De paenitentia

They could not hear this word of the Lord. Do you see how he calls the poor those who have been fenced off from piety? As poor, then, he has mercy on sinners, and as rich he demands from those who do right—granting to the former because of their poverty, but exacting from the latter, with great strictness, the accounts due because of the wealth of their piety. What he does with the righteous and sinners, he does also with the rich and the poor; and just as he rouses the sinner through his love for mankind, but strikes fear into the righteous through his severity, so too in worldly affairs he orders his own economy. If he sees powerful men shining above others in dignities—kings, rulers, all who are distinguished in wealth—he speaks with them in fear, and usefully applies fear to their power: And now, kings, understand; be instructed, all you who judge the earth; serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with trembling; for he is King of those who reign, and Lord of those who rule. Wherever there is authority of power, he applies the fear of his own kingship; wherever there is the lowliness of insignificance, he offers the remedy of his own love for mankind. For this God is the great King of those who reign, and Lord of those who rule; this same one, again descending from his own worth, is found according to the holy Scripture to be father of orphans and judge of widows, king of kings, ruler of rulers, Lord of those who rule. Do you see the great abundance of his love for mankind? Do you see the usefulness of the fear of piety and of authority? For where he saw that authority was sufficient for consolation, he applied fear for benefit.

But where he saw orphanhood enfeebled by destitution, and poverty by the weakness of widowhood, he brought his love for humanity to comfort them. I am a father of orphans. He does two things: he shows his love for humanity, and he punishes domination. He calls himself father of orphans, so that he may both comfort those in misfortune and strike fear into those in power, so that they not mistreat orphans and widows; since death stripped the one of a father and deprived the other of a husband, and those whom the law of nature had destroyed, the decree of love for humanity renewed; and the same grace gave the one a judge, and the orphan a father—the King of the saints. Therefore, he says, O unjust man, if you mistreat widows, you provoke the protector of widows; if you wrong orphans, you wrong the sons of God. I am the father of orphans and the judge of widows; and who is so bold toward impiety as to wrong the sons of God and mistreat the widows who are provided for by God? Do you see how usefully he prepares the medicines of piety, and frightens some while he has mercy on others, not dividing himself, but adapting himself to the dispositions of men? Let us therefore bring to ourselves, brothers, repentance as a medicine for salvation; or rather, let us receive repentance from God, healing us. For we do not bring it to him, but he supplied it to us. Do you see his exactness in the law? Do you see his love for humanity in grace? But when I say the exactness in the law, I do not disparage judgment, but I proclaim the love for humanity of the gospel grace.

For the law punished those who sinned inexorably, but grace with great longsuffering defers the punishment, in order to bring about correction. Let us therefore receive repentance, brothers, as a medicine unto salvation; let us receive a medicine that erases our transgressions. And repentance is not the kind proclaimed in word, but the kind confirmed by deeds—repentance that erases the filth of impiety from the very heart. For wash yourselves, it says, and become clean; remove the wickednesses from your hearts, from before my eyes. What does the redundancy of the expression mean? For does not "Remove the wickednesses from your hearts" suffice to indicate the whole? Why then "from before my eyes"? Because the eyes of men see in one way, and the eye of God sees in another; for man looks at the face, but God at the heart. Do not, it says, counterfeit repentance with outward appearances, but before my eyes, which search out hidden things, show the fruits of repentance. 4. And when we are being cleansed from our sins, we ought to keep those very sins before our eyes; and even if God, in his love for humanity, forgives you your sin, nevertheless you, for the safety of your own soul, should keep your sin before your eyes. For the memory of former sins becomes a restraint upon future ones; and he who is pricked by his earlier sins shows a more secure resolve regarding the later ones. For this reason David also says, And my sin is before me continually—so that, keeping his former sins before his eyes, he might not fall into those to come. And that God requires this disposition from us, hear him saying:

I am he who blots out your sins, and I will not remember them; but you, remember, and let us judge together, says the Lord; you speak first your sins, that you may be justified. God does not wait for the time that comes after repentance; you have spoken your sin, you have been justified; you have repented, you have been shown mercy. It is not time that makes the defense, but the manner of the one who repents extinguishes the sin; it is possible both for one who has sat by for a long time not to obtain salvation, and for one who in a short time has genuinely confessed to strip off his sin. The blessed Samuel spent a long time pleading concerning Saul, and passed many nights keeping vigil for the salvation of the one who had sinned; but God, setting aside the time—for the repentance of the one who had sinned did not run together with the prophet's supplication—says to his own prophet: How long will you mourn for Saul, and I have rejected him? The "How long" shows the time, and the persistence of the one entreating; and God dismissed the time of the prophet's supplication; for the repentance of the king did not run together with the intercession of the righteous man. But to the blessed David, who received the reproof of his sin through the holy Nathan the prophet, and immediately showed genuine turning toward the threat, and said, I have sinned against the Lord, immediately one word, uttered in a single moment genuinely, brought complete salvation to the one who had repented; for the correction at once overtook the sentence. So Nathan says to him: And the Lord has forgiven your sin. Observe for me God slow to punish, and swift to save;

And first consider with me how the lover of mankind brought the reproof after many years. David sinned; the woman conceived, and no reproof followed the sin, but after the infant born of the sin was brought forth, the physician of sin is sent. And why did he not set him right immediately after he sinned? Because he knows that in the full vigor of sins the soul of those who sin is blinded, since the ears of those baptized in the depth of sin have been deafened. He postpones, then, bringing help to the inflamed passion, and after so much time the reproof comes; and in one turning of the moment, both repentance and forgiveness. And the Lord forgave your sin. O the economy of him who threatened. Do you see that he is swift unto salvation? This he does also in other matters, being slow indeed unto destruction, but swift unto succor. What sort of thing do I mean? In our case, among men, creations are constructed over many years, and in much time we build a house; and for the building the time is long, but for the demolition it is short. But with God it is the reverse: when he builds, he builds quickly; when he destroys, he destroys slowly. God is swift in building, slow in destroying; since both things are fitting for God: the one of power, and the other of goodness; by excess of power

Swift, but slow through great goodness; the proof of his words is the test of events. In six days God made heaven and earth, the heights of the mountains, the plains, the ravines, the valleys, the forests, the plants, springs, rivers, paradise, all the visible variety, this great and spacious sea, the islands, the coastal lands and the inland regions; this whole visible world and the beauty in it God made in six days; the living creatures in it, rational and irrational, and all the visible order he makes in six days. This one, then, who is swift to create, when he resolved to destroy one city, was found slow through goodness. He wishes to destroy Jericho, and he says to Israel: Surround it for seven days; and on the seventh day the wall will fall. You build the whole world in six days, and you destroy one city in seven days? For what hinders your power? Why do you not destroy it all at once? Does not the prophet cry out concerning you, saying: If you open the heaven, trembling will seize the mountains from you, and they will melt like wax from the face of fire? Does not David, recounting the works of your power, say: We will not fear when the earth is shaken, and mountains are moved into the hearts of the seas? You can move mountains and cast them into the sea, and you do not wish to destroy one city that resists, but you give seven days for its destruction? Why? Not power, he says, is weak, but love for mankind is long-suffering. I give seven days, as to Nineveh three days.

