Letter M

^A

LETTER M

TITLE I. — Concerning secrets, and those who disclose secrets.

Prov. xi, 13.—"He who reveals a secret walks deceitfully." Eccli. xix, 10.—"Have you heard a word? Let it die with you." Eccli. viii, 15.—"A cruel man is he who does not hoard words, and will not spare regarding affliction and chains." Eccli. viii, 21.—"Do not do anything hidden before a stranger; for you do not know what it will bring forth. Do not reveal your heart to every man." S. Chrysost. Orat. 3, On the Statues.—"He who safely and diligently contains what he has heard will live his life with great pleasure." Ibid.—"Have you heard a word? he says; let it die with you. Extinguish it, and bury it. Do not give it power in any way to go forth, nor to move at all. Cut off what has been said; consign it to oblivion, so that you may be like those who have not heard." Philo.—"Loquacious men, vomiting forth things which ought to be suppressed in silence, pour things unworthy of being heard into ears on account of the itching of their tongues."

TITLE II. — Concerning hatred of wickedness, and those things which are displeasing to God.

Job xxxv, 13.—"God does not wish to look upon wicked things; the Lord will not enter before them." Ps. v, 7.—"For you are not a God who wills iniquity. Nor will the wicked dwell beside you, nor will they remain, etc." — xxx, 7. "You have hated all who observe vanities in vain." — xliv, 8. "You loved justice, and hated iniquity." — lii, 6. "God has scattered the bones of those who please men; they are confounded, because God has despised them." — cxviii, 118. "You have despised all who depart from your judgments, because their thought is unjust." ^B Prov. xxii, 22.—"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord; an unjust thought is an execration to the Lord." Prov. xvii, 15.—"He who judges the unjust man to be just, and the just man to be unjust, is unclean and execrable before the Lord." Prov. iii, 34.—"The Lord resists the proud." — xii, 22. "A perverse way is an abomination to the Lord." — xvi, 5. "Every one who is sublime in heart is unclean before the Lord." Isa. lxi, 8.—"I am the Lord loving justice, and hating rapine from iniquity." ^C Isa. x, 14 (cf. i, 14-15).—"You have become a satiety to me. I will no longer forgive your sins. And when you stretch forth your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you. And if you multiply prayer, I will not hear you. For your hands are full of blood." Eccli. x, 7.—"Pride is hateful before the Lord and men." "That which is sublime among men is an abomination before God." ^D

TITLE III. — Concerning repentance and confession.

Gen. xxxviii, 26.—"Judas said: Thamar is justified, for which cause

^A Thamar, because I did not give Selom my son to her. And he did not continue to know her any more.

[II Kings XII, 11-13.] "Nathan said to David: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I raise up evil against you, and I shall take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor; because you did it secretly." And David said to Nathan: "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said: "The Lord has also put away your sin."

[III Kings XXI, 27-29.] "As Achaab was pricked in heart before the face of the Lord, and was walking weeping, and rent his garments, and girded sackcloth upon his body, and fasted. In the day that he struck Naboth, the Lord said to Elias: I will not bring the evil in the days of Achaab, because he was pricked in heart before my face, but in the days of his son I will bring the evil."

^B [Prayer of Manasseh.] "You, Lord, according to the multitude of your goodness, have promised repentance and remission to sinners for salvation."

[Job XXXIII, 23.] "If there be a thousand death-dealing angels, not one of them shall harm him, if he understands in his heart to turn to the Lord."

[Job XI, 15.] "Strip off the filth, and you shall not fear, and you shall forget your labor; as a wave that has passed, and you shall not be afraid; and your prayer shall be as the morning star."

[Job XXII, 23-29.] "If you return and humble yourself before the Lord, and put away iniquity far from your dwelling, the Almighty shall be to you a helper against your enemies; and he shall render you pure as silver purified by fire, and there shall be light on your ways, ^C because you have humbled yourself."

[Job XXXVI, 11.] "If they be converted from iniquity, and hear, and serve, they shall finish their days in good things."

