Sermons to the People 351.1–351.8

How useful and necessary is the medicine of repentance, men most easily understand who remember that they are men. For it is written, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And the Lord says in the Gospel, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted”: and that tax collector, anxious in confessing his sins, went down from the temple more justified than the Pharisee secure in the listing of his merits. For although he too gave thanks to God, saying: “I thank you, God, that I am not like other men, unjust, adulterers, robbers, as also this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess”: yet he was ranked below the one who stood far off and did not dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” For that Pharisee rejoiced not so much in his own health as in comparison with others' diseases. But it would have been more useful for him, since he had come to the doctor, to show by confessing what he was sick with, than to hide his own wounds and dare to boast about others' scars. No wonder, then, that the tax collector went away more healed, who was not ashamed to show what pained him. For in visible things, to reach high things one is raised up high; but God, though he is the most exalted of all, is reached not by self-exaltation but by humility. Hence the prophet says: “The Lord is near to those who have crushed their heart.” And again: “The Lord is high, and looks on lowly things, and knows high things from afar.” High things he put for the proud. Those, then, he looks on in order to raise them up; these he knows in order to cast them down. For when he says that he knows high things from afar, he shows clearly enough that he attends to lowly things from close by; yet he declared the Lord himself to be high. For God alone is not arrogant, however much he praises himself in proclamation. Let not pride, then, think itself hidden from God's eyes: for God knows high things. Nor again let it think itself joined to God: for he knows high things from afar. So whoever refuses the humility of repentance has no thought of drawing near to God. For it is one thing to raise oneself to God, another to raise oneself against God. He who throws himself down before him is raised up by him; he who raises himself against him is thrown down by him. For the solidity of greatness is one thing, the emptiness of inflation another. He who swells outwardly wastes away inwardly. He who chooses to be cast down in the house of God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners, God chooses him to dwell in his courts; and he takes up into the seat of blessedness the one who takes up nothing for himself. Hence in the psalm it is sung most sweetly and most truly: “Blessed is the man whose taking up is from you, Lord.” Do not think that the one who humbles himself always lies low, since it is said, “He will be exalted.” And do not suppose that his exaltation comes about in the eyes of men through bodily heights; for when he had said, “Blessed is the man whose taking up is from you, Lord,” he went on to add and show the spiritual loftiness of that taking up: “He has set ascents,” he says, “in his heart, in the valley of weeping, to the place which he has set.” Where, then, has he set ascents? In the heart, that is, in the valley of weeping. This is, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” For as ascent indicates exaltation, so the valley indicates humility, and the valley of weeping, lamentations. For as grief is the companion of repentance, so tears are the witnesses of grief. And very well it follows and says: “For he who gave the law will give a blessing.” For the law was given for this: to show the wounds of sins, which the blessing of grace would heal. The law was given for this: to make his weakness known to the proud man, to urge repentance on the weak. The law was given for this: that we might say in the valley of weeping, “I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin which is in my members”; and with that very weeping might cry out, “Unhappy man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death?” and that there might come to our help, as he hears us who raises up the crushed, frees those in fetters, gives light to the blind, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are three actions of repentance, which your learning recognizes with me. For they are customary in the Church of God and known to those who pay careful attention. One is that which is in labour with the new man, until through saving baptism the washing away of all past sins takes place: so that, as when a child is born, the pains by which the womb was pressed to give birth pass away, and gladness follows sorrow. For everyone who is already established as the arbiter of his own will, when he comes to the sacraments of the faithful, cannot begin the new life unless he repents of the old. From this repentance, when they are baptized, only little children are exempt: for they cannot yet use free choice. Yet for their consecration and the remission of original sin the faith of those by whom they are presented profits them; so that whatever stains of faults they have contracted through others, from whom they were born, they may be cleansed of also by the questioning and answering of others. For most truly it is lamented in the psalms: “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins my mother nourished me in the womb.” Likewise what is written, that not even an infant whose life is one day on the earth is clean in God's sight. Except, then, for such as these—about whose rank and merit in that future lot of the saints which is promised, to wish to inquire further exceeds human measure; yet it is devoutly believed that what is kept by the authority of the Church throughout the whole world with such firm strength profits them for spiritual salvation—of all other men none passes over to Christ, so as to begin to be what he was not, unless he repents of having been what he was. This first repentance is enjoined on the Jews, when the apostle Peter says, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Such was commanded by the Lord himself when he said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” Of this too John the Baptist, full of the Holy Spirit, forerunner and preparer of the Lord's way, speaks thus: “Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear therefore fruit worthy of repentance.”