Perhaps it will receive the preaching of repentance and be saved. And who is the one preaching repentance to them? Enemies had walled the city around; the general was encircling the walls; great was the fear, great the confusion. What road of repentance, then, did you open for them? For did you send a prophet? Did you dispatch an evangelist? Was there anyone setting before them what was profitable? Yes, he says, they had within as a teacher of repentance that wondrous Rahab, whom I saved through repentance. She was of the same lump; but since she was not of the same mind, she did not share in the sin, having not shared in the unbelief. 5. And observe for me the strange proclamation of love for mankind: he who says in the Law, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit fornication, changed the word out of love for mankind, and cries out through the blessed Jesus: Let Rahab the harlot live. That Jesus, the son of Nave, who says, Let the harlot live, was an image of the Lord Jesus who says: Harlots and tax collectors will go before you into the kingdom of heaven. If she ought to live, why a harlot? If a harlot, why let her live? I speak, he says, of her former condition, that you may marvel at her second transformation. And what did Rahab do, he says, that procured salvation? Because she received the spies in peace? A innkeeper does this too. But she does not reap salvation from the word alone, but primarily from faith and her disposition toward God. And that you may learn the excess of the faith in her, hear the Scripture itself recounting the achievements testified of her.

She was in a brothel, like a pearl mixed in with filth, like gold scattered in mud, like a flower of piety buried under thorns, a pious soul shut up in a place of impiety. And pay close attention to me. She received the spies, and the one whom Israel betrayed in the wilderness, this one Rahab proclaimed in the brothel. What is this I am saying—Israel in the wilderness? When the mountain was filled with cloud, and gloom, and trumpets, and lightnings, and the other terrors, it heard from God out of the midst of the fire: "Hear, Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one; there shall be no other gods before you; I am in heaven above, and in the earth below, and besides me there is no God." Hearing these things, Israel cast a calf and rejected God; it ignored the Master, it disowned the Benefactor, and says to Aaron: "Make us gods." If gods, why "make"? How can things that are made be gods? Thus evil, being blinded, fights against itself and destroys itself. One calf was made, and the ungrateful Israel cries out: "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." "These are your gods"—he sees one calf, one idol that was made; why then, "These are your gods"? To show that he does not worship only what he sees, but imagines a multiplicity of gods; he interprets his own mind, he does not judge what appears. But to return again to what lies before us: the things which Israel heard—surrounded by so many wonders and schooled by so great a law—and denied, these things Rahab, shut up in the brothel, proclaims; for she says to the spies: "We have known all that your God did to the Egyptians.

The Jew says: "These are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt," and the prostitute ascribes her salvation not to gods but to God. "We have known all that your God did to the Egyptians in the wilderness, and we heard, and our heart melted, and there is no strength in us. We have known all that your God did." Do you see how through faith she takes up the lawgiver's word? "And I know that your God is in heaven above and on the earth below, and besides him there is no God." Rahab is a figure of the Church—once defiled by the fornication of demons, but now receiving the spies of Christ, not those sent by Joshua son of Nun, but the apostles sent by Jesus the true Savior. "I knew," she says, "that your God is in heaven above and on the earth below, and besides him there is no God." The Jews received these things and did not keep them; the Church heard them and preserved them. Worthy, then, is Rahab of all praise, the figure of the Church. For this reason the noble Paul also, having fully understood the worth of her faith, and not considering her worthless because of her former condition but approved because of her God-inspired change, numbers her with all the saints, and having said: "By faith Abel offered sacrifice; by faith Abraham did this and that; by faith Noah built the ark; by faith Moses did this and that and succeeded," and having mentioned many saints in succession, he added at the end: "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who disobeyed, having received the spies and sent them out by another way." And see how with great wisdom he blended in her own gratitude.

For when they were sent by the king seeking the spies, they say to her: "Did men come in to you?" And she says to them: "Yes, they came in." First she builds up the truth, and so she brings in the lie. For a lie is never believed on its own, unless it first displays the truth beforehand; this is why those who lie persuasively first speak the truth and what is agreed by all, and then bring in the lies and what is doubtful. "Did spies come in to you?" She says, "Yes." For if she had said "No" from the start, she would have provoked those who came upon her to investigation; but "They both came in," she says, "and went out by this road—pursue them, and you will overtake them." O beautiful lie! O beautiful deceit, which does not betray divine things but guards piety! If, then, repentance deemed that Rahab worthy of such great salvation, and she is proclaimed through the mouth of saints—Joshua the son of Nun crying out in the wilderness, "Let Rahab the prostitute live," and Paul saying, "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient"—how much more shall we, if we bring repentance, receive salvation? The present time is a time of repentance; for great is the fear of the sins that lie upon us, unless repentance forestalls the punishment. Let us forestall his face in confession; let us quench the conflagration of sins, not with many waters, but with small tears. Great is the fire of sin, and

By a little tear it is quenched; for the tear extinguishes a conflagration of sins, and washes away the foul odor of sin. Blessed David bears witness, saying and showing the power of tears, how great is its strength: For I will wash, he says, my bed every night; with my tears I will drench my couch. And yet, if he wished to show the abundance of his tears, it would have sufficed to say: With my tears I will drench my couch. Why then did he put "I will wash" first? To show that tears are a bath and a purification of sins. 10. Sins are the cause of all evils. Because of sins there are griefs, because of sins there are tumults, because of sins there are wars, because of sins there are diseases, and all the grievous passions that fall upon us. Just as the best of physicians do not examine the symptoms that appear but seek out the cause of what appears, so too the Savior, wishing to show that sin is the cause of all the evils among men, says to the man paralyzed in body—since the physician of souls first saw that his soul was paralyzed, and then his body—he says to him: Behold, you have become healthy; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you. Therefore sin is also the cause of the preceding illness; this is the cause of loss; this is the cause of grief; this becomes the ground of every calamity. Nevertheless I marvel at this: how God, who from the beginning gave grief to man because of sin, by the sentence looses the sentence, and by the condemnation casts out the condemnation; and how, listen. Grief was given because of sin, and through grief sin is loosed. Pay close attention.

