Liber De Reparatione Lapsi

BACHIARIUS TO JANUARIUS, THE BOOK ON THE REPAIR OF THE LAPSED To the brother blessed in Christ, venerable to me in all faith and love, Januarius, Bachiarius, a sinner, sends greetings. Were I not afraid, most blessed brother, lest among feigned friends the portion of Job be assigned to me—those who, seeing his wound, as if he had no consolation, rested in perpetual silence—it had nearly come to pass that I too, with hand placed over my mouth and the pipe of my tongue stopped up, would close the doors of my lips with silence. But far be it from my faith that I should call any wound one that has no consolation, since the Prophet proclaims to me: "Is there no physician in Gilead, or is there no resin there?" (Jeremiah 8:22). For Gilead is interpreted as "heap of witness"; and this heap of witness we understand to be the entire canon of the divine books, where a pile of indissoluble testimonies, like a heap of stones, is gathered; in which heap the true physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, if sought, is found. What, moreover, is resin, if not the virtue of continence, which joins what is dissolved and glues together what is torn? Knowing this, we do not hesitate to mingle the lamentations of our mouth with the consolation of that wound which has occurred. For we have heard of the destruction of a dreadful calamity; we have heard Satan exulting over the ruin of a soldier of Christ; and the jubilant cry which the diabolical army gave in its triumph has reached even our ears; and I call God to witness upon my soul (2 Corinthians).

...because my bowels are stirred; and so my bones are shaken, and I would feel every part of my body tormented by the same wound. For I would not say that this evil happened without loss to me, where a member of my body was struck by a diabolical arrow, since the Apostle says: "If one member suffers, all the members suffer together" (1 Cor. 12:26). But my mind is not wholly given over to lamentation or weeping, because I have cause for anger against you. Behold, a brother went forth with us into battle against our common enemies, and suddenly he fell prostrate by mishap: you judged him not even worthy of the honor of burial, but left him to be devoured by beasts and birds. Where is the mercy of the Christian religion, which our Master (Matt. 9:13) taught to be better than sacrifice? Behold, a brother lies struck down by the enemy; perhaps he still gasps; and you, because you return without a wound, have not even attempted to bring consolation to his wound. Do not be without fear, most blessed brothers: the enemy has struck a stronger one, so that afterward access to the rest might be easier for him. Why, I ask, do you spurn the wounded man, or think him thus dead? Better was Rizpah, the daughter of Saul and concubine (2 Sam.

(2 Samuel 21:10), who guarded the bodies of the dead whom David had struck down for the vengeance of the Gibeonites, girded with sackcloth, that is, with haircloth, until water dripped upon them from heaven, that is, until a drop of heavenly mercy flowed down for their pardon. Better is that Judas Maccabeus (2 Maccabees 12:40), who believed that prayer should be offered even for dead brothers, whom the stolen gifts of idols from the city of Jamnia had laid low. Why, I ask, has our Physician placed so many kinds of remedies among the compartments of his books, if there is nothing from all his plasters that can heal the wound inflicted by the enemy? Was it so hidden from the Chief Physician that his skill could in no way provide for his own? And if it pleases, let us open the school of our Physician; and from the beginning of the canon let us search out the types of wounds and medicines. Behold, at the very entrance of his school, those two authors of carnal seed meet us, who, struck by the venomous tooth of the serpent, were not immediately condemned to the punishment of eternal death; but cast down from the delights of paradise, that is, from the freedom of the Church and from the communion of the sacred mystery, they were condemned for a time under the type of sorrow and tribulation, so that they might be healed by the poultice of penance; and they were to remain exiles from the tree of life, that is, from participation in Christ, until they might return to him through the flaming sword (Genesis 3:24).

until the rain fell from heaven, that is, until the grace of the Lord descended. (24) That is, the fiery passion of martyrdom, or that they might return through the Cherubim of the Lord, which is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge," concerning which it is not now the time to speak individually. But what of that fratricide, upon whom the Lord commands a sign to be placed (Gen. 4:15), so that no one might be able to kill him? For He does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 18:32). Nor is that prince of the fathers far removed from these, who first believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6); who, when his brother's son was captured by a hostile legion, took up a crowd of his own servants and snatched him away. Afterwards, he freed him from the plague of Sodom, that is, from the judgment of Gehenna, by holding a colloquy with the divine majesty, that is, by the merits of his prayer. And you, therefore, take up a crowd of your own servants, that is, by your own work, not another's, and bring help to your captive brother. Speak with the Lord, that is, pray to Christ, lest the fire of the future judgment consume him.

Imitate the work of the patriarchs (Gen. 34 ff.), who, when their sister fell into the hands of foreigners, not only abhorred the violation but also avenged it. Yet consider who the avengers of the sin were. Were they not Simeon and Levi? And you are from the tribe of Levi, who serve in the ecclesiastical office. Simeon, moreover, is interpreted as "obedience." And you, therefore, who have been obedient to God, why do you delay to free or avenge a disobedient soul? For the soul of your brother is your sister; if you allow her to serve among foreigners, you will sin. But perhaps you say, "This one who has fallen is a Levite; no remedy of medicine can be applied to him." You err, brother: return to the school of the Physician. Behold, in the second place, that is, in the book of Exodus, where the entire plague and wound of the people is described, even Levites are reported to have sinned; they are said to have been corrected first by the rebuke of the lawgiver; and the crime of sin in them is not so much condemned as their swift conversion is praised in the speed of their penance (Exod. 32 ff.). Our Lord also mentions this matter in Ezekiel, when he says of the Levites: "Those who first went out from me, when Israel had erred" (Ezek. 44:10). The high priest himself also fashioned an idol at the suggestion of the people; for which Moses made a prayer, that is, he was freed by fraternal aid. But perhaps you say, most blessed one: "Not yet were the Levites sanctified, nor the high priest consecrated, when the crime of this evil was committed.