The second repentance is that whose action must be undertaken throughout the whole of this life, which we spend in mortal flesh, with perpetual humility of supplication. First, because no one longs for eternal, incorruptible and immortal life unless he repents of this temporal, corruptible and mortal life. For no one is born into new life through the sanctification of baptism in such a way that, as he lays aside there all past sins, so he at once lays aside the very mortality of the flesh and its corruption too. If that is not so, it remains that what is written, and what everyone still feels in himself while he is in this life—that the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks of many things. Since this will not be in that blessedness, when death will be swallowed up in victory, who would doubt that, in whatever temporal happiness we may be engaged, we nevertheless ought to repent of this life, so as to run with all eagerness to that incorruption? For that is why the apostle too says: “As long as we are in the body we are pilgrims away from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Who, then, hurries and longs to return to the homeland and to contemplate that sight which is face to face, except one who repents of his pilgrimage? From this grief of the penitent that pitiable cry too bursts out and sounds: “Alas for me, that my pilgrimage has been prolonged!” And lest you think that one not yet among the faithful says this, see what follows: “I have dwelt in the tents of Kedar: with those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they attacked me greatly.” These are the words not only of a faithful man but of a most steadfast evangelist and most brave martyr. For from this comes also that saying of the apostle: “For we know that if our earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, longing to put on over it our dwelling which is from heaven: if indeed, being clothed, we are not found naked. For we who are in this dwelling groan, being burdened, because we do not wish to be stripped but clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” What, then, do we long for, except not to be as we now are? And why do we groan, except in repenting that we are so? But when shall we not be so, except when the earthly house is dissolved, so that we obtain the heavenly dwelling in mind and body by the change of the whole man? Therefore holy Job too did not say that there is temptation in this life, but said that this very life is temptation, speaking thus: “Is not human life on earth a temptation?” In that place he also wonderfully touched on the mystery of fallen man, saying: “Like a slave fleeing his master and catching a shadow.” For this is not to be called life so much as a shadow of life. And not without reason did Adam, a runaway after the offence of sin, hide himself from the face of the Lord, covered with the leaves of trees, which make shady places: like one fleeing his master, as it is said, and catching a shadow.

All these things have been said so that no one, however justified he has been through baptism from former sins, should dare to be proud, if he commits nothing for which he would be separated from the communion of the altar, as if boasting of full security already; but rather let him keep humility, which is almost the one Christian discipline: and let earth and ashes not be proud, until this whole night passes, in which all the beasts of the forest pass through, the lions' whelps roaring, seeking their food from God. For this food Job himself was sought, who said, “Human life on earth is a temptation.” The Lord too says, “This night Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.” Who of sound mind, then, would not groan? Whom would it not displease, through repentance, to be so? Who would not, supplicating in all humility, make himself fit to be heard by divine help, until all this matter of temptations and earthly shadow passes, and he who never fails, the everlasting day, dawns on us too, and lights up the hidden things of darkness, and makes manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then each will have praise from God? Then, however much someone may boast that he has his body so tamed that, crucified to the world from every evil work, he disciplines his members brought into servitude, so that sin no longer reigns in his mortal body to obey its desires; that he worships one, the true God, given to no rite of idols, ensnared by no sacred rites of demons, not taking the name of the Lord his God in vain, awaiting everlasting rest with certainty, giving due honour to his parents, not bloodied by homicide, nor fouled by fornication, nor fraudulent by theft, nor double by falsehood, nor sordid with desire for another's property or wife; that he neither flows away in luxury nor dries up in avarice even in his own affairs; that he is not contentious, not insulting, not abusive; lastly, that he sells all he has and gives to the poor and follows Christ, and fixes the root of his heart in the heavenly treasure: what more seems able to be added to so full a justice? Yet I do not want him to boast. Let him understand that all these things have been granted to him, not that they come from himself. “For what does he have that he has not received? And if he has received it, why does he boast as if he had not received it?” Let him indeed pay out the Lord's money: let him take thought for his neighbour, as he feels thought has been taken for him. And let him not think it enough to keep intact what he has received, lest it be said to him: “Wicked