When God threatened the woman and brought punishment for the transgression, he said to her: In sorrows you shall bring forth children; and he showed the fruit of sin to be sorrow. But—O the great Giver!—what he gave for punishment, he transformed into salvation. Sin gave birth to sorrow; sorrow consumed sin, and just as a worm born from wood devours the wood itself, so too the sorrow born from sin consumes the sin, being brought forward through repentance. For this reason Paul says: Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation, not to be regretted. Sorrow is good for those who truly repent; mourning for sin is fitting for those who sin; for Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Mourn your sin, so that you may not lament your punishment; make your defense to the judge before you come to the judgment seat. Or do you not know that all who wish to win over a judge do not plead their case at the very examination of the trial, but before entering the courtroom, they win over the judge through friends, or through patrons, or through some other means? Therefore, in the case of God too, at the time of the judgment seat it is not possible to persuade the judge; but before the time of judgment it is possible to win over the judge. This is why David said: Let us come before his presence with confession. There, no orator's skill deceives the great judge; no power wins him over; he is not persuaded by rank; he is not ashamed before a person's face; he is not corrupted by money, but fearful and inexorable is his righteous judgment. Here, then, let us win over the judge, and let us entreat him:

Here with all our might let us entreat him—not with money; or rather, if the truth must be told, the Lover of mankind is persuaded even by money, not receiving it himself, but through the poor. Give money to a poor man, and you have won over the Judge. I say this out of affection for you, since repentance without almsgiving is dead and wingless; repentance cannot be winged unless it has the wing of almsgiving. This is why for Cornelius, who repented well, almsgiving became the wing of his piety: for your alms, it says, and your prayers have gone up to heaven. If repentance had not had almsgiving as its wing, it would not have reached heaven. Today, then, a marketplace of almsgiving has been opened; for we see the captives and the poor; we see those carried about in the marketplace, we see those crying out, we see those weeping, we see those groaning. A wondrous festival is set before us, and the promise of a festival is nothing other than this, and the merchant's purpose is nothing other than this: to buy at little cost what is in the market and sell at a great price. Is not this the aim of each of the merchants? Does anyone engage in trade for any other reason than to sell at a great price what he bought cheaply, and to carry off his trade multiplied many times over? Such a festival, then, God has set before us: buy righteousnesses at little cost, so that you may sell them at a great price in the age to come—if indeed one must call the recompense a resale. Here righteousness is bought for little things: for a cheap fragment of bread, for a cheap garment, for a cup of cold water.

Whoever gives a cup of cold water, amen I say to you, says the teacher of spiritual commerce, shall surely not lose his reward." Is a cup of cold water rewarded, but garments and money given for a benefaction not rewarded? On the contrary, they are rewarded many times over. Why, then, did he mention a cup of cold water? He spoke of almsgiving that costs nothing; for with cold water you spend no wood, nor do you spend anything else besides. But if where the gift is without expense the grace of the benefaction is so great, where there is abundance of garments, a supply of money, and an excess of other goods, how great a reward must one expect from the righteous judge? Therefore, while the virtues lie before us being sold for a little, let us receive from the great Giver, let us seize, let us buy. "You who thirst," he says, "go to the water, and all you who have no money, go and buy." While the festival is at hand, let us buy almsgivings—or rather, through almsgiving let us buy salvation. You clothe Christ when you clothe a poor man. These things, he says, I know well and accurately; these things I have learned beforehand; you are not the first to teach this; we did not first hear this from you; you are not proclaiming anything strange, but what many of those present have often taught us. I myself know, I know, that you have often learned these things and the like, but would that, having learned them often, we might do the good, even a little. "He who has mercy on a poor man lends to God." Let us lend our almsgiving to God, so that we may receive from him a return of his love for mankind. But oh, the most wise saying! "He who has mercy on a poor man lends to God." Why, then, did he not say, "He who has mercy on a poor man gives to God," but "lends"? Scripture knows our greed for gain.

He observed that our insatiability, looking toward greed, seeks abundance. And for this reason he did not say simply, "He who has mercy on the poor gives to God," so that you might not think the recompense is a simple one; but rather, "He who has mercy on the poor lends to God." If God borrows from us, then he is our debtor. What then do you wish him to be, a judge or a debtor? The debtor respects the one who lent; the judge is not put to shame by the one who borrowed. 7. It is necessary also to consider in another way for what reason God said, "He who gives to the poor lends to me." Since he saw our greed inclining toward abundance, as I said before, and that nowhere is there one who has money and wishes to lend without security—for the lender demands either a pledge, or collateral, or a guarantor, and through these three securities entrusts his own money, either accepting guarantees, as I said before, or a pledge of property, or collateral—since, then, God saw that apart from these no one lends, nor looks to philanthropy, but looks only to profit, and that the poor man is destitute of all these things, having no pledge—for he possesses nothing—nor bringing collateral—for he is stripped bare—nor providing a guarantor—for he is distrusted because of his poverty—since, then, he saw him in danger through his poverty, and the

Since he has wealth and is in danger because of his inhumanity, he placed himself in the middle, as a guarantor for the poor man and as a pledge for the lender. You do not trust him, he says, because of his poverty; trust me because of my abundance. He saw the poor man and had mercy; he saw the poor man and did not overlook him, but gave himself as a pledge to the one who has nothing, and stood by the destitute man through his great goodness, as the blessed David confirms this loving-kindness, saying: Because he stood at the right hand of the poor man. He who has mercy on the poor man lends to God. Take courage, he says, you are lending to me. And what so great a profit do I gain by lending to you? Indeed, it is most unlawful to demand an account from God; nevertheless, so that I may condescend to your lawlessness and by my loving-kindness dissolve your harshness, let us compare these things. When you lend to others, what do you gain? What do you seek from them in addition? Is it not a hundredfold, if you seek what is lawful? But if you exceed in greed, you reap a twofold and threefold injustice. But I surpass your greed; I exceed your desire for insatiability; I cover your excess with my abundance. You seek a hundredfold, but I give you a hundred times as much. Then you lend, Lord—and you lend to me here the almsgiving shown to the poor man, so that you may repay me these things when? I demand what is agreed, wishing to secure the contract. Give me the time of recompense; set the deadline for repayment. Indeed, this is superfluous; for the Lord is faithful in all his words.