[Prov. XXVI, 26.] "A prudent man discovers his own sins in council."

[Osee VI, 1, 2.] "Come, and let us return to the Lord our God, for he has struck, and he will heal us; he who has struck will also cure us; he will heal us after two days, and in the third day we shall rise, and we shall live before him, and we shall know, and we shall follow on to know him."

[Joel II, 12, 13.] "Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in lamentation. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and full of mercy, and repents of the evil."

^D [Zachar. I, 3.] "Turn to me, and I will turn to you, says the Lord Almighty."

[Isa. I, 16-20.] "Wash yourselves, and be clean; take away the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes. Cease from your wickednesses. Learn to do good; seek judgment, deliver the oppressed, judge the orphan, and justify the widow; and"

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them as white as snow; and though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as wool. And if you be willing and hear me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you will not, ^A and will not hear me, the sword shall devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." Isa. XIX, 22. — "They shall turn to the Lord, and he shall hear them, and shall heal them." "When you shall have turned, you shall weep, and then you shall be saved." Isa. XLIII, 25. — "I am he that blots out your iniquities, and they shall not be remembered. But do you remember. Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified." Isa. XLV, 21. — "I am God, and there is no other besides me. A just one ^B and a saviour, there is none besides me. Turn to me, and you shall be saved, all you who are from the ends of the earth." Isa. XLVI, 12. — "Hear me, you who have lost your heart, who are far from my justice. Draw near to my justice, and I will not delay the truth and the salvation which is from me." Isa. LV, 6, 7. — "Seek God, and when you have found him, call upon him; and when he draws near to you, let the wicked man forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his counsels, and turn to the Lord, and you shall obtain mercy, for he will abundantly pardon your sins." Isa. LXII, 7, 8. — "If you amend ^C and make Jerusalem a joy upon the earth, the Lord has sworn by his glory, and by the strength of his arm, that I will no longer give your corn and your food to your enemies, and the sons of strangers shall no longer drink your wine, for which you have laboured." Jerem. III, 10. — "Turn to me, O colony of Israel, says the Lord, and I will not be angry with you forever. Yet know your iniquity, that you have acted impiously against the Lord your God." Jerem. XVIII, 7. — "But at length I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to take away and to destroy it; and if that nation shall turn from the evil I purposed to do to them." Jerem. XXVI, 3. — "Do not withhold the word; perhaps they will hear, and turn every man from his evil way, and I will cease from the evil ^D which I command to be done to them." Jerem. III, 12, 13. — "Turn to me, O colony of Israel, says the Lord, and I will not take my face away from you, for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever. Make your ways and your works better, and hear the voice of the Lord; and the Lord will refrain from the evils which he has spoken against you." Ezech. XVIII, 21-23. — "If the unjust man shall turn from all his injustices which he has done, and shall keep all my commandments, and shall do judgement and mercy, he has saved his soul. And he has seen, and has turned from all his impieties which he has done, he shall live in life, and shall not die. All

^A his transgressions shall not be remembered; but he shall live in his justice. Do I desire the death of the sinner, says the Lord, more than that he should turn from his evil way, and live?

[Sap. XII, 19] — “You have made your children to be of good hope, for you give place for repentance for sins.”

[Eccli. IV, 3] — “Be not ashamed to confess your sins.”

[Eccli. V, 5-7] — “Concerning propitiation, be not without fear, to add sin upon sin. And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great; He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins. Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly the wrath of the Lord shall come, and at the time of vengeance He will destroy you.”

[Eccli. XXI, 21] — “My son, have you sinned? Do not do so again, but pray for your former sins.”

[Matth. V, 5] — “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

[Matth. XI, 28-30] — “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light.”

[Matth. XXVI, 75] — “Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said to him: Before the cock crow, you will deny me thrice. And going forth, he wept bitterly.”

[Matth. IX, 12] — “They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. Go then and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance.”