I do not contradict your perspicacity, which you have derived from the volumes of the Scriptures. Yet I could respond to you in this way according to the apostolic sentence, which speaks to the Hebrews (Heb. 7:9-10): because Levi, hidden in Abraham’s loins, gave tithes to Melchizedek and received them. Or as for Aaron himself, what do you think was lacking to him in pontifical honor or rank, when he struck Egypt with dreadful signs and, going out by night with the people, celebrated the holy Passover? For we know that the Passover could not be celebrated without a priest. But, having set these aside, I wish to ask you: What was Aaron when, struck by the sting of envy against Moses, he murmured, joined by Miriam (Num. 12:1-2)? But you might perhaps say that envy is less than fornication. Read then the blessed Apostle, who says: “Neither fornicators, nor the envious, nor the evil-tongued, nor the avaricious, nor slanderers shall obtain the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). Do you see how things equal and similar to one another are joined together, which do not enter the kingdoms of heaven? Note what penalty of punishment envy deserves, through which the prophetess Miriam is struck with leprosy (Num. 12:10); and also what avarice deserves, for which Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, is condemned by a similar fate (2 Kings 5:27). But you, who do not detest the avaricious, who do not shun the envious, who do not avoid the slanderer and the robber, do you condemn with the penalty of eternal death a brother returning for a time from fornication? Yet we do not say this in order to loosen the reins of sinning.

Let whoever reads this note that we are not speaking to the living, but are consoling the dead. Finally, let him rise again; and you will see that we immediately hand over to him the verse of the Psalmist saying: "Your rod and your staff, they have consoled me" (Ps. 22:4). He will receive the rod of correction, and the staff which can support the weak. But let us understand the Apostle's saying thus: that neither the envious, nor fornicators, nor those coveting the goods of others will possess the kingdom of God; that is, if the time of summons finds anyone in this vice; because elsewhere the Lord says: "I will judge each one in his own ways" (Ezek. 33:20). And the Apostle himself says: "What sort they may have been at some time is of no concern to me" (Gal. 2:6). In his epistle, the blessed John commands us to pray for a brother who has no sin unto death (1 John 5:16), that is, who has not followed the evils of his sins up to the very end of his life. For concerning the Levites, which you had mentioned above, that they were not sanctified when they were polluted with sins: what does it seem to you about that which is written in the books of the blessed Esdras (1 Esd. 10:18), where, having returned from the Babylonian captivity, and with the foundations of the Lord's temple recently rebuilt, not only the common people, but also the priestly family, and that of the great Jesus, are found to have been mixed with foreign women, that is, with Syrians, Idumaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites?

All of them, however, by the same sin, taking the counsel of Esdras and withdrawing from the company of foreign women, were deprived. Whence you see that just as we are stained by the contagion of sin, so we are washed clean by its expulsion. Let us not, I beseech you, most blessed one, overwhelm our brother, sunk in the depth of a well under the power of an unjust prince, with the stones of despair. Let us imitate that Ethiopian (Jer. 38:7, 11), who, when the holy Jeremiah was cast into a pit by an unjust king, took up the help of thirty men and, lowering rags and ropes to him, freed him. Behold, our brother is in the pit: let us take up thirty men, that is, either the help of the blessed Trinity, or with the labor of the mind, of flesh and spirit, let us free him sunk in the depth of the well. Let us send him old rags: let us bring back to his memory the examples of the ancients, who, having fallen through sin, were afterwards brought back from the depths of evils to the heights through penance; when these have been placed before his eyes, he will not be able to despair. A wounded soldier is accustomed to fight more fiercely in the second battle, and to rise up more angrily against his striker. Behold, we stand at the end of the age: battles of passions press for the name of Christ. What wonder, if he whom the spear of fornication struck should prevail in the conflict of passion? What if he should be victor in martyrdom, whom incontinence and lust had conquered? Did not that Nazirite do so (Jud.

born from a promise, whom the seductions of a woman overcame to his own ruin; is it not found that afterwards, at the end of his life, under the passion of martyrdom, he laid low a greater army of enemies than before, when he was a Nazarite, that is, undefiled? For just as that priestly family descending from the kinship of Heli (1 Sam. 3:14), to whom the Lord had sworn that none of them would stand before his face, because they had provoked the Lord with grave sins—was not that whole kindred reported slain for David by Saul (1 Sam. 23:18)? And what is this but a form of martyrdom, that those whom the grave crime of sin had enveloped, death inflicted for Christ would set free? These are the sacred mysteries of the blessed volumes. Thus the potter does not suffer his vessels to perish at all (Jer. 18:6), who says he can even restore them when broken and dashed against stones. Do not despise, I pray, a deceased brother: he is the son of the barren Shunammite (2 Kings 4:20), that is, of the Church; this one who died was born from a promise. For once the Lord promised and pledged his birth from a second Abraham in the seed of Isaac (Gen. 22:15; Heb. 11:18); whose head was struck in the heat of the harvest, that is, the chief part of his mind grew hot amid the very flame of the lust of hope. Let his mother run to Elisha; that is, let the Church weep diligently: for he will rise again, if we faithfully hope for this from Christ.

And you, most blessed one, in the case of your deceased brother, imitate the work of Elisha: fit hand to hand, foot to foot, mouth to mouth. First, so that you may have compassion for him who lies dead; and do not, exalted by the triumph of your own integrity, rise above or extend yourself beyond him whom sudden death has snatched away; but imitate the Apostle, who says: I fear that my Lord God may humble me before you, and I may mourn many of those who have sinned before (2 Cor. 12:21). Moreover, place your eyes upon his eyes, lest they wander further to his own ruin; your mouth upon his mouth, lest it speak wicked things; your hands upon his hands, lest they perform harmful deeds; your feet upon his feet, lest they wander into shameful places. And thus, when your limbs have been joined to his limbs for his protection, he will not only have no further opportunity to sin, but will also seize hope of rising again; so that he who died from the cold of sin may be recalled to life by the warmth of consolation. Remember, however, to cast everyone out of his sight: let no one see, let no one be in the midst, nor let anyone claim his vision from proximity. Why do I say a relative? If that carnal mother is present, let her not even be given entrance to enter. For thus you know Elisha acted in the case of the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4:34), thus our Lord in the case of the ruler's daughter (Matt. 9:25), thus blessed Peter in the case of Tabitha (Acts 9:40). For a very secluded and solitary place must be prepared for a man dead in sins, where nothing more is taken in than the physician and the corpse.

