold, now is the time acceptable to God (2 Corinthians VI, 2). Now is the time of remission for the penitent; but the time will come after death of vengeance for those negligent to confess their crimes. For all the impious have a bitter penance in their torments; but penance does not profit them unto remission, but conscience torments them unto the increase of the punishments they suffer. For they could have forewarned themselves through confession against the enormity of the torments, and they neglected it: so, just as outwardly by the flame, so inwardly they are tormented by their own conscience. How can a physician heal a wound which the sick man blushes to show? God desires our confession, that He may have a just cause for pardoning.
He who hides his sins, and is ashamed to confess wholesomely, will have again as avenger the God whom he has as witness. Let a man judge himself excellently in this life, lest he be judged by God with perpetual damnation. Every sinner ought to have a twofold weeping in penance: either because through negligence he did not do good, or because through boldness he perpetrated evil. For what he ought to have done, he did not do; and what he ought not, he did. Confession justifies, confession grants pardon to sins: all hope of pardon consists in confession. Confession is a work of mercy, the health of the sick man; it is the only medicine for our strength, together with penance.
The Savior Himself shows its power in the Gospel, saying, 'Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matthew IV, 17); and John the Baptist: 'Bring forth fruits worthy of penance' (Luke III, 8). The fruit worthy of penance is to weep over past sins, and not to do the same again: as Scripture says, 'Add not sin upon sin' (Ecclesiasticus V, 5). 'Wash yourselves,' says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, 'and be clean' (Isaiah I, 16). He therefore is washed and is clean who both bewails the past and does not admit it again. He is washed and is not clean who bewails what he has done, yet does not forsake it; and after his tears returns to these very things which he had wept over.
Concerning those who after tears return to their former delights, blessed Peter says terribly: 'The dog returned to his own vomit' (2 Peter II, 22). 'Son, you have sinned,' it is said in Holy Scripture, 'add not again; but for the former ones pray that they may be forgiven you' (Ecclesiasticus XXI, 1). 3. True penance is reckoned not by years, but by contrition of heart. True penance is reckoned not by the number of years, but by bitterness of soul. Whence blessed Peter soon received pardon from the Lord, because he wept most bitterly over the guilt of his threefold denial (Matthew XXVI, 75). Penance, though it be of brief time, if it is done with just bitterness of heart, is not despised before God the just judge, who considers the secrets of the heart.
For God does not so much require length of time, as He weighs the affection of the penitent's sincerity. For whoever trusts in Christ with his whole mind, even if he die in many sins, shall live forever by his faith: as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel, 'I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in me, even though he be dead, shall live; and everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die forever' (John XI, 25, 26). He spoke of the death of the soul, which will befall it on account of the sickness of sins. God is merciful in His nature, ready to save through mercy those whom He does not find to save through justice: He who wills all men to be saved, and none to perish (1 Timothy II, 4);
who says through the prophet, 'In whatever day the sinner shall be converted, he shall live in life and not die' (Ezekiel XVIII, 21). However great a sinner and impious one may be, if he is converted unto penance, let him not doubt that he can obtain pardon through the mercy of God. In this age God's mercy comes to the aid of those doing penance; but in the age to come penance does not profit, but we shall render an account of our works. In this life alone is the liberty of penance open; but after death there is no license for correction. SERMON 255. On Penance. Those conscious of crimes withdraw themselves from communion. It would be better that they show themselves worthy of it. Namely, through speedy and laborious penance.
What ought to be thought concerning the penitent at the last extremity. We observe well, most beloved brethren, that some of you shun ecclesiastical communion; and this I understand happens from consciousness of grave and enormous sins. Whence I admonish you, most beloved, that what is depraved is doubled by this unwholesome counsel; because men doing these things both heap up the burden of their offenses, and neglect the gift of eternal salvation: that is, to gather up guilt, and to shun the remedy. Therefore, most beloved brethren, I exhort and admonish you, that if anyone among you, conscious of his own crimes, thinks himself unworthy of ecclesiastical communion, let him make himself worthy. You will say, 'How can anyone make himself worthy?'