[Luc. XV, 8] — “What woman having ten drachmas, if she lose one drachma, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently?” [etc.]

[Luc. XV, 11-32] — “A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country: and there wasted his substance, living riotously. And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And returning to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee: I am not now worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, ^D his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running, fell upon his neck and...

kissed him. And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants: Bring forth the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: he was lost, and is found. ^A

II Cor. vii, 10. — "For godly sorrow worketh penance steadfast unto salvation."

Jac. v, 16. — "Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much."

I Joan. i, 9. — "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity."

I Joan. ii, 1. — "My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ."

S. Basil. Hom. de jejun. — Have we been afflicted on account of our sins? Let us be cured by penance. But penance without fasting is empty and unfruitful.

Id. in illud, Attende tibi. — Pay attention to thyself, so that according to the proportion of the offense, thou mayest also receive the aid of medicine. Art thou bound by a great and grievous crime? Thou hast need of great penance, of most abundant tears, of sharp watchings, of constant fasting. Hast thou committed a light and tolerable sin? Do thou exhibit a like penance. ^B

Ejusd. — It would be desirable that we should not even touch evil. But let this be the second course of navigation, that after having tasted evil, we may immediately flee from it as from the bite of a serpent. If, hurried away by the sudden onset of the enemy, thou hast conceived an impious thought in thy mind, do not persist in the sin. But if this also has happened to thee, see that thou do not settle down in the vice.

Ejusd. in psal. xxxiii. — It is impossible for anyone to gird himself for virtue, unless he has first completely departed and emerged from vice.

Ejusd. ex can. Const. — If the multitude of God's mercies could be numbered, or the magnitude of His mercy measured, in comparison with the multitude and magnitude of sins, he who has committed sin might despair. But if these things can indeed be measured and counted, while no one can measure or count the mercy or the compassions of God: there is no reason why the sinner should lose heart, but [let him] recognize the mercy, and condemn his sins, for the forgiveness of which [forgiveness] is proposed in the blood of the Lord. ^C

Ejusdem, Epist. ad monach. laps. — If any hope of salvation remains for thee, brother; if even the smallest remembrance of God; if any desire for the good things to come; if any fear of the punishments which are stored up for the obstinate, wake up quickly, lift up thy eyes to heaven. ^D

^A Come to your senses. Cease from your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has been poured upon you. Rise up against him who cast you down. Remember the mercy of God, that He heals with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall to mind the words that have been written: Does he who falls not rise again, and does he who turns away not return? He who is struck is healed, he who is captured by wild beasts overcomes, he who confesses is not cast out; for God does not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he should return and be saved. Do not, having fallen into a depth of evils, become contemptuous. It is a time of forbearance, a time of patience, a time of healing, a time of amendment. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Be quiet. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but jump back. For when you turn and groan, then you shall be saved. For there is health from struggles, and salvation from sweats; there is salvation, there is amendment. Take heart, do not despair. It is not a law that judges and condemns to death without mercy, but grace that governs, delaying the punishment, awaiting the amendment. The doors are not yet closed; the bridegroom is listening; sin does not rule.

^B The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the medicines for return have not been spoiled; the city of refuge has not been closed. Do not remain in the depth of evils. Do not hand yourself over to that murderer of men; for the Lord knows how to raise up those who have been crushed.

Let no one living in vice despair of himself, knowing that while husbandry changes the qualities of plants, the care of the soul according to virtue is able to overcome various kinds of illnesses.

It is not the change of evil that involves shame, but the retention of it that involves destruction. Do not be reluctant to confess your sin, so that you may escape the shame of that place by the shame of this; since this is part of the suffering of that place, and you will show that you have truly hated sin by setting it as an example and triumphing over it as something worthy of insult. — God is healed by no other thing as much as by suffering, and for tears His love of mankind is repaid. ^C

God rejoices in nothing so much as in the amendment and salvation of man.

Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in rejoicing. Let us become Ninevites, not Sodomites. Let us heal our wickedness, let us not be consumed by wickedness. Let us listen to Jonah preaching, let us not be overwhelmed by fire and brimstone.