and lazy servant, you should have given my money, and I on coming would have demanded it with interest”: lest what he received be taken from him, lest he be thrown into the outer darkness. If those who can keep intact what they have received ought to fear this most severe punishment, what hope is there for those who impiously and wickedly squander it? So such a man will be engaged in human affairs, discharging the duty not of fleshly but of spiritual gain; not indeed bound by worldly business, yet, since he serves as God's soldier, not torpid and cast down in the leisure of idleness. Let him give, then, if he can, all his alms with cheerfulness, whether he pays out something for the bodily necessities of the poor, or as a steward of heavenly bread he builds unconquerable camps against the devil in the hearts of believers. For God loves a cheerful giver. So let him not be broken by weariness amid the difficulties of affairs, which must arise so that a man may be shown what a man is. Let not anger creep in against one who either rushes at him hatefully, or, driven by want, asks at the wrong moment; or who demands indifferently to be helped in his own business when you are occupied with a greater one; or who resists the word of manifest justice with blind greed or pitiable slowness. Let him not give anything more or less than he ought; let him not speak more than is needed, or when there is no need at all. For beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things. Yet they gather dust from the dry earth, which is indeed shaken off in judgment on those who with perverse will despise this ministry to them. So not only because of the very mortality of this life and ignorance, and because of the day's malice—would that it were enough, as is said of it, “Sufficient for the day is its own malice,” which we are commanded to bear and carry until it passes, and to wait for God by acting manfully, so that we may bear fruit with patience—but also because of the very dust of this world, which on the journeys of counselling clings to the feet of those who counsel, and the losses that occur in that very busy work of stewardship, which may the Lord grant to be made up with greater gains, we ought to have daily repentance.

But if this is so for the dispensers of God's word and the ministers of his sacraments, the soldiers of Christ, how much more for the rest of the tribute-paying multitude, a kind of province of the great King? So that he might not offend that province even by a false suspicion of avarice, that most faithful and most brave soldier, the apostle Paul, served at his own expense; and where perhaps the necessary means were lacking, he says, “I robbed other churches, taking pay from them to serve you.” How much more, then, ought the provincials of the Church, bound by worldly business, to do daily penance? Although they ought to be free, pure and whole from thefts, robberies, frauds, adulteries and fornications and all luxury, from the cruelty of hatreds and the stubbornness of enmities, and finally from all the foulness of idolatry, the frivolity of the shows, the impious vanity of heresies and schisms, and from all crimes and misdeeds of this kind: yet because of the management of household affairs and the very tight bonds of marriage they sin so much that they seem not so much sprinkled with the dust of this clean one as smeared with mud. This is what the apostle says to them: “It is already altogether a fault among you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why do you not rather suffer injustice? Why are you not rather defrauded?” For that is execrable which he adds because of some and says: “But you do injustice and defraud, and that your brothers.” Yet apart from injustices and frauds, he says that this very thing, having lawsuits and quarrels among themselves about worldly matters, is a fault: which he admonishes is nevertheless to be borne, if at least such quarrels are settled by the Church's judgment. Hence also that saying: “He who is without a wife thinks of the things of God, how to please God; but he who is joined in marriage thinks of the things of the world, how to please his wife.” Which he notes similarly of the woman too. Or that, when he says, “And come together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” To show that this is a sin, but granted to weakness, he immediately added: “But I say this by way of indulgence, not by way of command.” For the union of the two sexes is blameless only for the sake of begetting. How many other sins there are, whether in talking about other people's affairs and business that do not concern you; or in empty guffaws, though it is written, “The fool raises his voice in laughter, but the wise man will scarcely laugh quietly”; or, in the very foods prepared for the necessity of sustaining this life, a greedier and more immoderate appetite, often attesting the excess by indigestion the next day; or in buying and selling, perverse wishes for dearness or cheapness. It is wearisome to gather up everything that each one grasps and reproves more certainly in himself, if he does not carelessly look into the mirror of the divine Scriptures. Although these are not felt to strike singly with a mortal wound, like homicide and adultery and others of that kind, yet all of them gathered together, like a rash, kill the more the more numerous they are, or so destroy our beauty that they separate us from the most chaste embraces of that bridegroom beautiful in form above the sons of men, unless they are dried up by the medicine of daily repentance.