Since it is the custom and aim of one who borrows to measure out times and to set days in good faith, hear when and where the one who borrowed through the poor man repays you the debt. When the Son of Man sits upon the throne of his glory, and sets the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and says to those on his right—here pay attention to how the debtor is grateful toward the lender, how the borrower repays with great grace: Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For what? Because I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was in prison, and you came to me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was a stranger, and you took me in. Then those who served well in season, looking to their own weakness and to the worth of the lender, say: Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you drink?—he on whom the eyes of all hope, and you give their food in abundance? O the great goodness! He hides his worth through love for humanity: For I was hungry and you gave me food—O the great goodness, O the immeasurable kindness! He who gives food to all flesh, and opens his hands, and fills every living creature with good pleasure, says, I was hungry and you gave me food—not that his worth is diminished, but that his love for humanity stands surety for the poor. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. Who is it who says these things? He who pours out the nature of the waters into lakes and rivers and springs.

The one who says through the Gospels, "He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly"; the one who said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." But, "I was naked," he says, "and you clothed me." We clothed the one who clothes the heaven with clouds, the one who clothes the whole Church and the inhabited world. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. "I was in prison"—in prison, you who bring out the bound? Explain what you are saying; for the worthiness of the deed rejects the words spoken. When did we see you in such great need? When did we do these things? "Inasmuch as," he says, "you did it to one of these least ones, you did it to me." Is the word not true, that "he who has mercy on the poor lends to God"? And see the wonder: he mentioned no other work of virtue than this one. And yet he could have said: "Come, you blessed, because you were chaste, because you remained virgins, because you took up an angelic way of life." But he is silent about these things, not because they are unworthy of mention, but because they are secondary to love for humanity. But just as to those on the right he showed the kingdom given because of their love for humanity, so also to those on the left he threatened punishment because of their unfruitfulness. "Go, you cursed, into the outer darkness, prepared for the devil and his angels." Why? For what reason? "Because I was hungry, and you did not give me food." He did not say, "Because you committed fornication, because you committed adultery, because you stole, because you bore false witness, because you broke your oaths"—these too are admittedly evil, but they are lower than inhumanity and lack of mercy. But why, O Lord, do you not bring to mind other ways?

I do not judge the sin, he says, but the inhumanity; I do not judge those who have sinned, but those who have not repented; I condemn you for inhumanity, because, having so great and such a remedy for salvation—almsgiving, in which all sins were wiped away—you have let slip so great a benefit. I reproach inhumanity, then, as the root of wickedness and of all impiety; I praise philanthropy as the root of all good things, and I threaten some with eternal fire, while to others I promise the kingdom of heaven. Beautiful are your promises, O Master; beautiful too is the kingdom you are awaited in, and the Gehenna again that is threatened; the one encouraging, the other frightening; for the kingdom encourages well, and Gehenna frightens usefully. For God threatens Gehenna, not in order to cast into Gehenna, but in order to deliver from Gehenna. For if he wished to punish, he would not have threatened beforehand, so that, having taken precautions, we might flee the things threatened. He threatens punishment, so that we might flee the experience of punishment; he frightens by word, so that he may not punish by deed. Let us therefore lend our philanthropy to God, let us lend, so that we may find him a debtor, as I said before, and not a judge; for the debtor respects the one who lent, respects him and is ashamed before him. If a lender comes to the door of a debtor, if he is poor, he flees; but if he is well off, he receives him with confidence. But observe for me also another wonder of the righteous judge, set forth from human affairs.

If you lend to someone in poverty, and the borrower later comes into prosperity and is then able to repay you the debt, he escapes the notice of the many and repays it, so that he may not be ashamed over his former condition; and he acknowledges the favors but conceals the benefaction, ashamed of his former want. But God does not do so; rather, lending in secret, he repays the debt with boldness. For when he receives, it is through almsgiving that goes unnoticed; but when he repays, he repays in the sight of all creation. But someone will perhaps say: Why, then, has he given to me the rich man in this way, and has he not also given to the poor man similarly? He could indeed have given to you likewise, and to the poor man, but he did not wish either your wealth to be unfruitful or that man's poverty to be without reward. To you who are rich he has given to be rich in almsgiving and to scatter abroad in righteousness; For he scattered abroad; he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. Do you see that the rich man stores up eternal righteousness from almsgiving? Look again also at the poor man: since he does not have wealth with which to work righteousness, he has poverty, from which he reaps eternal endurance; For the endurance of the poor shall not perish forever; in Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

ON REPENTANCE. Homily 8. 1. Even though I was absent from you yesterday, it was not willingly but under compulsion; I was absent in body, not in mind; I was absent by the absence of the flesh, not by the disposition of the mind. For I embraced you all, as far as I was able, and carried you in my mind. Again, brothers, having set aside this temporary illness, I was all the more eager to see your faces; for still having the remnants of my sickness, I ran to your love. For those who are sick seek baths and bathhouses after their illness; but I considered it worthy to behold your beloved faces and to fulfill the longing owed for hearing, this great sea that has no salt, this sea that is free from waves. I came to see your field that has been cleansed. For what such harbor is there as the Church? What such paradise as your assembly? There is no serpent here plotting, but Christ initiating into the mysteries; there is no Eve here tripping up, but the Church setting upright; there are no leaves of trees here, but the fruit of the Spirit; there is no hedge of thorns here, but a vine flourishing. And if I find a thorn, I transfer it into an olive tree; for the things here are not honored by a lack of nature, but by the freedom of choice; and if I find a wolf, I make it a sheep, not changing its nature but transferring its choice. Therefore one would not err in calling the Church greater than the ark. For the ark received the animals and preserved them as animals, but the Church receives the animals and transforms them. What do I mean?