If the anger of God were an emotion, one would rightly despair, as if no longer able to quench the flame which one had kindled through so many evils. But since the Divine is without emotion, even if He chastises, even if He punishes, He does not do so out of anger, but with love of mankind and ^D providential care.

*To another monk who had fallen.* — The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the medicines of conversion are not corrupted; the city of refuge is not closed. Do not remain in the bottomless pit of evils. Do not accommodate yourself to that homicide; for the Lord knows how to raise up the crushed.

*From the same, Homily on the Hexaemeron.* — Let no one who lives in vice despair of his salvation; having this as a certainty, that just as the toil of the farmer changes the qualities of plants, so also the concern of one who is zealous for the virtue of the soul has the power to overcome any kind of disease.

*St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration on the Epiphany.* — It is not the rejection of vice and wickedness that is shameful, but the maintenance of it that is destructive.

*From the same, On Baptism.* — Do not be ashamed to confess your sin, so that you may escape the future shame through the present one. For the former is a part of the future misery. By this act, you will also manifest that you have sincerely hated sin, inasmuch as you have exposed it as if it were worthy of contempt, and have led it in a triumph. — By nothing is God so reconciled as by the affliction of the body, and mercy is usually repaid with tears.

*From the same, On the Holy Lights.* — God is delighted by nothing so much as by the correction and salvation of man.

*From the same, On the Great Plague.* — Let us sow in tears, that we may reap in exultation. Let us imitate the Ninevites, not the Sodomites. Let us cure vice, lest we perish with vice. Let us listen to Jonah preaching, lest we be overwhelmed by fire and sulphur.

*St. Chrysostom, To Theodore who had fallen, Book 1, Chapter 3.* — If the anger of God were some sort of perturbation, someone might rightly despair of his own salvation, as one unable to extinguish that flame already kindled by so many sins. But since God is removed from every perturbation

^A of mind, we ought to be heartened and place our full trust in the power of repentance. Even if you do not show forth the whole of repentance, God does not pass over even the brief and short-lived version, but instead assigns a great reward even for this. Repentance is not judged by the quantity of time, but by the disposition of the soul. He who has repented of the terrible things he has done, even if he does not show forth a repentance worthy of his sins, will nevertheless receive the reward for this very act. When you sin, do not despair of yourself, but run at once to the resurrection. Do not say to yourself: "Woe is me, I am lost! I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery, I have committed murder." You have a harbor of salvation that drives away sin. For when I see such a man who has received wounds and is being torn apart, I immediately run to repentance, and I speak with boldness, pouring forth fountains of tears. Many times, both men and women have fallen into a grievous and incurable disease. Tears have been poured out, medicines have been consumed, medical art has been at a loss, beauty has withered, the body has been surrendered. This woman then goes about, saying: "Where shall I go? What shall I do? I have exhausted my wealth, I have summoned doctors, the medicines have been used up, the disease remains, the ulcer does not yield." It often happens that one of those who have come to visit the sick person says: "I too once fell into the same malady, and such-and-such a person ^B put a medicine on me and freed me from the disease." Then she implores him: "Show me the woman." Go to the alleyway, she says, and ask this person and that one; there is no need for trouble, no need for toil, nor is it necessary even to cross the threshold of the house; rather, you may receive the medicine while standing right here. Thus also David, while he was still of youthful age, possessed the mature fruit of virtue. ^C Samuel therefore came to Jesse, who was rich in the procreation of many children, holding the horn in which was the holy oil. And what does he say? "God sent me to make one of your sons king." Jesse, having heard the title of king, thinking that this dignity was fitting for the eldest, brings his firstborn into the middle. What then does the prophet say? "Move him aside," he says; "he is not the one accepted by God." He brings the second; nor is it he. The third, by no means; the fourth, the fifth; the band of sons was exhausted, and the one who was being sought was not found. He says to him: "Do you have another?" The father was ashamed. "I have one," he says, "a small, vile shepherd boy." ^D Thus, indeed, does man hold him of little account; but God crowns him. For man does not see as God sees. For man indeed looks upon the face, but God looks upon the heart. For he does not