I beg you, most blessed one, let us not abandon our stricken brother, once pleasing to us, defenseless as the enemy found him. He lacked the breastplate of Justice (Eph. 6:14; 2 Thess. 5:8), the helmet of hope and salvation, and the sword of the spirit, with which the soldiers of Christ are armed. Let him be healed, I ask, because he still palpitates; and let him return to the fight. Did not that illustrious and strong David, who in his youth overcame a giant of wondrous size, later be overcome by the foolish nakedness of a woman? (1 Kings 7). As soon as he recognized from the words of the prophet (2 Kings 12) that he had sinned, he immediately fled to the poultice of penance, healing the scars of his crimes with the satisfaction of confession. But even then the enemy did not cease to attack him. For later, by numbering the people (2 Kings 24:1), he persuaded him to sin; and he almost killed him with the giant's weapon (2 Kings 21:16, 17), had not Abishai, the brother of Joab the commander of the army, freed him by interposing the protection of his aid. Whence also, I believe, he himself says in Psalm 70: "My feet were almost moved" (Ps. 82:2). And elsewhere: "They have often assailed me from my youth" (Ps. 128:1). But you who say, "Let there be no memory of him, because he slew himself by a shameful sin," first inquire, brother, whether this one who fell was wounded in battle, or was wounded at home: for he whom the enemy struck in combat deserves more mercy than he whom a thief stabbed while sleeping.

I certainly saw him stationed in battle: he fought with the shield of fasting against the enticements of gluttony; he fought with the breastplate of silence against the darts of detraction and the other cursed weapons; but in that place where he thought himself more secure, he was struck. For just as Asael, that brother of Joab, the commander of David’s army, who is said by Scripture to be swift as a deer (2 Sam. 2:18, 23)—oh, this, I believe, because the purity of an uncontaminated body had granted him the gift of swiftness (for the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul [Wis. 9:15])—was reported to have been struck by Abner, whom he was pursuing, with the point of a lance in the loins. In which part of the body the vice of fornication is located, I think there is no one who doubts. Just as later Abner himself is said to have been struck by his brother Joab in the groin (2 Sam. 3:27); because the form of fornication deserved to be slain nowhere else than in the groin. But did Asael not remember the consolation of his brothers, whom the entire army of David mourned so greatly? Or was he erased from the book of life, that is, from the memory of the Lord’s reading? Scripture does not forget him, so that it even makes mention of the swiftness he had before his death, when it says: He was swift as a deer; that is, one who not only avoided the snares of the enemy by mental acumen, but also proved to be a slayer of serpents, that is, of adversarial virtues.

Remember, brother, that we are flesh: that sea (that is, the form of baptism) which blessed John says he saw in the Apocalypse, he described as glass (Rev. iv, 6; xv, 2); and therefore in us it is quickly endangered or broken. Slippery is the path of this world, constricted by icy iniquity: when the heat of concupiscence has slightly loosened it, it is easy for the wretched to slip and fall. Reach out your hand to your fallen brother (Ecclus. xv, 18), who, confused by the shame of sin, dares neither to raise himself nor to lift his eyes. Fulfill the law of Moses: If your brother’s donkey falls under its load (Exod. xxiii, 5), that is, the flesh overcome by sin, bend down, humble yourself, and lift it from the ruin. Why are you ashamed to join with a sinful man? Look at the one who says: Do not be too just (Eccles. vii, 17). Our Master, when a man was wounded by robbers (Luke x, 30), not only judged him worthy of care, but also restored him to his stable and sheepfold; and having given two denarii to the stableman, that is, both Testaments of the divine canon, he promises him a greater reward if by his diligence he brings the stricken man back to his former state. And so you too gather your brother, whom the robber devil with his band of satellites has struck: assign him to the stableman, that is, to the blessed bishop, who, if he spends anything on him, will receive more from the Lord. But perhaps you say: That man was wounded; this one is dead.

And you, if you say he is dead, or place him among the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:21). I do not want you to separate him far from the members of Christ, because he himself will blush at the fellowship of the better ones and will rise again to life. Do not think it a small torment of correction, if a sinner is admitted into the fellowship of the blessed; because their rewards he feels to be his own torments. If someone is praised, he blushes; if someone is blamed, he acknowledges. Placed among these whips of words, he always draws near to satisfaction and correction. But now what of this, which we have heard said by some: that that man or that woman, who are partners in crime and sin, should be joined together as in marriage and union. Far be this from the speech of a Christian mouth. This is the suggestion of the serpent, that he should take up even the corpse of the one he has killed. It is similar to a message, if someone struck severely gasps for breath at the end; and if a worldly physician should happen to visit him, suspecting that he cannot live, should urge that he be killed? It is similar, without doubt, to what is said: A brother or sister has been found, gravely wounded by the weapon of lust: when the marriage of their crime is urged upon them, what else is said but that they should be killed, because they cannot live or escape from this wound? Perhaps you do not know what punishment awaits the despairing one? That messenger of Saul's death (2 Sam.

When he had come to David and reported that his enemy was laid low, David, inquiring into the cause of death, heard from him that the messenger himself had slain him with his own sword, adding and saying: Because I saw that from the blow inflicted on him in the wound he was not going to survive (2 Sam 1:10); whom David immediately condemned to death; since he had despaired that the man struck by the enemy would survive, and, with hope's confidence removed, had cut him down. Nay rather, in Davidic fashion, let the garments of heart and breast be rent: let a tearful voice be raised in lamentation: let the Israelite people, that is, the ecclesiastical people, be taught mourning, and let it say: Lift up your stones upon your heights, and think of your slain, how the mighty have fallen in battle. Let this not be announced in Gath, nor proclaimed in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the aliens rejoice and the sons of the uncircumcised be gladdened (2 Sam 1:19-20); and the rest which is contained in the decree of his lament; and let it say, or speak: behold, it is forbidden that within the borders of Gath, nor within the territories of Ashkelon, that is, in the knowledge of seculars or worldly men, the fall of a brother or his ruin be sown: and have we suffered, not only the very city he inhabits, but the whole world, to be filled with the despair of his reputation?