A hawk entered there, and a hawk went out; a wolf entered, and a wolf went out. Someone enters here a hawk, and goes out a dove; a wolf enters, and goes out a sheep; a serpent enters, and goes out a lamb—not because nature is changed, but because wickedness is driven out. For this reason I continually bring up the word about repentance. For repentance, terrible and fearful to the sinner, is a medicine for transgressions, an expenditure of lawlessness, a consuming of tears, boldness toward God, a weapon against the devil, a sword cutting off his head, the hope of salvation, the abolition of despair. It opens heaven, it leads into paradise, it prevails over the devil. For this very reason I continually bring up the word about this, just as it also makes boldness cause one to stumble. Are you a sinner? Do not despair. I do not cease continually applying these medicines; for I know how great a weapon against the devil it is that you do not despair. If you have sins, do not despair. I do not cease continually saying these things. Even if you sin daily, repent daily. And what we do in old houses, when they have become decayed, we remove the decayed parts and repair them with new ones, and we never neglect continual care—let us do this also in ourselves. If you have grown old today from sin, renew yourself by repentance. And is it possible, he says, for one who has repented to be saved? It is entirely possible. I have spent my whole life in sins, and if I repent, am I saved? Entirely. From where is this clear? From the love for humanity of your Master. For do I trust in your repentance?

For does your repentance have power to wipe away so many evils? If it were repentance alone, you would reasonably be afraid; but since God's love for humanity is mingled with repentance, have courage. For there is no measure to God's love for humanity, nor can his goodness be expressed in words. For your wickedness has a measure, but the remedy has no measure. Your wickedness, whatever it is, is human wickedness, but God's love for humanity is inexpressible; and have courage, because it prevails over your wickedness. Consider a spark falling into the sea—can it stand or appear? As much as a spark is to the sea, so much is wickedness to God's love for humanity; or rather, not even so much, but far more. For the sea, even if it is great, has a measure, but God's love for humanity is boundless. I say these things not to make you more slack, but to make you more earnest. I have often exhorted you not to go up to the theater; you heard, you were not persuaded; you went up to the theater, you disobeyed my word; do not be ashamed to enter again and to listen. I heard, and I did not keep it; how can I enter again? For now you know this very thing, that you did not keep it; for now you are ashamed, for now you blush, for now, with no one reproving you, you carry the bridle, for now you have my word rooted in you, for now, even when it does not appear, my teaching cleanses you. You did not keep it, have you condemned yourself? You kept it halfway; even if you do not keep it, but say, I did not keep it—for the one who has condemned himself for not keeping it strives to keep it. Did you watch? Did you commit lawlessness? Were you taken captive by the harlot? Did you come down from the theater? Did you remember again? Were you ashamed? Come forward.

Were you grieved? Entreat God; you have risen up to this point. Woe to me, I heard and did not keep it. How shall I enter the church? How shall I hear again? Rather enter in, since you did not keep it, so that having heard again you may keep it. If a physician applies a remedy to you and it does not cleanse you, does he not apply it again on another day? There is a woodcutter: let him wish to cut down an oak; he takes an axe, he cuts at the root. If he gives one blow and the barren tree does not fall, does he not give another blow, not the fourth, not the fifth, not the tenth? So also do you: the harlot is an oak, a barren tree, bearing acorns as food for irrational swine; over much time it has taken root in your mind, in the thicket of trees it has cast down your conscience; my word is an axe. You heard for one day; how does that which has been rooted for so much time fall in one day? For if twice, if three times, if a hundred times, if ten thousand times, it is not wonderful; only cut out the evil and strong thing, the evil habit. The Jews ate manna, and they kept seeking the onions in Egypt: It was well with us in Egypt. So shameful a thing is habit, and most base. For even if you set things right in ten days, if in twenty, if in thirty, I do not love you, I do not thank you, I do not embrace you; only do not grow weary, but be ashamed and condemn yourself. 2. Again I discoursed concerning love; you heard, you went away and snatched it? You did not show the word through your deeds? Do not be ashamed to enter the church again; be ashamed when you sin, do not be ashamed when you repent. Consider what the devil has done to you.

These two things are sin and repentance: sin is a wound, repentance a medicine. For just as in the body there are wounds and medicines, so also in the soul there are sins and repentance. But sin has shame, while repentance possesses boldness. Attend to me carefully, I beseech you, lest by confusing the order you destroy the benefit. There is a wound and a medicine, sin and repentance: the wound is sin, the medicine is repentance. In the wound there is putrefaction, in the medicine the cleansing of putrefaction. In sin there is putrefaction, in sin there is reproach, in sin there is mockery; in repentance there is boldness, in repentance there is freedom, in repentance there is the cleansing of sin. Attend carefully. Shame follows sin, boldness accompanies repentance. Have you attended to what I say? Satan has reversed the order, and has given boldness to sin, and shame to repentance. I do not desist until evening, until I myself loose it; I must fulfill my promise; it is impossible for me to desist. There is a wound and a medicine: the wound has putrefaction, the medicine possesses the cleansing of putrefaction. Is there putrefaction in the medicine? Is there healing in the wound? Do not these things have their proper order, and those things their own? Can this pass over to that, or that to this? By no means.

Let us now come to the sins of the soul. Sin has shame, sin has reproach, and dishonor allotted to it; repentance has boldness of speech, repentance has fasting, repentance possesses righteousness. For it says, "Be the first to declare your lawless deeds, that you may be justified"; and, "A righteous man is his own accuser in the first word." Knowing, then, that sin has shame—a thing able to repel the one who sins—while repentance has boldness of speech—a thing able to draw the one who repents—Satan exchanged the order, and gave shame to repentance, and boldness of speech to sin. From where does this come? I will tell you. Someone is caught by a grievous desire for a common prostitute; he follows the prostitute as a captive; he enters the brothel; without shame, without blushing he entwines himself with the prostitute, he commits the sin; nowhere is there shame in him, nowhere does he blush; he comes out from there after the end of the sin, and to repent he is ashamed. Wretched man, when you were entwined with the prostitute, were you not ashamed, but when you have come to repent, then you are ashamed? He is ashamed, tell me? Why, when he fornicated, was he not ashamed? He does the deed, and is not ashamed, and blushes at the word? This is the devil's villainy. In sin he does not allow him to be ashamed, but to be made public; for he knows that if he is ashamed, he flees the sin; in repentance he makes him ashamed, for he knows that one who is ashamed does not repent. He does two evils: he draws him into sin, and he hinders repentance. Why then are you ashamed? When you were fornicating, you were not ashamed;