^A seek out the bulk of the body, but rather desires the nobility of the soul. God had not said to Samuel: "Go, and anoint David for me"—for fear that the same thing would happen to him as happened to Joseph; for just as his brothers, when they happened to learn that he would be king, laid traps for him, attacked him, and sold him, so he took care that they would not likewise perpetrate such things. Wherefore their ignorance brought him safety. The prophet stood anxious. "Give me one," he said, "one of your sons." The other said: "I have no one, except a small boy feeding the sheep." Man does not see as God will see. Where are those who boast in the beauty of form? Do not speak to me of the beauty of the body, but look at the beauty of the mind. For what is a beautiful woman, if not a whitewashed sepulcher? If she is not modest, even if she has beauty, she is a pit dug for others, a prepared poison. This is withered by sickness and is cut off by death; but the beauty of the soul remains immortal and stainless. And then it displays its own loveliness when the passions cease and the mind enters into tranquility. If, therefore, you see a man or a beautiful woman, do not admire them, since the oaks also are stretched out to a height, yet have no fruit; but the vine, dragged along the ground, has ripe fruit of clusters. What, then, do you desire? To have a vine, or an oak? It is clear that it is a vine. For the oak, standing on high, has for its nourishment the fruit of wild, irrational animals. What is more insignificant than a bee? What is better? A bee, or a peacock? Take away the peacock, and you have lost nothing; take away the bee, and many things are lacking. David therefore came; the oil is found, and he is anointed by the decree of God, but by the ministry of man. A horn was placed upon him, and it became for him instead of purple and a diadem. And he went forth possessing the kingdom, not armored with a breastplate, nor a shield, nor spears, but with the decree of God, which is more powerful than all things.

^B This one, when the war was calling and circumstances were being thrown into confusion, and the barbarians were invading the Jews, went forth to see the battle array and the war, and he sees the barbarian challenging to single combat, and no one dared to leap forward or to go out. David, seeing the war glistening, and that the war was unbearable, and that the many were already struck with fear, says: "Who is this uncircumcised one, who has reviled the battle array of the living God?" And they say to him: "Whence comes this insolence in you?" But he: "I possess not insolence, but faith; not pride, but piety. I do not look at his size, but at the desolation of his soul. I do not see that the ship is great, but that it has no helmsman. I do not fear him, for he is an enemy of God. With what weapons do you boast, David?" "Not with carnal ones," he says, "but with spiritual; for our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual." Some, then, heard this and brought him to the king, who was sitting, struck with fear, trembling. And he says to him: "Why has the face of my lord fallen, and why in time of prosperity does he acknowledge bondage? Who is this? Shall I not go and cut off his head?" What then does the king say? "And how are you able? You are a small child, and he is a warrior from his youth." "Do not look," he says, "at those things which are seen, but at those things which are understood. What