How, except by leaving their former errors, and seeking penance: so that he who is polluted with the filth of his crimes may be cleansed by the satisfaction of exomologesis (open confession)? And let him not reserve himself for this—that at the last time of his life he then seek penance, when he can no longer perform it. For that persuasion is useless, most beloved. It is too little for a sinner to repent, unless he has carried out penance. For to amend crimes the voice of the penitent alone does not suffice: for in the satisfaction of enormous sins not only words but works are sought. Penance is indeed given even at the last extremity, because it cannot be denied; but yet we cannot be its guarantors, that he who seeks it thus should deserve to be absolved.
For how does one who has fallen do penance? How does he do penance who is set at the very last ends of life? How can he do penance who can now perform no works of satisfaction for himself? And therefore the penance which is sought from the sick man is sickly. The penance which is sought only from the dying man, I fear lest it die together with him. And therefore, most beloved, whoever wishes to find the mercy of God, let him do penance while healthy in this age, that he may be able to be healthy in the age to come. SERMON 256. An admonition through which is shown what difference there is between that penance which is always done with good works, and that which is received in sickness or at the end of life. 1. Whether the dying man who receives penance obtains pardon.
He obtains it who has continually exercised himself in penance and good works. Many of our brethren or sons are anxious whether every man placed in sickness who receives penance, and immediately dies, can attain pardon unto the remission of punishment: and while they inquire into these things, they contend among themselves with no small heat. For some say that he who has thus received it is freed completely; others, however, affirm that it profits little. Yet what seems to us concerning this matter, according to the rules of the holy Fathers, I wish briefly to suggest to your Charity. It can not incongruously be believed that this sudden penance is arrived at in three ways.
The first and chief way is that a Christian not commit capital crimes; or if perchance he has committed them, that he so repent of them, and wash them away with good works, that afterward he not return to those sins themselves; that he render tithes of all his fruits, and out of the nine parts, whatever remains beyond his own necessities, redeem the small sins which daily creep in; and that he hold that charity which loves not only friends, but even one's very enemies. Whoever shall have wished to fulfill these things faithfully, even if he receive no [formal] penance—because he has always exercised it fruitfully and faithfully—will depart well from here: and if at the time when he is about to die he receives it, and makes a portion for himself and for Christ from his substance along with his children;
we believe that he not only obtains pardon of sins, but even receives eternal rewards. 2. He also obtains it who has lived in sins; but under what condition. The second way of the aforesaid penance is that even if someone, as long as he lives, commits not only small but perhaps even capital sins; and yet, in whatever hope of penance he acts, he does not for that reason loosen his soul unto sins, so as to reserve himself for that sudden penance; and at his passing, with great humility and contrition of heart, with roaring or groaning, seeks that penance; and most definitely deliberates this in his heart, that if he escapes, as long as he lives, he will do fruitful penance with his whole heart and all his strength;
and whatever he knows he has wrongly taken, he restores completely, so that, according to that prophetic word, he restore the robbery (Ezekiel XXXIII, 15), and forgive all his enemies with his whole heart, and from his substance make one portion for Christ and for himself together with his children, and in his very sickness, as much as he can, command that generous alms be distributed: if he shall have wished to fulfill these things faithfully with a humble and contrite heart, we both can and ought to believe that the Lord deigns to forgive him all his sins, according to that prophetic word, 'The sinner, in whatever day he shall be converted, all his iniquities shall be delivered to oblivion' (Ezekiel XVIII, 21-22); and that other, 'In whatever day he shall be converted and groan, he shall be saved' (Ezekiel XXXIII, 12).
That is hardly to be felt as safe concerning him who does not show penance by works. The third way of penance seems to some to exist, if someone, always living wickedly, reserves himself at the end of life for penance, and sins in that hope, so that through that sudden penance he reckons all the sins joined together to be forgiven; and yet, after he has received it, he neither restores in single measure what he wrongly seized, nor forgives his enemies with his whole heart, nor deliberates in his heart that, if he escapes, as long as he lives, he will do penance with great compunction and humility, nor makes a portion for himself and for Christ, for the redemption of his sins, from his substance together with his children.