When you apply the remedy, are you ashamed? When you free yourself from sin, are you ashamed? It was then that you ought to have been ashamed, then that you should have been ashamed—when you were sinning. When you were becoming a sinner, you were not ashamed; when you are becoming righteous, are you ashamed? Be the first to tell your lawless deeds, so that you may be justified. O the love for humanity of the Master! He did not say, "So that you may not be punished," but "So that you may be justified." Was it not enough for him that you do not punish him—do you also make him righteous? Yes, indeed. But pay close attention to the word. I make him righteous. And where did he do this? In the case of the robber, so that he said only that—"Do you not fear God?"—to his companion. And we indeed justly, for we receive what is worthy of what we have done. The Savior says to him: "Today you will be with me in paradise." He did not say, "I release you from punishment and retribution," but he brings him into paradise as a righteous man. Did you see one made righteous by confession? God is greatly a lover of humanity: he did not spare his Son, so that he might spare a servant; he handed over the Only-Begotten, so that he might purchase senseless servants; the blood of his Son he paid down as the price. O the love for humanity of the Master! And do not say to me again, "I have sinned greatly, and how will I be able to be saved?" You cannot—your Master can, and in such a way as to wipe out your sins. Pay close attention to the word: he wipes out sins in such a way that not even a trace of them remains. For in the case of bodies this is not possible, but even if a physician strives ten thousand times, even if he applies remedies to the wound, he has made the wound disappear;

But often someone has been struck in the face, and the physician has corrected the wound, yet the scar has remained, carrying about the disfigurement of the face as evidence of the wound; and the physician strives ten thousand times to erase the scar too, but he cannot, for the weakness of nature resists him, and the feebleness of the art, and the cheapness of the remedies. But when God erases sins, he leaves not even a scar, nor does he permit a trace to remain, but along with health he grants beauty, along with release from punishment he gives righteousness, and he makes the one who has sinned to be equal to the one who has not sinned. For he removes the sin and makes it not to be, nor to have been; thus he removes it entirely: no scar, no trace, no evidence, no mark. 3. And whence is this clear? For what I say, I must also furnish the proofs, so as not merely to assert but to demonstrate from the Scriptures, that the assurance may remain secure. I bring before you, then, men who have been wounded, a whole people, full of sores, of putrefaction, of worms, being wholly a wound, wholly a sore, and yet able to be healed so that no scar remains, so that no trace remains, so that no mark remains—having not one wound, nor two, nor three, nor four, but being a wound from feet to head. Attend carefully to the word; for this word of ours is common and saving. I prepare remedies better than those of physicians, such as not even kings can prepare. What can a king do? He can cast out of prison, but he cannot set free from Gehenna; he can grant money, but he cannot save a soul.

But I hand you over to the hand of repentance, so that you may learn its power, so that you may learn its strength, so that you may learn that no sin prevails against it, nor is there any transgression strong enough to prevail against its power. For now I bring forward not one, not two, not three, but many thousands—wounded, injured, full of countless sins—who can be saved by repentance, so as to have not even a trace, not even a scar, of their former wounds. But attend carefully to the word, and not only attend, but also commit what is said to memory, so that you may instruct those who have been left behind, and thus by the benefit of what has been said make those who are destitute of it more zealous. Let Isaiah, then, the beholder of the Seraphim, be present—he who heard that mystic hymn, he who foretold countless things concerning Christ. Let us ask what he says: The vision which Isaiah saw against Judea, and against Jerusalem. Tell us the vision which you saw: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. You promised one thing, and you say another. What did I promise? At the beginning you say: A vision against Judea and against Jerusalem; and having left Judea and Jerusalem, you address the heaven, and turning your word to the earth, you have left rational men and address the irrational elements? Because rational men have become more irrational than the irrational; and not only for this reason, but because Moses, when about to lead them into the land of promise, and looking forward to what was to be, saw that they would neglect what had been handed down. Hear, O heavens, he says, and let the earth give heed to the words from my mouth.

Moses says, I call heaven and earth to witness against you, that if you enter the land of promise and forsake the Lord God, you must be scattered among all the nations. Isaiah came; the threat was about to be brought into effect. He could not summon Moses, who had died, nor those who heard at that time and had passed away; so he summons the elements, which Moses had called to witness. Behold, you have been cast out of the promise, O Jews; behold, you have forsaken God. How shall I summon you, Moses? For you have died and passed away. How shall I summon Aaron? He too was delivered over to death. Have you no way to summon a man? Summon the elements. For this reason I too, while alive, called to witness not only Aaron, and this one and that one, since they were destined to die, but I also call the elements that remain to witness against you, heaven and earth. So then Isaiah says: Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth. For Moses commanded you to summon them today. And it is not for this reason alone that he summons these elements, but because he was conversing with the Jews. Hear, O heaven, for you brought down the manna; give ear, O earth, for you gave the quail. Hear, O heaven, hear; for you brought down the manna, for you displayed what was beyond nature; you were above, and you imitated a threshing floor. Give ear, O earth; for you were below, and you furnished a table spread without labor. Nature was idle, and grace was at work; there was no labor of oxen, and the ear of grain was made ready; no hands of cooks, no command, but the manna became all things, a sanctified fountain; the

The nature of their own weakness was forgotten. How were their garments not worn out? How were their sandals not grown old? Everything came about for their service. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. Along with those reminders and benefactions, the Master is insulted. Whom shall I approach? Or you? I have no man who will listen. Behold, I came, and there was no man; I spoke, and there was no one to hear. I converse with irrational things, since rational beings have been brought down to the worthlessness of irrational things. Therefore another prophet also sees the king raving, the idol being worshipped, God being insulted, all the others cowering in fear, and he says: Hear, O altar, hear me. Do you speak to a stone? Yes; since the king is more senseless than a stone. Hear me, O altar, hear; thus says the Lord. And immediately the altar was split; and the stone heard, the stone was rent, and it poured out the sacrifice. How did the man not hear? He stretched out his hand to seize the prophet; and what does God do? He dried up his hand. See what he did, see the lovingkindness of the Master, and the sin of the servant. Why did he not dry up his hand from the beginning? So that by the suffering of the stone he might become more self-controlled. For if the stone had not been split, I would have spared you; but since the stone was split, and you were not corrected, I bring my wrath upon you. He stretched out his hand to seize the prophet, and his hand was dried up. The trophy stood; so many guards and generals and great assistance, and they could not draw back his hand.