then? When the king is ^B incredulous, he is constrained, therefore, to relate his achievements. "I was a small child," he says, "tending my father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and would take a sheep from the flock, I would go out after them and rescue it from their mouth, and I would strike the lion and the bear. And this man shall be like one of those beasts." And Saul said to David: "Go, and the Lord be with you." The king gave him armor, but he could not wear it, for God did not permit this—so that he might conquer naked, so that the armor might not share the victory of his noble deeds, and so that the king might not say, "The armor conquered." He casts off the armor, he puts on faith, he goes out naked, armored only with faith; he goes out a shepherd, and not a soldier. He casts a stone, the foreigner fell; not by the nature of the body, but by the power of faith he carried away the victory. He took his sword, cut off his head, and Scripture was fulfilled: "The sinner is snared in the works of his own hands" (Ps. IX, 17). ^C This, therefore, is such and so great a man, of whom God says: "I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart" (Ps. LXXXVIII, 21). Truly a glorious eulogy and a singular argument for virtue! This man, I say, who had overcome wild beasts, who had beheaded Goliath, who had strangled a lion, who had subdued a bear, who in youthful age displayed gray-headed wisdom; who was small in body, but great in heart; who in royal attire exhibited the austerity of monks (for he shone, not with gems, but with tears: "For I will wash," he said, "every night my bed; I will water my couch with my tears" (Ps. VI, 7))—this man of such virtue, who had drawn to himself spiritual grace; who had touched the celestial axis; who had divinely obtained help; who had ended wars: this man, finally, who had performed great and numberless exploits against the devil, after having cultivated modesty, meekness, and honesty, when he had obtained the kingdom, when he had subjected peoples to his empire and rule, at the hour of noon, rising from his bed after lunch, he was walking about. He saw, therefore, a woman bathing herself, endowed with an elegant figure—a woman bathing herself on a roof, the beautiful wife of a soldier. He saw, I say, and being struck by his eyes, he received a wound. Let those hear this who with curious eyes gaze upon the forms of others. Let those hear who burn with an insane love for spectacles: who say, "We watch, and we suffer no harm from this." David was wounded, and are you not harmed? ^D He was wounded, and am I to trust in your virtue? He who abounded in such great grace of the Spirit received a dart, and you deny that you are wounded? And yet he did not see a harlot, but a grave and modest woman; and not in a theater, but at home; but you see in the theater, where the very place itself punishes the soul. And you do not merely see, but you also hear wicked words, and you see harlot-like clothing and diabolical songs from every side; the mind is struck by the sight, from what you see; by the hearing, from what you hear; by the smell, from what you smell. So many chasms, so many destructions; and I am to be confident for you

corruptions, how can I believe that you are immune from the bites of wild beasts? For you are not stone, nor iron. You are a man, surrounded by the common weakness of nature. You hold fire, and are you not burned? Is that consistent with reason? Apply a lamp to hay; and then, if you can, deny that the hay is consumed. The same must be thought concerning our nature. He saw her, therefore, bathing; he was captivated by her beauty; he received the dart; he was wounded. The king sent for her; she came; the crime was committed, he satisfied his desire. He orders her to return to her own house. I am saying these things, and I bring the wounded man into our midst, so that you who stand around may see how he is being healed. For a surgeon healing has those standing around him, so that they may see how, by his art, he overcomes the disease. Much more, when the prophet is being treated, it behooves everyone to look, so that we may learn how we ought to be delivered from putrefaction and worms. Grave is the sin; the desire was satisfied; the sin was completed. There was no one who could cure. ^B The woman conceived. Until now, the king thought that his sin was unknown to her husband. For although he was a prophet, nevertheless his desire cast darkness over his mind. The woman conceived, came at a run to the king, and says: "O king, I am undone." He says: "What is the matter with you?" "I am pregnant," she says; "the fruit of sin has sprouted; I carry the accusation around in my womb; the evidence of the sin has increased; I have the proof from within. If my husband comes and sees, what am I to say?" Understand how great an evil sin is. The king fears the soldier. For no one is truly a slave, except the one who commits sin. He was wreathed with a diadem, and yet he feared the disgrace? Are you not king? Do you not have the power of the sword? "But I have committed a grave sin," he says. O mother of misfortune! O proof of dishonor! Do you see now how great an evil sin is? What then does the king do? He adds sin upon sin. Then Uriah, her husband, came from the war, and he entered to the king, and ^C he says to him: "How is it, Uriah? How is the war?" He says, "It is going well; we are victorious." The king heard that the soldier had conquered, while he himself had been defeated; the soldier had subjected the war, but he himself had been defeated by pleasure. Being in great distress, the king did not perceive the victory because of the shame of the defeat by which he himself had been defeated. He says to the soldier: "Go down to your house, and wash, and enjoy your meal and your wife." Why these things? So that he might cover the wound, and the child be thought to be born of him. But the sleepless eye did not allow it, taking care of the one who was wounded. What, then, does the soldier do? "And how," he says, "can I do this word? The Israelite people are in war, the commander-in-chief in the ranks, the ark of the covenant of the Lord in the camp, and shall I go to my house and intend to indulge in pleasures?"