If, penance having been thus received, he departs from this life without those remedies which we mentioned above; what will become of him, although we are doubtful to say, yet the Lord in the Gospel said most definitely: 'If,' He says, 'you do not forgive men their sins, neither will the Father forgive you your sins' (Matthew VI, 15); and that other, 'Give, and it shall be given to you; forgive, and it shall be forgiven you' (Luke VI, 38, 37). How can it be forgiven to that sinner who was unwilling to forgive? or how shall it be given to him who did not give? And because the Lord is going to say concerning those who have not given alms, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels;
because I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat,' etc. (Matthew XXV, 41-42): if he is cast into the fire who from his own means did not give out, what is He going to do with this penitent, who not only gave nothing from his own, but even was unwilling to restore in single measure the goods of others which he had wrongly taken? Whoever is such, if he seeks penance from me and is of an age at which it either can or ought to be given him, I can give him penance, but I cannot give him complete security: yet God, who knows the consciences of all, and will judge each one according to his own merit, He knows with what faith or with what intention of mind he sought penance.
But I fear lest perhaps such a penitent may not have even in his conscience what he did not show in works: because, although we cannot see the heart, yet according to the evangelical sentence, 'By their fruits you shall know them' (Matthew VII, 16), since we do not at all see him fulfilling the things which are written above. Since these things are so, who will be able to prevent us from believing that he has not migrated well from this light, whom we know not to have done good works? Behold, what seems to me concerning sudden penance, I have set forth to your Charity. If there is anyone to whom some doubt arises from the things we have said, we both wish and desire that he seek to have a reason given him by us with perfect charity. 4.
It is safer to do penance continually. For the hour of death is uncertain. In what that continual penance consists. But let us, dearest brethren, leaving aside the things that are uncertain or doubtful, more attentively consider, with all our strength, that penance which is done throughout one's whole life by good Christians, through which both capital crimes are condemned and lesser sins are continually redeemed; which, if we do it with good works as long as we live, promises us full security concerning the mercy of God. For since all men wish to receive penance at the end of their life, and we scarcely see a few obtain it as they desire, why do we not do that very penance daily?
that, holding fast to what is certain, we may be delivered from what is uncertain and doubtful? For how many were there who believed that they would receive penance at the very end of their life, yet were crushed by a sudden collapse, or perhaps drowned in shipwreck, or slain by a thunderbolt, or by a rush of blood, or struck by that infirmity which is called apoplexy, in such a way that they were utterly unable not only to ask for penance, but even to sign themselves or to say the Lord's Prayer? For since human frailty is subject to so many mischances, it is a most perilous presumption that we should reserve ourselves to long stretches of time for doing penance, we who have not even the life of a single day within our power.
And therefore let us with fear and trembling hear the Lord speaking through the prophet, and admonishing us with a loving exhortation: 'Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and put it not off from day to day' (Sir. 5:8). For He who said, 'In whatsoever day thou shalt groan, thou shalt be saved' (Ezek. 33:12), the same said, 'Delay not to be converted to the Lord.'
And this, with God's help, we can obtain, if we unceasingly implore that the merciful Lord may deign to inspire us to flee swiftly from every evil, and to practice tirelessly the things that are good: not to covet the goods of others, not to commit capital sins, and to redeem without ceasing—through pardoning our enemies and giving alms to the poor—those small sins without which we cannot exist; to devote ourselves frequently, according to our strength, to fastings, vigils, and prayers with perfect charity; to visit the sick, to seek out those placed in prison, to receive strangers, and humbly not only to wash their feet but also, as far as our means allow, to bestow on them what they need; to keep peace not only ourselves with all, but also to recall to concord those who are at discord.
If the day of our passing should find us faithfully occupied with such holy works, then—as I have already said—even if in the hour of our death we do not receive penance, we shall depart from this light in security; and we shall be able not only to escape punishment, but even, by the Lord's gift, happily to attain unto eternal life. Amen. SERMON 257. An admonition that, for capital sins, without any dissembling, one should have recourse to the medicine of penance. I. On presumption and despair concerning pardon. That penance be not deferred nor be a source of shame. As often as it happens, most beloved brethren, that anyone falls into any grave sin or even crime, as human frailty is prone to do;