But the hand stood there, letting out a voice, pillorying the defeat of impiety, and the trophy of impiety, God's love for humanity, and that man's madness. And they could not draw it back. 4. But so that, weaving speech upon speech, we do not forget our subject, come then, let us show what we promised. And what did I promise? That if someone has ten thousand wounds, but repents and does what is good, God wipes them out so that not even a scar, nor a trace, nor a mark of the former sins appears. Having promised these things, I will try to demonstrate them. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. Tell me, what did he speak? I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they have rejected me. The ox knows its owner—more senseless than the senseless beasts—and the donkey knows the manger of its master—more donkey-like than donkeys. But Israel did not know me, and the people did not understand me. Woe to a sinful nation. Why, he says, is there no hope of salvation? Woe—why do you say this? Tell me. Because I find no healing. Woe—why do you say this? Because I applied remedies, and the wound did not yield; therefore I turned away. What then do I have to do? I do not even grow weary of healing. Woe. He imitates a lamenting woman; and he does well. I beg you, attend to me carefully. Woe—why? Because the same thing also happens with bodies. For when the physician sees the sick man having no hope of salvation, he weeps, and his household and relatives groan in lamentation; but there it is in vain and to no purpose. For when the one who is dying is about to die, even if the whole world laments, it will not raise him up; so that the lamentation belongs to mourning, not to correction.

But with the soul this is not so; rather, if you lament, you often raise the dead in soul. Why? Because the body, once dead, is not raised by human power, but the soul, once dead, is raised by correction. See a fornicator, and lament; and you will often raise him. For this reason Paul did not merely write and exhort, but also lamented with tears, admonishing each one. Granted, you admonish; why do you also weep? So that if the admonition should not prevail, the tears may come to its aid. Thus the prophet also laments. Our Master, seeing Jerusalem fallen, says: Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. He calls back the fallen city, and imitates a man lamenting. And the prophet: Woe to a sinful nation, a people full of sins; it has no soundness in its body. Did you see them covered with wounds? A wicked seed, lawless sons. Why do you lament, tell me? You have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Why are you still struck? What do I have left with which to strike you? With famine, or with plague? Every punishment has come, and your wickedness has not been consumed: adding lawlessnesses. Every head is in pain, and every heart in grief. There is no wound, no bruise. Strange things. A little while ago you were saying: A wicked seed, lawless sons, you have forsaken the Lord, and provoked the Holy One of Israel; and, Woe to a sinful nation! You lament, you beat your breast, you wail, you recount the wounds, and coming back you say, Neither wound, nor bruise? Pay attention: a wound then occurs when the rest of the body is healthy, but one part of the body remains insensible.

Here he says that the whole thing is a wound. Neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering blow, but from feet to head there is no salve to apply, neither oil nor bandages. Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire, strangers devour your country. All these things I did, and you were not corrected; I did everything that belongs to the art, but the sick man remains dead. Come, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? What then? Is he speaking to the Sodomites? No, but he calls the Jews Sodomites; for since they imitated their manner, he also applies the name to them. Come, hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs I do not want. If you offer me fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me; your new moons and sabbaths my soul hates; fasting and the great day I cannot endure. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you. Is there anything equal to this wrath? The prophet calls heaven to witness, laments, wails, mourns, saying: There is no wound, there is no bruise; God is angry, he does not accept sacrifice, nor new moon, nor sabbath, nor fine flour, nor prayer, nor the stretching out of hands. Did you see the ulcer? Did you see the disease incurable, not of one, not of two, not of ten, but of thousands? What then after these things? Wash yourselves, become clean. Is there a sin that has abandonment? God himself says, I do not hear you; and you say, Wash yourselves. To what end do you say those things? To what end these?

Both are useful: those things, so that I may be afraid; these, so that I may be drawn in. If you do not listen to them, they have no hope of salvation; if they have no hope of salvation, how do you say, Wash yourselves? But he is a tenderly loving father, alone good, and compassionate beyond a father. And so that you may learn that he is a father, he says to them: What shall I do to you, Judah? Do you not know what you will do? I know; but I do not wish it; the nature of sins demands it, and the greatness of his love for humanity holds it back. What shall I do to you? Shall I spare you? But you become more careless. Shall I come upon you? But his love for humanity does not endure it. What shall I do to you? Shall I make you as Sodom, and overthrow you as Gomorrah? My heart is turned within me. The impassible one imitates a passionate man, or rather a tenderly loving mother. My heart is turned within me—which a woman might say over her child: my heart is turned within me, like a mother. But he was not satisfied with the former expression; but, I was troubled in my repentance. Is God troubled? Far be it! May it not be! The divine nature is untroubled; but, as I said, he imitates our words. My heart is turned within me. Wash yourselves, become clean. What did I promise you? That God, taking sinners, full of countless sins, and wounded, when they repent, heals them so as to leave them no trace of sins, so as to leave no scar, so as to leave no reminder. Wash yourselves, become clean, remove your wickednesses from your souls; learn

It is good to do. And what good thing do you command? Judge the orphan and vindicate the widow. The commandments are not even burdensome, but are such as nature itself knows, since mercy is also advantageous to a woman. And come, and let us reason together, says the Lord: do a little, and I will add the rest; give me a little, and I will grant the whole. Come. And where shall we go? To me, whom you provoked, whom you angered, to me who said: I do not hear you, so that, fearing the threat, you may undo the anger. Come to the one who does not hear, so that I may hear. And what are you doing? Because I do not leave a trace, I do not leave a mark, I do not leave a scar. Come and let us reason together, says the Lord; and he says: If your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Is there perhaps no scar? Is there perhaps no wrinkle, even along with the color of purity? And if they are as crimson, I will make them white as wool. Is there perhaps no dark spot? Is there perhaps no stain? And how do these things happen? Are there not other promises? For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. You saw not only the greatness of what was promised, but also the dignity of the one who granted it. For all things are possible to God, who is able to make clean from filth. Therefore, having heard this one, and knowing the medicine of repentance, let us send up glory to him; for his is the glory and the power forever. Amen. Concerning repentance, and to those who remain behind at the assemblies, in which he also speaks concerning the sacred table and concerning judgment. Homily 9. Just as there is no benefit for those who sow when they throw the seeds along the road, so there is no benefit for us from hearing that we are Christians, unless we also have the name corresponding to our deeds.

