On Prayer 28.1–28.10

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” or as Luke has it, “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves have also forgiven everyone who is indebted to us.” The apostle too speaks about debts: “Pay to all what is owed: tribute to whom tribute is due, fear to whom fear, custom to whom custom, honor to whom honor. Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” We are debtors, then, having certain duties, not only in giving but also in kindly speech and in certain deeds; and we also owe a certain disposition toward others. Owing these things, we either pay them by accomplishing what is commanded by the divine law, or, by despising sound reason and not paying them, we remain in debt.

The like must be understood of our debts to the brothers, both those born again with us in Christ according to the word of piety, and those born of the same mother or the same father as we. There is also a debt toward fellow citizens, and another common one toward all men, especially toward strangers and those who are of an age to be our fathers, and another toward some whom it is reasonable to honor as sons or as brothers. The one, then, who does not do what is owed to his brothers remains a debtor for what he has not done. So too, if we fall short in what the loving spirit of wisdom lays upon us toward men, the debt becomes greater. And also in what concerns ourselves, we owe it to use the body in a certain way, not wearing away the flesh of the body through love of pleasure; and we owe it to the soul to give it a certain care, and to take thought for the sharpness of the mind and for our speech, that it may be without sting, beneficial, and never idle. And when we do not do what we owe to ourselves, the debt becomes heavier for us.

And above all these, being God's “workmanship” and creation beyond all, we owe it to keep a certain disposition toward him, and love “with all the heart” “and with all the strength” “and with all the mind”; and if we do not accomplish these things, we remain debtors to God, sinning against the Lord. And who will pray for us then? For “if a man sins against a man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?”, as Eli says in the first book of Kingdoms. And since Christ has bought us with his own blood, we are debtors, as every servant is a debtor to the one who bought him for the sum paid for him. There is a debt also toward “the Holy Spirit,” paid when we do not grieve him, “by whom” we were sealed “for the day of redemption,” and, not grieving him, bear the fruits required of us, while he is with us and gives life to our soul. And even if we do not know exactly who is the angel of each of us who beholds “the face” of the “Father” “in heaven,” yet it becomes clear to each of us who considers it that we are debtors to him too for certain things. And if we are in a theater of the world and of angels and of men, we must know that, just as the one in a theater is a debtor to say or do certain things in the sight of the spectators, and if he does not do them is punished as having insulted the whole theater, so we too owe “to the” whole “world” “and” to all the “angels” and to the human race these things, which, if we are willing, we shall learn from wisdom.

Besides these, which are more general, there is a debt of a widow provided for by the church, another of a deacon, and another of a presbyter; and the debt of a bishop is the heaviest, being required by the Savior of the whole church and avenged if it is not paid. And the apostle has named a certain debt common to husband and wife, saying, “Let the husband render to his wife her due, and likewise also the wife to her husband”; and he adds, “Do not deprive one another.” And why need I speak further, when those who read this treatise can gather for themselves from what has been said how many things we owe, and either will be held fast for not paying them, or will be set free by paying them? But it is not possible for one in this life not to be in debt at every hour of night and day.

But being in debt, one either pays the debt or withholds it; and it is possible in this life to pay, and possible also to withhold. And some owe no one anything; some, paying most, owe little; some, paying little, owe more; and perhaps there is one who pays nothing but owes everything. And the one who pays everything, so as to owe nothing, achieves this at some time, needing forgiveness for his former debts; and this forgiveness can reasonably be obtained by one who has striven from some point in time to become such that he owes nothing of what falls to him as unpaid. These lawless acts, imprinted on the ruling faculty, become “the bond against us” by which we shall be judged, like books written, so to speak, in the hand of all, which will be brought forward when “we shall all stand before the judgment seat” “of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” With reference to these debts it is also said in Proverbs: “Do not give yourself as surety, if you are ashamed before a face; for if he has nothing with which to repay, they will take the bed from under your ribs.”