But if this is false, why do we beat our breasts every day? Which we bishops too do with everyone as we stand at the altar. Hence too in praying we say what we must say throughout this whole life: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” For we do not pray that those be forgiven which we believe were already forgiven in baptism—otherwise we doubt the faith itself—but we say this certainly of daily sins, for which each one also does not cease to offer, according to his strength, the sacrifices of almsgiving, of fasting, and of prayers and supplications themselves. So whoever pays careful attention to himself and deceives himself with no flattery understands well enough with how great a danger of eternal death and in how great a want of perfect justice he is a pilgrim away from the Lord, although, already established in Christ, that is, on the way, he is trying to return. For if we have no sins, and beating our breasts we say, “Forgive us our debts,” by this very thing we certainly sin, and gravely, beyond doubt, since we lie in the midst of the sacraments themselves. Therefore, in so far as we are bound to our God by faith, hope and love, and imitate him as far as we can, we do not sin, but are children of God; but in so far as, by occasion of fleshly weakness—because it has not yet been dissolved by death nor changed by resurrection—blameworthy and wicked impulses creep in, we sin. This we must certainly confess, lest by a stiff neck we earn not the healing of our sickness but the condemnation of pride. Hence both are most truly written: both “Whoever is born of God does not sin,” and what we read in the same Letter of John, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The former is said from the first fruits of the new man, the latter from the remnants of the old: for we do both in this life. But little by little the newness comes on, and little by little, as the oldness gives way, it takes its place. But while both are going on, we are in the arena; and not only do we strike the adversary with good works, but we are also struck by avoiding sins too carelessly. And now it is not a question of which of us has won, but of who strikes more often, who fights more bravely; until he who envied man standing when he himself had fallen drags others with him into eternal death, and it is said at the end by others in triumph: “Where, death, is your struggle? Where, death, is your sting?” But we are not more easily thrown down by the enemy than when we imitate him by pride; nor do we lay him low more forcefully than when we follow the Lord with humility; nor do we inflict sharper pains on him than when we heal the wounds of our sins by confession and repentance.

