Exhortatio Poenitendi Cum Consolatione Et Misericordia Dei [Incertus]

Appendix XVI. Exhortation to Repentance with Consolation and the Mercy of God, to a Soul Dreading Future Judgments. Why do you waver, O soul, shaken by the storms of grief? Why do you trouble yourself with manifold thoughts up to this point? The mind, confused by weariness, traverses the byways of the journey, running through the paths of darkness with a withdrawn light. Do not sigh for lost possessions, the treasures of the world, or the trappings of honor, but weep for the ruins of the soul. Do not mourn these transitory exiles of the flesh, but fear the enduring torments of Tartarus. Do not cast aside the hardships of the prison which you will never lack, but, foreseeing the perpetual miseries of Avernus, avoid them, which here can be redeemed with easy expedience, if you turn the affections of the world into the love of Christ, and do not neglect to deprive yourself of iniquity. Drive out all sins torn from the heart, utterly remove unjust things, and at least, struck down, abhor them, so that you may shine again with sincerity, even if late. The world has cast you out and struck you, has written you off, has mocked you. Why do you not consider what Christ requires of you? Do not think that such things are inflicted upon you by human hand, but believe that these have come by divine judgment. You have provoked the Lord against yourself by the offense of your sin, who, reproving you with scourges, chastises, restrains, and urges you, by the infliction of the lash, so that you may recognize your errors and, having recognized them, repentantly correct, restrain, and amend them. You ought to understand this, that you, struck by the immediate blow, may stand forth as one separated from evil, well-disposed, and, rejecting harmful things, seek those that are harmless.

It desires to examine you in the furnace of contrition, wherein, once refined, you may cast off your former, more vile impurities. Why, therefore, do you run about with an empty mind through every scattered thing? Gather your steps toward the end of your own examination. Scrutinize your case, question your mind more cautiously. Let it disclose what frivolous thing it retains or has done. Let it reveal what savage thing, what harmful thing it has conceived or wrought. And while there is opportunity, hasten to condemn everything beforehand. Behold, all deeds done stand before your eyes, and in secret murmur the mind sets forth everything. What do committed crimes seek but lamentations? What does the wound of a deed want but the salves of weeping? No crime is otherwise expiated except by repenting; indeed, by punishing, so that it exists no longer, it is blotted out. Therefore, if it displeases you to have fallen wickedly by living, rise up becomingly. By acting better, forestall the future Judge, fearing Him who destroys the wicked. Appease Him after the sins of the age by the work of justice. Dread the black fire of hell, which is the second death; but, repenting, punish the sins committed, and you will live. In this life, extinguish the flames of Tartarus with tears, and by killing the crimes, drain the forces of death. Death does not reclaim there those whom it loses while they live here, for he who separates himself from sin joins himself to justice; and the spirit of life, obeying, guards the commandments, repudiating sins, scorns to serve death.

No longer does it die, nor will death hold sway over it, nor will Tartarus receive it in death, but heaven. Have no doubt in this, nor ever distrust; for divine pronouncements decree thus: Those who are proven to have repented of evil deeds have indeed passed over to the kingdom, to live with Christ. Let nothing render you doubtful about mercy. For God is readily disposed to show clemency even to the unworthy, and willingly grants forgiveness to the penitent, provided you repent and no longer commit deeds requiring repentance. And because you are called a mocker and a scoffer, turn repentance into a punishment of danger. Labor without fruit is, and hope most vain, to lament sins yet not cease from sinning. As if one were to build up what is destroyed, to restore what is ruined, if what he washes today he defiles and soils tomorrow; for thus he is not considered clean, but always unclean. Nor does such a one obtain pardon, but provokes wrath, since he does not wash away, but extends the record of crimes. Finally, you, more cautiously shunning examples of such things, both repent of having sinned and cease from sinning. Dissipate past faults by the work of tears. Give alms, if you have them, redeem your shameful acts, and reject the pursuit of most vain things, take care to despise them. Let sin always be renounceable, always abominable, which drags from heaven and casts into hell.