And if we owe so many, certainly some also owe us: some owe us as men, some as fellow citizens, others as fathers, and some as sons, and besides these wives to us as husbands, or friends to us as friends. When, then, some of our many debtors are rather slack in paying the duties owed to us, we shall act more humanely if we bear with them without grudges and remember our own debts, how many we have often neglected, not only toward men but toward God himself. For remembering the debts we owed and did not pay but withheld, when the time passed in which we ought to have done certain things for our neighbor, we shall be gentler toward those who owe us and have not paid their debt; especially if we do not forget our transgressions against the Deity, and the unrighteousness we have spoken “against the height,” whether through ignorance of the truth or through discontent with the circumstances that befell us.

But if we are unwilling to become gentler toward those who owe us, we shall suffer what befell the one who did not forgive his fellow servant the “hundred denarii.” According to the parable in the gospel, though he had been forgiven before, the master arrested him and exacted what had been forgiven, saying to him, “You wicked and slothful servant,” “should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Throw him “into” the “prison,” “until he pays all that is owed.” And the Lord adds to this: “So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not forgive each his brother from your hearts.” They say, however, that we must forgive those who sin against us when they repent, even if our debtor does this many times; for “if your brother sins against you seven times in the day,” he says, “and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.” It is not we who are harsh toward those who do not repent, but such people are evil to themselves; for “he who rejects discipline hates himself.” Yet even with such people we must seek in every way that healing may come to one who has become so perverse in everything that he is not even aware of his own evils, but is drunk with a drunkenness more destructive than that “from wine,” the drunkenness that comes from the darkness of wickedness.

And Luke, in saying, “Forgive us our sins” (since sins consist in our owing and not paying), says the same as Matthew; and he seems not to give room to anyone who wishes to forgive only debtors who repent, since he says that the Savior laid down that we must add in the prayer, “for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” All of us, indeed, have power to forgive the sins committed against us; which is clear both from “as we also forgive our debtors” and from “for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” But the one who has been breathed upon by Jesus, as the apostles were, and can be known “by his fruits,” as one who has received the Holy Spirit and become spiritual by being led by the Spirit, like a son of God, in each thing that is to be done according to reason, forgives whatever God forgives and retains the incurable sins, serving God, who alone has power to forgive, just as the prophets served him in speaking not their own words but those of the divine will.

In the Gospel according to John the words about the forgiveness given by the apostles run thus: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” If someone takes these words without examination, he might blame the apostles for not forgiving all, so that all might be forgiven, but retaining “the sins” “of some,” so that because of them they are retained with God too. But it is useful to take an example from the law in order to understand the forgiveness of sins given to men by God through men. The priests under the law are forbidden to offer sacrifice for certain sins, so that the offenses of those for whom the sacrifices are made may be forgiven. And certainly the priest, who has authority to offer for certain involuntary sins or offenses, does not on that account offer “a whole burnt offering and a sin offering” for adultery or voluntary murder or any other graver fault. So too, then, the apostles and those who have become like the apostles, being priests after the “great” “High Priest,” having received knowledge of the service of God, know, being taught by the Spirit, for which sins sacrifices should be offered, and when, and in what way, and they know for which this should not be done. The priest Eli, at any rate, knowing that his sons Hophni and Phinehas were sinning, and being unable to help them toward the forgiveness of their sins, confesses that he despairs of it in these words: “If a man sins against a man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?”

I do not know how some, taking upon themselves what is beyond the priestly dignity, perhaps not even having exact priestly knowledge, boast that they can pardon even idolatry, and forgive adultery and sexual immorality, as though through their prayer for those who have dared these things even the sin “unto death” were loosed. For they do not read, “There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should ask about that.” Nor must we pass over in silence the most courageous Job, who offered sacrifice for his sons, saying, “Perhaps my sons have thought evil against God in their minds”; for he offers the sacrifice about doubtful cases, whether a sin had been committed, and one that had not even reached as far as the lips.