^A Since ^A it was no longer possible to hide what had been done, he writes a letter to the commander-in-chief, which ran as follows: "Set Uriah in the thick of the battle, so that he may be killed." And he entrusts the letter to him, and the injured man carried the sword against himself, and carried a letter full of blood. Then presently he stood in the battle, was slain, and died. Behold a second sin: murder became the fruit of adultery. I say these things for the sake of sinners, and those conscious of many evils of their own, so that upon hearing them they may not despair of their own salvation; for it is written: "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery" (Exod. xx, 13, 14). But he violated these two first commandments. Indeed, he committed adultery, and then killed the one he had wronged. A grave ulcer this, a huge wound. Since, therefore, Uriah went off to the war and was slain, the sin straightway sprang up, having been covered over. ^B Then, finally, Nathan went to him; a prophet goes to a prophet, even though David was a prophet. How then does he not heal himself? For just as doctors, when they are sick, have need of other doctors—for indeed, sickness impairs the art—so too here, that man was a prophet, and this man was a prophet. But that man was not lying in a bed, whereas this one was wallowing in vice. They say to him: "Nathan the prophet is outside." He says, "Let him enter." The prophet therefore entered, seeing him sitting with much splendor and royal pride. And what does he say? "I have a suit, listen to me." O the wisdom of the doctor! He entered carrying iron, so that he might cut the ulcer; but he does not show it to the patient, lest he flee the medicine, but hides it inside, not under a garment, but under the wrapping of a contrived narrative. For immediately upon entering, he did not say: "O wicked one! O profane one! O adulterer! O murderer!" He did not employ open rebuke, nor did he use a liberty of speech that was not at all painted, but he kept the iron hidden. "I have a suit," he says, "O king." The other says: "Come, explain what suit you have." Then he himself: "A certain man was in a city, opulent in riches and many herds. ^C Another was a poor man, who possessed nothing else except one ewe-lamb, which ate from his table, and drank from his cup, and slept in his bosom." Do you see how poverty is a cause of affection? For there is huge pride among the rich; but among the poor, the wife performs the office of maid and servant: and if she bears a son, she is both mother and nurse to him. But among the rich, the matter is otherwise. For when a woman has given birth to a boy, she hands him outside to be nursed, and pride breaks the power of maternal love. The mother brings forth, but is not the nurse. She is ashamed, she who has become a mother, to be a nurse. But the Lord is not so. For He both begot us, and He Himself became our nourisher. On that account, He even fed us with His own flesh in place of food, ^D and in place of drink, He gave us His own blood to drink. Then there came a certain stranger to the rich man. Who is this stranger? Licentious desire, that beastly thing. It came, and did not take from his own herds and flocks, but sending, dragged off that ewe-lamb, the one sleeping in the bosom of the poor man, and from the table...

of his, it was eating. What, then? The king was enraged. ^A For he thought he was judging another's case, and he proclaimed what was just with great brilliance. It was not fondness, that he might not speak the truth; but he was enraged, not intending to be, and he spoke the just thing. "By the sword," he says, "he shall die, and he shall restore the ewe-lamb fourfold." And he does not command according to the law; for the law does not command the thief to restore fourfold; for this man even transgressed the law. He cast his vote, therefore, and the judgment was settled. The prophet throws off the mask and says: "You are the man, O king." What, then, did he do? "I have sinned against the Lord." Do you see, even in his sickness, the nobility of his soul? For he did not say to him: "Wretched and miserable man, from whence do you come, and in whom do you trust, that you have entered with such boldness, and filled with madness and pride, wishing to rebuke a king so openly?" But what does the king say? "I have sinned against the Lord." What, then, does he [the prophet] do? "And the Lord has taken away your sin." Swift is repentance; swifter is forgiveness. ^B "State your iniquities first, that you may be justified," says the Scripture (Isa. I, 18). By your deeds you provoked God to anger; by your words, let there be repentance for you. I recount these things so that sinners may hear, and those who have fallen into sins. "I have sinned against the Lord," you say, "and He has taken away your sin." You indeed said, "By the sword he shall die," but you shall not die. You were taken by the love of a harlot, and you committed adultery; do you wish to repent? Do not add sin to sin.