Does not this precept also cohere with that evangelical saying which states: "If your brother sins against you, rebuke him alone; if he hears you, you have gained him; but if he does not hear you, take with you two or three witnesses" (Matthew 18:15-16), and the rest which the discourse of the precept contains. You see, therefore, what it says: "Let the sons of the uncircumcised not rejoice." Wretched me, who know these things. For who are the sons of the uncircumcised but men of this world, living in the error of their sin and in gentility? They therefore rejoice when they hear of the ruin of a soldier of Christ, or they console themselves from his deed, saying: "Behold the one who is reproached to us by others; by whose example we were compelled to live; who, though he had emerged from our body, yet his life was said to be unlike ours, to our confusion." Was it not better never to begin what is good than to fall so shamefully, or not to be able to complete what you have begun? Not knowing that, by the judgment of God, the soul which is known to have willed the good and to have been supplanted by the insidiator may perhaps have greater excuse than that which, rebellious against God, from the desperation of servile fear, chose rather to be subjected to the yoke of captivity than to experience the peril of combat. Does not a soldier before his king find excuse in his own wounds, and does not the scar of his wounds often commend a valiant warrior?

But leaving these aside, let the dead man be mourned, the corpse be buried; that is, partly by our effort, partly by the confusion of his own shame, let his sin be concealed and removed from the midst. Let us, however, bestow the linens of consolation and the pigments of heavenly hope; but let him, within the tomb of his own secrecy, confounded by the shame of his sin, restrain himself; there let the worm of his conscience tear him, consuming all the rottenness of his sins within, until it emits no foul stench of disgraceful reputation from itself. Did not blessed Tobias thus earn the mercy of heavenly forgiveness, by granting burial to the dead brothers in captivity? I believe so, by persuading and instilling repentance in those who had fallen under the domination of the worldly prince (Tob. 1:18; 2:9). And we, therefore, according to what he deserves, let us cover his body. Behold, a prophet went out from Jerusalem (1 Kings 13, ff.), that is, from the house of the Lord, against Bethel, which was fornicating away from the Lord, that is, the city of this world; to whom the Lord had commanded that he should not taste of its food or drink. But he who, through a false prophet, that is, through the spirit of fornication, was deceived by the wicked one, fell into the power of the Lion and into the lot, who roars and goes about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Yet he stands beside his corpse, so that unless it were carried to the bosom and tomb of the Church, it would serve him as food and prey. But let us imitate the office of the false prophet; and let us bury with the honor due to all the one whom the devil has struck.

Christ is accustomed to raise the dead from such a tomb: only let us not leave his corpse to be devoured by beasts or birds, that is, by vices or by worldly men. How, I ask, can we despair of the Lord’s mercy, who even rebuked Pharaoh because he deigned to repent not at all, saying in the prophecy of Pharaoh: “I have broken the arms of the king of Egypt; and he did not beseech that health be given him, and that strength be restored to him for grasping the sword” (Ezek. 30:25). That remarkable Solomon, who merited to be joined to the assessor of God (Wis. 9:4), that is, to Wisdom, fell into the embraces of foreign women; and ensnared by the bond of lust, he even polluted himself with the error of sacrilege when he fashioned the image of Chamos for the Moabite idol (1 Kings 11:17). But he who through the prophet recognized the fault of his error—is he, then, an exile from heavenly mercy? But perhaps you say: Nowhere in the canon do you read that he repented or obtained mercy. Listen, then, brother. His repentance, which is not written in public laws, some perhaps deem acceptable for this reason: because he repented not before the face of the people, but in the secret of his conscience, with God as witness.

We know, however, that pardon was obtained from this; because when he was released from the body, Scripture records that he was buried among the bodies of the kings of Israel: yet we know that elsewhere this was denied to sinful kings, who remained in the perversity of their purpose until the end of their life; and therefore, because he deserved to be buried among the just kings, he was not excluded from pardon: but that pardon itself could not be merited without penance. That synagogue of Korah, when for the rashness of its daring it had been swallowed alive by a gap in the earth, yet the little altars of theirs in which they kindled a foreign fire, we are ordered to surround with the Lord’s altar (Num. xvi, 37), for this reason, because they are said to have been sanctified: which we understand to be their souls, in which they had received the heat of adulterous flames with presumed freedom; and therefore they are swallowed alive; but their little altars are forbidden to perish; just as the Apostle also says: I have handed over such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be safe in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. v, 5). Consider therefore, brother, to how few it is granted to free their limbs unstained by the bite of sin from the amphitheater of this world, where one fights with beasts, that is, with vices. That man, who had experience, said: Do not hand over to the beasts the souls that confess to you (Ps. lxxiii, 19). But since it has been some time that we have been conversing with you, we must be careful lest our verbosity offend you.

Hence we also turn our pen to you, for whose sake we have said these things. Why do you shun me, brother? Why do you entrust yourself more to the company of worldly men? They perhaps mock your fault; I lament it, and if it is necessary to die together, I will choose it. Why are you ashamed of our presence? Our case is similar, because I too am confounded with shame in your affair. As I see, Ammonitius the king (2 Kings 10, etc.) shaved off half the beards of David's soldiers, that is, of Christ's ministers, and cut their tunics down to the groin: that is, he removed from them the manly appearance in the half of the beard, and is shown to have made them effeminate through the delightful razor of vices. But half your beard is shaved, because by one vice you have lost whatever good you had done in the virtues of God: you too are shaved of half your beard, because if you are willing to labor in the remaining time of your life that is left to you, it will grow back. He indeed cut the tunics down to the groin when he revealed the shameful deeds which he himself had persuaded, in the eyes of men. But there is hope even for this. Let us sit in Jericho until our beards grow back: that is, let us be the reproach and disgrace of the better ones and become an anathema to all, as was the case for the Israelite people in Jericho, until the appearance of beards, that is, the increase of virtues, is born for us. Believe me, our king will grieve at the injury, he will avenge us, his soldiers, whom the enemy has thus dishonored.