And if you wish, I will bring before you a trustworthy witness, James the brother of the Lord, who says: Faith without works is dead. Therefore, everywhere the working of works is necessary; for when this is absent, not even the name of Christian can benefit us. And do not be amazed. For tell me, what profit does the soldier have from his serving as a soldier, if he is not worthy of the service and does not fight for the king while being fed by him? And perhaps, even if what is said is frightening, it would have been better for him not to have served as a soldier than, having served, to neglect the honor of the king; for how will he not be punished who is fed by the king but does not struggle for the king? And why do I speak of the king? Would that we even cared for our own souls. And how, someone says, can I be in the world, and in the midst of affairs, and be saved? What are you saying, man? Do you wish me to show briefly that it is not the place that saves, but the manner and the disposition? Adam in paradise, as in a harbor, suffered shipwreck; but Lot in Sodom, as in the open sea, was saved; Job was justified on the dung heap; but Saul, being in the treasuries, fell from the kingdom both here and there. This is no defense, to say: I cannot be in the world, and in the midst of affairs, and be saved. But where do these things come from? Because some of you do not attend continually to prayers, and others to the divine assemblies. Or do you not see those who wish to receive offices from the earthly king, how they sit in attendance, how they also move others to intercession, so that they may not fall short of what they seek?

These things are said to those who absent themselves from the divine assemblies, and to those who at the hour of the fearful and mystical table occupy themselves with conversations and idle talk. What are you doing, man? Did you not promise to the priest when he said, "Let us lift up our mind and our hearts," and you said, "We have them toward the Lord"? Do you not fear, are you not ashamed, to be found a liar at that very fearful hour? Alas, what a marvel! When the mystical table is set forth, when the Lamb of God is slain for you, when the priest struggles on your behalf, when spiritual fire gushes forth from the undefiled table, when the Cherubim stand by and the Seraphim fly, when the six-winged ones cover their faces, when all the incorporeal powers with the priest intercede for you, when the spiritual fire descends, when the blood is poured out into the cup from the undefiled side for your cleansing, do you not fear, are you not ashamed, to be found a liar even at this fearful hour? Since the week has one hundred and sixty-eight hours, God set apart one single hour for himself; and do you spend this one on worldly affairs and on ridiculous things and on conversations? With what boldness, then, do you approach the mysteries? With what kind of defiled conscience? If you were carrying dung in your hands, would you dare to touch the hem of the earthly king? By no means. Do not look at it because it is bread, nor think that it is wine; for it does not pass into the latrine as the other foods do—far be it! Do not think this—but just as wax, when it has encountered fire, loses nothing and has nothing left over,

So also here consider that the mysteries are consumed together with the substance of the body. Therefore, when you approach, do not think that you are partaking of the divine body as from a man, but as from the very Seraphim with the tongs of fire, which Isaiah saw, think that you are partaking of the divine body, and as touching the divine and immaculate side with your lips, so let us partake of the saving blood. Therefore, brothers, let us not forsake the churches, nor again busy ourselves in them with conversations; let us stand in fear and trembling, casting our eye downward, but our soul upward; groaning without a voice, let us cry aloud with the heart. Or do you not see those who stand before the perceptible and corruptible and temporary and earthly king, how they are immovable, not speaking, not shifting, not sending their eyes here and there, but sullen, downcast, fearful? From them, O man, take your reproof, and thus I exhort you to stand before God as you happen to enter before the earthly king; much more ought we to stand before the heavenly king with fear. I will not cease saying these things often, until I see you corrected. And entering into the church, let us enter as is fitting for God, not holding resentment in the soul, lest while praying we pray against ourselves, saying: Forgive us, as we also forgive our debtors. For what is said is fearful, and, so to speak, such is what the one who says this cries out to God: I have forgiven, Master, forgive; I have released, release; I have pardoned, pardon; if I have held fast, hold fast; if I have not released my neighbor, neither do you release my sins.

In the measure with which I have measured, let it be measured back to me. Knowing these things, and bearing in mind that fearful day, and taking to heart that fire and those fearful punishments, let us turn back at last from our wandering road. For an hour will come when the theater of this world will be dissolved; and then there is no longer any struggling, there is no doing business after life's passage, there is no being crowned after the theater's dismissal. This is the time of repentance, that of judgment; this is the time of contests, that of crowns; this of toil, that of rest; this of labor, that of recompense. Awake, I beseech you, awake, and let us listen eagerly to what is said. We have lived for the flesh, let us live henceforth also for the spirit; we have lived for pleasures, let us live henceforth also for virtues; we have lived for negligence, let us live also for repentance. Why does earth and ashes exalt itself? Why are you puffed up, O man? Why do you boast over yourself? Why do you hope from the glory and wealth of the world? Let us go out to the tombs, I beseech you, and let us see the mysteries there; let us see nature torn apart, bones devoured, bodies rotted; and even if you are wise, examine it; even if you are prudent, tell me, who

There the king and who is the common man, who the noble and who the slave, who the wise and who the unwise. Where is the beauty of youth there? Where the radiant face? Where the comely eyes? Where the well-shaped nose? Where the lips glowing like fire? Where the beauties of the cheeks? Where the gleaming forehead? Is not everything dust? Is not everything ashes? Is not everything cinder? Is not everything worm and foul odor? Is not everything a stench? Pondering these things, brothers, and calling to mind our last day, while we have time, let us turn back from our wandering way. We were bought with precious blood. For this reason God appeared on earth; for your sake, O man, God appeared on earth, having nowhere to lay his head. O the wonder! The judge comes to the judgment seat for the condemned; life tastes death; the potter is struck by the clay; he who is unseen by the Seraphim is spat upon by the slave, tastes vinegar and gall, is pierced with a spear, is laid in a tomb; and you, tell me, are careless and sleep and despise, O man? Do you not know that even if you pour out your own blood for him, not even so have you fulfilled what is due? For one blood is the master's, and another blood is the slave's. Anticipate the departure of the soul by repentance and turning back, lest when death comes, every remedy of repentance be useless; for on earth repentance has power, and this is not so only in Hades. Let us seek the Lord while we have time.

Let us work what is good, so that we may be delivered from the unending Gehenna to come and be counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the dominion, forever and ever. Amen.