The third action of repentance is that which must be undergone for those sins which the Decalogue of the Law contains, and of which the apostle says, “For those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God.” In this repentance, then, each one ought to exercise greater severity on himself, so that, judged by himself, he may not be judged by the Lord, as the same apostle says: “For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged by the Lord.” So let a man mount the tribunal of his own mind against himself, if he fears that we must be presented before the tribunal of Christ, so that there each may receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil. Let him set himself before his own face, lest this be done to him afterwards. For God threatens this to the sinner, saying: “I will rebuke you, and set you before your own face.” And so, a court having been set up in the heart, let thought be present as accuser, conscience as witness, fear as executioner. Then let a kind of blood of the confessing soul flow out through tears. Lastly, let such a sentence be pronounced by the mind itself that the man judges himself unworthy of participation in the body and blood of the Lord: so that he who fears to be separated from the kingdom of heaven by the final sentence of the supreme judge may meanwhile be separated by the discipline of the Church from the sacrament of the heavenly bread. Let the image of the future judgment be before his eyes: so that when others approach God's altar, where he himself does not approach, he may think how much that punishment is to be trembled at, by which, while others receive eternal life, others are hurled into eternal death. For to this altar, which is now in the Church, set on earth, exposed to earthly eyes, for celebrating the signs of the divine mysteries, many wicked people too can approach: since God in this time commends his patience, so as to show his severity in the future. For they approach not knowing that the patience of God leads them to repentance. But they, according to the hardness of their heart and their impenitent heart, store up for themselves wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works. But to that altar where Jesus our forerunner entered for us, where the head of the Church went ahead, the other members to follow, none of those can approach of whom, as I have already mentioned, the apostle said, “For those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God.” For the priest alone, but plainly whole, will stand there, that is, with the body joined to him who is the head, which has already ascended into heaven. This is the one to whom the apostle Peter said, “Holy people, royal priesthood.” How, then, will he dare or be able to enter within the veil and into that invisible holy of holies, who, despising the medicine of heavenly discipline, was unwilling to be separated for a little while from the visible things? For whoever was unwilling to be humbled so as to be exalted, since he wanted to be exalted, will be cast down; and he will be separated for ever from the eternal holy things, whoever in this time has not provided for himself a place in the body of the priest by the merits of obedience and by the satisfaction of penance. For with what brazen face will he then want God's face turned away from his sins, who does not now say with his whole heart, “For I acknowledge my crime, and my sin is before me always”? On what terms, I ask, does God deign to pardon what a man disdains to acknowledge in himself?

Or what is that by which they flatter themselves, who lead themselves astray by their own vanity? For persevering in their wickedness and luxury, when they hear the apostle saying, “For those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God,” they dare to promise themselves the salvation they desire apart from the kingdom of God; and so they talk among themselves, while they refuse to do penance for their sins and ever to change their ruined morals for the better: “I do not want to reign; it is enough for me to be saved.” In this they are deceived first because there is no salvation at all for those whose iniquity persists. For what the Lord says, “Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold; but whoever perseveres to the end will be saved”: he certainly promised salvation to those who persevere in love, not in iniquity. But where love is, those evil works that separate from the kingdom of God cannot be. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in what is written, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Then, if there is some difference between those who reign and those who do not reign, still all must be in one kingdom, so as not to be counted among enemies or foreigners. For all Romans possess the Roman kingdom, though not all reign in it, but obey the others who reign. But the apostle did not say, “Those who do such things will not reign with God,” but, “will not possess the kingdom of God.” Which was said also of flesh and blood: “Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God: because this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality”; so that it is no longer flesh and blood, but from an animal body earns the condition and nature of a spiritual body. Or let that final sentence of our judge terrify them, which he willed to be revealed now precisely so that his faithful might beware of it, giving to those who fear him a sign to flee from the face of the bow. For except for those who will also judge with him, to whom he promised, saying: “You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” In this number of judges are understood all who have left all their goods for the Gospel and followed the Lord. For the number twelve refers to a kind of totality. For the apostle Paul will not be absent there because he was not among those twelve. Except, then, for those whom he also signified by the name of angels, when he says, “When the Son of Man comes to judge with his angels.” For angels are certainly messengers. And we most rightly take as messengers all who announce heavenly salvation to men. Hence the evangelists too can be interpreted as messengers of good; and of John the Baptist it is said, “Behold, I send my angel before your face.” With these, then, as I had begun to say, excepted, all the rest of the multitude of men, as is plain in the very words of the Lord, will be divided into two parts. For he will set the sheep on the right, the goats on the left: and it will be said to the sheep, that is, the just: “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Of this kingdom, certainly, the apostle spoke when, listing evil works, he said, “For those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God.” Hear what those on the left will hear: “Go,” he says, “into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” Who, then, would dare to presume on the Christian name, and not hear with all obedience and fear the apostle saying, “For know this, recognizing that no fornicator, or unclean person, or greedy person, which is idolatry, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words: for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of unbelief. Do not, then, become sharers with them.” And more broadly he says this to the Corinthians: “Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will possess the kingdom of God.” But see how he took away fear and despair of salvation from those who committed these things in the old life. “And such indeed you were,” he says, “but you have been washed, you have been sanctified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”