Our king David was briefly absent from our sight; and therefore, vanquished by enemies, we broke off a portion of the field full of the ruddy lentil, which is the form of our modesty and delicate chastity. But now that our king has opened the recollection of sin to the eyes of our heart, let us stand firm, so that even that which remains—that is, the rest of our life’s time—may be defended and kept safe. Do not, I beg you, let anyone persuade you, whoever he may be who tells you, to turn this into a marriage and to call a crime a matrimony. Do not provoke God’s offense and multiply it. For if what the enemy persuaded you to do furtively and with fear is called a fault, how will it merit pardon when, as if insulting God and His judgment, you begin to claim it publicly for yourself? Imitate that Amnon, son of David (2 Sam. 13 ff.), who, when he had burned with unlawful passion for the violation of his sister, afterward hated her more than he had previously loved her; and for this deed he was killed by his brother, because, once the fault of the error was recognized, he did not persist in the crime, but vehemently hated the very matter of his sin. Hence we also suspect that David was not moved against him, because he quickly saw that he had received repentance; and that by which he was deceived for the space of a single hour, he immediately hated with impatience, and by the virtue of repentance broke its snares.

But whoever is caught in the net of vices and patiently acquiesces to his enemies, that is, to the hunters, until he is even shut up in a cage and there fattened over a long span of time for display, will then be most pleasing to the princes of the world when he has been killed. Until you have escaped the mousetrap of fornication, do not trust the snares of drunkenness, through which you may incur the anger of Absalom’s spirit (cf. 2 Sam 28); for lust and drunkenness are a kind of twin sisterhood in the birth of vices. Therefore, brother, lift up your spirit, raise your eyes which the shame of conscience has cast down; and do not let hostile despair break you. Behold, Absalom, who had killed his brother, through the intercessions of friends earns the king’s pardon (2 Sam 14:23); so much so that he does not despair of seeking even the kiss of peace and the presence of Christ’s countenance. And you, therefore, be humble and submissive to those whom you know to be friends of David, who was once your father when you had not sinned, so that through their intercessions you may merit what you cannot by yourself. And if they should be harsh in hearing you, do not cease to supplicate, opportunely and inopportunely; because Absalom merited through injury what he could not obtain through friendship; and what he did not merit by his merits, he obtained through injury. Do you wish to know that often, through the occasion of injury, saints intercede for sinners? Blessed is that one of the four, the head of confessors and martyrs, when he was being pelted with stones by a maddened people, at the very exodus of Israel from Egypt (Ps.

... (Acts 7:59), that is, of the soul departing from the body, with bended knee he prayed to the Father for sinners (Acts 7:59): following the example of our Master, who begged forgiveness for the people who were persecuting him (Luke 23:54). Behold, you see where the occasion for prayers arises from the injury and punishment of the saints. We do not say this so that you may earn the intercessions of the blessed through their abuse; but we give counsel, that if on account of the magnitude of your crime they dare not supplicate, then, patiently suffering the injury of your importunity, they may more easily be heard by the one whom they have offended. Set fire to the neighboring barley that is in the field (2 Sam. 14:30); for the tongue is fire (James 3:6), and the field is this world. Thus, whenever you begin to disparage the fruits of a good life and say: "Behold, what sort of saints are these, who dare not pray for sinners? Where is the daily reward of the work?" then, through your tongue, the hope of the saints will be kindled to the confidence of praying; because they will recognize that you are driven to this necessity for the sake of your own benefit, not by the vice of detraction: just as Absalom did not set fire to Joab's field in order to harm him as an enemy; but so that, even thus, he might look back to the one who was detracting him, whom he had not heeded when he was flattering; and thus he might merit the presence of him who was a neighbor or friend of Christ.

For the fruit of the saints which, according to men, is taken in barley, is not unsuitably received; but that which is according to God may be esteemed in wheat, because there is no doubt that the saints sow both, according to the Apostle, providing goods not only before God but also before men (Rom. 12:17). And therefore Absalom burned the barley neighboring to him, that is, the manner of life which was carried on among men; but he could not reach that which is before God, because only the Father knew that. But perhaps you will say: Your persuasion requires a man who is quiet or secure; but I must daily fear the persecutor of the world, who wishes to avenge the dishonor of his neighbor upon me. If, therefore, you dread something of this kind, behold the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20, following), which, if you please, enter. And if perhaps, on account of the consciousness of sins, you dare not enter those which are in the land of promise, that is, in the Church; there is Bosor beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, which is interpreted as "distress," that is, the small or modest cell of a monastery; and it will suit you very well, because it is of the lot of Reuben, and he himself unlawfully stained his father's bed (Gen. 49:4). There is also Ramoth of the lot of Gad, which is interpreted as "high death," or "vision of death.

Truly, a lofty death is to be called penance, since with the members mortified, a man is led to the high places of the heavens from which he had previously fallen away: or, according to that humble death which generally threatens all flesh, that death is reasonably called lofty in comparison to it; because it is far nobler to die through penance than to be dissolved by this common death. But if we wish to understand the vision of death, it can be understood thus: because when we are placed in penance, and we set before our eyes the torments of Gehenna and the underworld, we see the very form of death from which we are freed by the benefit of penance. Only remember that you are performing penance in the city of the son of the handmaid; because everyone who sins is a slave of sin (John 8:34); and taking on the form of a slave, it is necessary that you humble yourself even to death (Philippians 2:7-8). There is Gaulon in the borders of Manasseh, which is interpreted as "rolling," so that you remember that you must roll in sackcloth and ashes: and this in the borders of Manasseh, which is interpreted as "forgetfulness," so that, forgetting those things which you did before, you stretch forward into former things (Philippians 3:17). Therefore, dwell here, so that through narrow straits, death, and rolling, you may escape the anger of the persecutor and find the hope of salvation.

Then, if in these matters you have done something useful, you will be able to reach even Cades in the land of promise, which is in Galilee, which is interpreted as "holy"; so that when in tribulation you have cast off the work of corruption, access to the holy Church may be granted to you; and into the lot of Nephthalim, which is called "the released vine" (Gen. 49:21), so that you may merit to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's blood. But neither will the entrance to Hebron be closed to you, which is interpreted as "union" or "marriage." For let your soul return to her husband, that is, to the Spirit of God, from whom for a time she had been widowed by sin. And thus you will be able to enter even the sixth city, Shechem, which our Joseph receives as an inheritance, because he was buried there, which is interpreted as "shoulder" or "labor"; so that you may show that through the labor of penance you have been carried back from your error on Christ's shoulders (Luke 15:4), and joined to the ninety-nine sheep, and made the hundredth, because Shechem itself is written to have been bought from foreigners for a hundred lambs (Gen. 33:19).