Better to pluck the glory of the kingdom in splendor than to bear the loss of the kingdom through the horror of filth, having turned back. Seize the light after the darkness of the Lord, and, embracing life, abandon mortal deeds. Confess to Him, be pricked, lament, beseech, say: I have sinned too much, spare me, have mercy, bend the knees of your heart, prostrate on the ground with your body, beseech persistently, pray with flowing tears, that you, humble, may soften whom you, proud, exasperated. For the humble and weeping obtain the clemency of God, not the laughing, nor do the stubborn gain it by entreaty. Certainly repent of whatever you have done wrongly, so that, hating, you may shrink from whatever you indecently loved, that with fitting shame a modest blush may finally seek pardon through the prayer of tears. For by these remedies the sins of the soul are healed, and all wounds regain their former health. For thus you quickly calm divine wrath; thus indeed you will obtain whatever you demand by weeping; thus finally you will be able to escape whatever shuts in, binds, hinders, afflicts, overshadows; and you will rejoice to return to the grace of God in this way. Although you may be an impious, wicked, unjust sinner, polluted by every kind and contagion of crime, ask pardon of God, never hesitating in faith, who purges all penitents of every sin; true repentance of the offense dismisses every crime, nor is there any misdeed that tears do not wipe away. Although the day of judgment may terrify by justice, now mercy is possessed by certain repentance.

God punishes the sinner for the past, if he is found good after having been evil at the end. As it is said of the impious man: if he abandons his impieties, performs works of justice, and is converted at the last, all his impiety is blotted out and forgotten, and, removed from death, he will live forever through eternal ages. Thus, finally, Paul, made faithful from unfaithful, lacks all the crimes which he had once impiously committed. Thus Matthew the evangelist came from being a publican. Thus Cyprian, from a magician, became a priest and martyr. Thus Augustine, a more ardent lover of truth, becomes from a Manichaean a proven teacher. Thus the Ninevites, lamenting their impious, obscene, and unspeakable crimes, earn life by repenting. Manasseh, who had filled the temple of God with idols and had profaned the law once given from heaven, later, having lost his kingdom, captive and bound with many iron chains, placated the Lord by repentance, and was restored to his kingdom, freed from his bonds and his sins. Thus David redeemed the guilt of adultery and homicide. And Ahaz similarly escaped the hanging wrath of heaven, concerning which God had said he would soon avenge. Peter, having lapsed in faith, rises again by repenting. Thus the harlot and the publican of the Gospel, by shedding small tears, cleanse themselves from great sin. And very many others, whom the Scriptures once declare, after crimes became celibate men through penitence. Thus, on the contrary, those who abandon prior good by seeking evil fall from the pole to Tartarus.

It is said of the just man: if, having departed from iniquity, he turns out to be wicked, all his justice perishes, and he himself is condemned to death. Thus Judas, once suddenly become evil, lost all the good which he had formerly performed blessedly. Thus nothing of the good which Solomon previously did is counted to him, but he is condemned for his final evil. In whatever will or act anyone is found at the end, in that he will be judged, as the Lord Himself spoke concerning this, saying: "In whatever I find you, in that I will judge you." And if you believe further, God loves those who, after wickedness, strive to be more upright, and thus after vices exercise themselves in great virtues, more than those who are known never to have committed grave evils, and who are too sluggish to perform good deeds especially. Just as a certain master embraces that servant more who, after greater losses, brings back gains, than one who lost nothing and made no increase. Thus an emperor loves that soldier more who, returning after flight, lays low the enemy by pursuing him, than one who never fled and never did anything brave. Thus a farmer loves that land more which yields him abundant crops after thorns, than that which never nourished thorns and never at any time produced a fertile harvest. Do not despair of pardon, but rather hope for salvation, if you decide to condemn the worst things while about to do the best. Correct your fault, change your ways, renew your life, and you will not later regret having paid any price.

He will not be in crime, whom it repents to have been so before; nor will he be called impious, who has become pious anew. But the following verses, composed with lamentations, sighing, read them out, sometimes weeping, chant them. For the Lord can turn grief into joy, and change all adversities into prosperity. Whom they glorify with eternal praises in the heaven of heavens, and whom the worshippers of the world exalt with highest honors. Amen.