But why, brother, does sloth still delight you as you lie prostrate? Arise, for the physician has come, who says that the rottenness of sins must be cut away, and after this the wound of the scar itself must be healed. Why do you tremble? Why do you shun the treatment? You who did not at all fear the spear of Goliath, which weighs down with the weight of six hundred shekels—why do you flee from the knives of the evangelical instrument? You who endured the fire and flames of the enemy, why do you dread the fire of the Lord, this fire which He comes to send upon the earth, which will consume the hay, the straw, and the wood? Cut away from yourself the rotten will of habit; burn your loins and your heart; condemn your enemy, the appearance of the body, through which you were either deceived yourself or deceived others. Let your limbs be shriveled and emptied by fasting, and let the hairshirt, which you had defiled by foul reason, become your accustomed covering; so that when you are pricked by its touch and roughness, you may always recall the goads of sinful habits. Your Moses fears the calf in you, through which you reveled in the wilderness; that is, let the discipline of the law and of fasting consume your flesh, so that it may be reduced to nothing and wasted away. You have read, I believe: "Be angry, and do not sin." So too, be angry at your sins, that you may sin no more. Anticipate the savage torments of avenging Gehenna, and become your own torturer; so that when it comes, it may find nothing in you that the enemy can punish.

If the occasion of passion comes, remember how you must fight in the presence of your King, so that you may correct the fault of a deserter and a fugitive. But if perhaps this opportunity for blessedness is lacking, you yourself can be your own persecutor; so that, as the Apostle said (Rom. 12:1), through every death you may consecrate yourself to God. Enter the prison of your monastery; and seek out the darkness of solitude by which you may be recalled to the lost light. Let hunger be for you against gluttony, and thirst against the flame; so that by the hand of the executioner of the will, through the punishment of abstinence, the bare framework of the ribs may be laid open to the entrails; and in place of the punishment of fire, the burning of harsh thirst may consume the inner marrow of the bones. Let vigil be for you like the watch of the night offices; and as if bound by a chain of rigid iron, so constrained by a harsher custom and law, await the pardon of heavenly mercy under the image of martyrdom. Come, come, why do you hesitate? That ladder of Jacob (Gen. 28:12) from which you fell, while you wish to ascend, is still in place and not yet removed: and although in your fall you have shattered all your limbs, yet try again to ascend: and until you come to that step from which you fell, keep and guard yourself strongly; for although every ascent is slippery, yet that one quickly tilts and hurls one into the depths.

But perhaps you will say that, like the Pharisees, I am imposing heavy burdens on the shoulders of men, while I myself am unwilling to touch them even with my finger (Matt. 23:4). Behold, brother, since we are forbidden the license to swear (Matt. 5:37), if you place any trust in my wretchedness, I promise, according to the mercy of the Lord, that I wish to be a participant in this labor which I urge; as for your fellowship, desirous of your salvation, I not only thrust it upon you but also offer it. And if perhaps you are ashamed to come to us, send word; and I will hasten without delay to lead you. Let your fellowship shudder, like Ruth from the Moabite field—that is, from the soul coming from drunkenness and fornication—at one who seeks only his own and, ignorant of mercy, glories solely in his Israelite lineage. I, although I am not like Boaz (Ruth 4, ff.), nevertheless desire to join your soul to me; nor let anyone accuse me of presumption, because it is lawful for me to raise up seed from the widow of my deceased brother (Deut.

from touching them, lest I lose the paschal sandals and become an heir of Christ's passion; and, as if struck blind by the word of the bridegroom, I may not receive the spittle of a fasting mouth which is cast upon the ground and trampled, until, with seed spilled, I enter the widowed soul of a dead brother—that is, one dead through despair; but, having sought a multitude of seed, a copiousness of words gathered from the Scriptures, I may join myself to this widow and draw near, so that, having heard these things, she may be able to conceive without difficulty and give birth to the spirit of salvation. For I remember the words of the apostolic precept, where it says: "Snatch some indeed from the fire, console the doubtful" (1 Thess. 5:14); and elsewhere: "Whoever recalls a sinner from the error of his way will save his own soul from death" (James 5:20). It is no small thing if we extract even the tip or the very edge of an ear from the lion's jaws (Amos 3:12): although I think that the most blessed pontiff who, in those same places, stands with his priests at the divine altar, imitates no other than the Davidic work; so that when a lion or a bear has snatched a sheep from the flock, he rises up against it and, with its throat choked, snatches the prey from its gullet; or, like a good shepherd, he recalls the wandering one, binds the bruised one, and turns back the erring one.

You, however, brother, should by no means acquiesce in a criminal and shameless marriage: do not insult him whose wrath you will not be able to sustain. Rather, let that woman whom he made a partner in the guilt of the crime return to her husband. Is the sister of the patriarchs (Gen. xxxiv) ever said to have married after she sinned? The lawgiver commanded (Lev. xx, 10) that whoever defiled another's wife should be stoned together with her; and therefore he does not permit marriage, but under the name of stones a harsh sentence corrects and amends the sin. Look at the prophet who says: And I said, after you have played the harlot, return to me (Jer. iii, 1). Although the king of Assyria has captured the vessels of the Lord's temple (Jer. xxvii, 16), yet let them return to the temple (1 Esdr. i, 7-11), lest unclean Babylon possess them forever. Although the prince of cooks, who prepares the foods of our sins for his master, that is, the worldly prince, has set the temple of the Lord on fire through the flame of base lust; yet let Zorobabel come, that is, the spirit of wisdom, who has already understood the power of women to rule over evil men, and trusts entirely in truth: let Esdras come, the library of the Law, and the memory of reading: let Naaman the Syrian come, the power of confidence and the scorner of fear; who does not fear the power of the prince for the rebuilding of the homeland; and with the places of Jerusalem arranged one by one (II Esdr.

iv, 16, 17), that is, the members of the body with the angelic and patriarchal virtues, so that what has collapsed may be rebuilt, and what has been rebuilt may be guarded; one hand serves the building, the other the guarding. For Adam was placed in paradise to work (Gen. 2:15) and to guard. Therefore, let the gateways of the portals be rebuilt through the tropologies of the names. Let the Probatica Gate be rebuilt in its beginnings (Neh. 3:1, LXX), which we suspect to be the hearing, through which we judge whether things that come to us from outside are good or evil; because faith is from hearing (Rom. 10:17). Let us do what the Apostle says: If you are in the faith, test yourselves (2 Cor. 13:5). Let the Fish Gate be rebuilt (Neh. 3:3), that is, the always wandering nature of our sight, and along the paths of the sea, that is, the swift and fleeting glance of the eyes upon the ways of this world; because sight itself can be likened to a net; whatever it looks upon, it immediately catches; and what is caught, it transmits to the inner storerooms of the heart. Let the gate in Anathoth be rebuilt (ibid., 6), which is interpreted as "answering sign": this we suspect to be the forehead's crossbeam, where we received the sign of our salvation and of the Lord's sanctity; that is the golden plate, where the high priest is commanded to receive the name of the Lord written, the tetragrammaton. Do you wish to know whether we incongruously take the gate in Anathoth, which is interpreted as "answering sign," for the crossbeam of the forehead?

The prophet joins to this gate the places of the perfumers (Ibid., 8), which are said, through the tropologies of names, to have been rebuilt by other virtues. But what are the places of the perfumers, if not those which are touched by the sanctification of chrism? After these follows the Gate of Fruit (Ibid., 13), which we suspect to be the office of the mouth and taste, through which the fruit of all seeds, that is, of the words of God, goes forth. Let the Dung Gate also be rebuilt (Ibid., 14), which we suspect to be the entrance of the nostrils or of smell, through which foul enticement deceived us, and we considered as gains what were dung (Philipp. iii, 8). Let the Strong Gate also be rebuilt (II Esdr. iii, 15), which I believe to be the office of our hands or of touch; because we did not hold strongly what we held, and another took our crown (Apoc. iii, 11). Let the walls of the Swimming Pool also be rebuilt (II Esdr. iii, 15), that is, the form of our baptism and the broken defenses of the mystic font, which are the insignia of chastity; because, with the wall of continence dissolved through lust, as if the barriers of the sacred water were broken, we poured out and lost the wave of the font. The wall is said to be rebuilt for this reason, that we may know that the mercy of the Lord is so great that even the times of interrupted chastity can, when rebuilt, be recalled to the former likeness of the virtue of continence. Thus you also, through the names and the tropologies of places, should understand that these things which are said to be rebuilt are the offices of the members.

Until you should not imitate the work of the king of Babylon (Dan. 5, following), so that you might believe you ought to drink the wine of perdition in the phials of the Lord’s temple, and this before your gods, Venus, Mars, and Mercury, that is, fornication, or avarice, or fury; because it is written: “The fury of man is incontinent” (Job 31:11, according to the LXX), and elsewhere: “Avarice, which is idolatry” (Eph. 5:5). For you cannot count avarice only in money; because avarice is felt especially in lust, upon which no limit is ever imposed. But that the phials in the temple of the Lord are called virgins, the Prophet teaches us by saying: “Wheat to the young men, and sweet-smelling wine to the virgins” (Zech. 11:17, according to the LXX); as if, into whom the liquid of wine is poured, what is it but a phial that is named? I would indeed wish to be taught by the more learned, from what authority of the Scriptures it is urged that a corrupted woman should marry; since blessed David did not permit even his concubines, whom his son defiled by base intercourse, afterwards to marry or to have husbands (2 Sam. 20:3). Did he not keep them as widows, providing them with substance, until the end? David, that is, the Lord Christ, does not wish that his wife be held by another man in his sight. Finally, that daughter of Saul whom (2 Sam. 3, following) he had lost for a time in persecution, he afterwards demanded to be returned and restored to him; and although she had even been joined to another, yet she is taken away from him and assigned to the one to whom she first belonged.

You have defiled David’s wife: do not presume to do this further; but just as he who had taken her did, weeping and lamenting, give back and restore. Or perhaps that one wiser than all beasts and the ancient counsellor (Gen. 3:1) has suggested to you that you might perform this penance which we urge upon you in your old age, and now satisfy the hunger of your desire under the name of marriage. But do not extinguish the evangelical spark with the moisture of vices, which proceeds from that fire of the whole book where it says: Fool, this night your soul will be demanded of you (Luke 12:20). For if among those for whom marriages are honorable, they cannot be lasting; among you, where they are joined together with crime, how will they endure? Let him come who says that this crime is to be corrected by marriage, and that from the name of such a great crime it is to be called a marriage. For marriage is a word of religious name (Heb. 13:4), since it was granted with God as author. Behold, concerning honorable marriages the Apostle cries out: Having, as though not having (1 Cor. 7:29). And who says, Let the adulterer have, use, exercise? But I see to what he turns for his own defense; for it is written, he says, It is better to marry than to burn (ibid., 9). This was said concerning a virgin or a widow. She is no longer a virgin. Then she was burning, and she married: now let her be cooled, and live. She is not a virgin, because she has been corrupted: she is not a widow, because her husband lives forever. Why then do you urge marriage upon her?

Do you wish to know what the Apostolic sentence is concerning this error? He says in his Epistle: “It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not found even among the Gentiles, so that one man has his father’s wife” (1 Cor. 5:1). Behold, something similar has occurred. This young woman who erred was the wife of that Father who begot us in the word of truth (James 1:18). At that time, I believe, she was joined to him in marriage, when, according to the example of Rebecca coming to Isaac from Mesopotamia, she received the veil with which to cover her head (Gen. 24:65). Concerning this deed the Apostle says: “I have delivered such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved” (1 Cor. 5:5). Did he say, “I commanded that he marry the woman he had corrupted”? No, but, “I delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” For Satan is interpreted as “adversary”; by which, I believe, he signifies that whatever is contrary to pleasures, whatever is contrary to the will, the flesh which sinned should feel entirely, so that the spirit may be saved for the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But you, brother, whoever has persuaded you of this, curse him. For observe that never in sacrifices are livestock worn out with age slaughtered, but everywhere either a lamb, or a calf, or a goat, or a kid is immolated (Exod. 29 and elsewhere), that is, tender still small, or moderate sins. In one grove alone we read that Elijah offered an ox, but this only once (1 Kings 18:33). This was permitted to the Saviour alone, who slaughtered the inveterate sins of the whole people. But do not think that your tender kid is still a sin. Believe me, it is a goat. Behold through how many tracts of land the stench of yours, that is, the foul opinion of your reputation, has travelled. How then is what stinks so much not said to be a goat? The prophet declares blessed the one who seizes the little ones of Babylon and dashes them against the rock (Ps. 136:9). And do you wait until your giant becomes an enemy? But if you wish to know, it is already a giant. For as soon as the sons of God desired the daughters of men, giants were born from them (Gen. 6:4): which is the form of a giant, excessively huge and beyond the stature of other sins. And if there is perhaps someone who says that David took the woman he had committed adultery with into the fellowship of his marriage (2 Sam. 11:27), the case is not similar: for this one was the wife of a king, that one however the wife of a soldier. That one, as a mortal man, could be killed by the machination of a crafty scheme: but this King is heavenly, whose wife has been corrupted and violated.

Not at all does the approach of the passion of death pertain to one who is not temporal but eternal. And yet David, in the absence of Uriah the Hittite, although he was his soldier, although a mortal man, presumed to take for himself the bed of Bathsheba. Did he not attempt not only to thrust upon him, but even to extort from him (2 Sam. 11:13), that after the food and drink which he had ordered to be served more generously by a crafty device, he should stay at home and lie in his own bed? How will you, with the husband living and present, and at the same time with the King—and what is greater than this—with the immortal and eternal one, claim for yourself the bed of an adulteress? But perhaps you say: After the cause of the adultery was known, her husband cast her out and repudiated her. You deceive yourself, brother, because through the Prophet he himself proclaims: "Where is the bill of divorce of your mother by which I dismissed her?" (Isa. 50:1.) And elsewhere: "Does not the one who forges rise again? Or the one who turns away, does he not turn back? Why does my people not repent of their evil deeds, and, detained in their malignant purpose, have they refused to return to me?" (Jer. 8:4-5.) Behold, the prophet, by the command of the Lord, took a harlot as a wife (Hos. 1 ff.); and do you say that the soul has been cast away by God to perdition? But I do not contradict this marriage, if you can produce from this matrimony such a fruit as came forth from Bathsheba and David, whom the Lord through the prophet called Jedidiah, that is, "beloved of the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:25), who among men was called Solomon, that is, Peaceful, and held the principate of the whole world, that is, of the whole man.

Such a son is born from penance: such do the groans and lamentations of the grieving bring forth. Finally, the blessed David himself, when in his youth he was caught with an adulteress, in his old age is found with a virgin (III Kings 1, seqq.); so that we may understand that, after sin, long chastity is an imitator of virginity. But do you also imitate David, so that she whom you had as a companion in the vice of corruption, you may have as a partner in the labor of penance: not that you repent together, but that, separated from each other, you may be joined by performing one work; for a firebrand still smoking from the fire is quickly seized by a devouring flame. Before all else, therefore, brother, let not the hostile despair grow in you, because that unbeliever asserts that one who has fallen cannot be restored; whereas the Lord says: "All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to men; but he who has sinned against the Spirit shall not be forgiven" (Matthew 12:31). I, however, say that this very despairing of the Lord is to sin against the Spirit, because the Lord is Spirit (John 4:24), and therefore it is not forgiven him, because he has not believed that the Lord can restore to him what he has lost. For what is it that stands in our way regarding pardon? Our Lord is omnipotent. Is it impossible for the omnipotent one to erase sin? Our Lord is good; because no one is good except one God (Luke 18:19). Can it be that in that preeminent goodness and perfect power this fault falls, that he does not hear the one who prays?

Act therefore, friend, arise; and with the reward and substance lost amid the waves of the world, like a shipwrecked man cling to one plank (Luke 15:13), that is, to the knowledge of the divine canon, which may lead you to the shore, where it says: If his sons abandon my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they profane my justifications and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with blows, but I will not scatter my mercy from them, nor will I harm them in my truth (Psalm 88:31-34). Of whose sons is this spoken? Is it not of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the womb of the ecclesiastical font and the secret and intricate womb of mystery brought forth, whom the cradle of the Cross received when born, and the breast of the Gospel nursed? Do you wish to know that the baptized, not the catechumens, are called sons? Behold what he himself said to his Apostles: I will no longer call you servants, but sons (John 15:15). And you therefore, if you have known yourself to have been a son, that is, if you have had something apostolic in you, you are not permitted to despair even so.

If, however, you have always performed the office of a servant, that is, of a sinner, let greater boldness be given to you to rise up: because the fall of one who slips from a lowly state is lighter; and one who, having long been entangled in error, at some point turns to a righteous life [or path] is burdened with a lesser weight of wrath than those who, after holy deeds, have lived shamefully and have sewn an old patch onto a new garment (Mark 2:21). But what of that which is said in the Apocalypse to its churches, which are compared among the number of the faithful to seven-branched candlesticks under angelic guard? "Remember from whence you have fallen, and do penance, and do your former works; otherwise I will come to you quickly and remove your candlestick" (Rev. 2:5). And in the earlier part of the book, he says he saw an innumerable people (Rev. 7:15) who in tribulation washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; of whom he says that the Lamb of God leads them to the fountains of life (ibid., 17). Yet we understand this number to be that of the penitents, because they were saved only through tribulation and lamentation.

Therefore, wash your garment in the fountain of tears: perhaps you will be able to imitate the linen of chastity. What if He grants you the purple, and you pour out the juice of your blood for His name? Moreover, crimson will be able to abound for you, if you blush at those things you previously did. Nor will hyacinth be lacking to you, if you have grown calloused by bruising your body and have reduced it to servitude. And thus with these colors, perhaps you will at some time be able to be mingled into the tabernacle of the Lord. This, most beloved brother, compelled by love and grief for you, I have attempted even beyond my strength and ability. You will have a double penalty on the day of judgment if, like deaf asps, you spurn the words of our incantation; or if you deem worthy of scorn either the word of the one entreating, or the counsel of the one warning, or the affection of the one grieving. May Jesus Christ, the Son of God, having taken from you what was taken by the envy of the devil, restore your goods twofold; and may you be reconciled to the Lord in such a way that you may deserve to intercede even for us, who are your friends, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.