For this reason God chose the first-fruits of sin, so that no one after this might despair of his own salvation. Are you impious? Think of the Magi. Are you a plunderer? Think of the toll-collector. Are you impure? Think of the harlot. Are you a murderer? Consider the thief. Are you a lawbreaker? Think of the blasphemer Paul, and after these things an evangelist: ^C first tares, and after these things wheat; first a wolf, and after these things a shepherd; first lead, and after these things gold; first a pirate and a raider, and after these things a pilot; first desolating the Church, and after these things taking charge of the Church; first cutting down the vines, and after these things becoming a planter; first destroying the temple, and at length building it up. You have seen extraordinary wickedness, you have seen virtue overcoming. You have seen the stubbornness of the servant. Do not say to me: "I am a blasphemer, I am a persecutor, I am impure." You have the examples of all. To whichever harbor it pleases you, flee. Do you wish to [find a home] in the New Testament? Do you wish to in the Old? In the New you have Paul, and in the Old you have David. Do not hesitate, do not delay. Have you sinned? Make yourself repent. A thousand times have you sinned? A thousand times repent. ^D I constantly apply these poultices of words, so that I may compress the swelling. For it does not escape me how prone the conscience is to desperation. The devil stands by, sharpening his swords, and using these words: "You have disgraced all your youth: all your life...

you have wasted previously; after that you plundered, were greedy, lied, perjured yourself, uttered blasphemies. What hope of salvation is there for you? You are lost; therefore, enjoy the present life." These are the devil's words; but mine are the opposite. Are you lost? But you can be saved. Have you committed adultery? But you can be released from it. Have you fallen? But you can arise. Is your repentance meager? But the Lord’s philanthropy is great. Have you committed murder? But repent, but change your mind. Have you committed adultery? But confess. Have you fallen? But arise. Have you inflicted wounds? But be healed. And as long as you breathe, even if you sin on your final day, upon that very bed on which you lie at the point of death, about to depart from this theater—then repent of the time. The narrowness of time does not constrain God's philanthropy. Do not say to me, "How and in what way, when I am burdened with sores and filled with wounds, can I confess on the last day?" You can, and very much so. Pray, perform almsgiving, leave something for the poor in your will. You are going away there, and your work remains here. Do not say to me, "How can I be saved?" Where God acts, do not demand reasons. When He is healing, do not despair. The physician stands by; he cuts, he burns, he applies a thousand medicines, and you do not say, "How are you healing?" but you submit to the art of your fellow servant; and will you not submit to the philanthropy of God? Do not say, "How?", but wonder. I ask you, therefore: how was the thief saved, who spent all his life in murders and the shedding of blood? He broke through walls, he plundered goods; he did not change his mind, he did not repent while he was upon the earth. He was condemned by men, and by God he was crowned. He was not lord of his own life, yet he became lord of a kingdom. He lost things here, and received things there. In what way, I would like you to say? By one single word. For what did he say? "Remember me, O Lord, in thy kingdom" (Luc. XXIII, 42). And that word was powerful. Not only was the word powerful, but the philanthropy of God, mixed with repentance, made the thief a citizen of paradise. How? I do not know; do not demand of me the manner of the remedy. You entreat the physician, "Only free me from my infirmity," yet you dare to say, "How is it that God is the one doing the work?" Tell me, how are adulterers, the effeminate, and pederasts, when they are caught, held in prisons, and yet are released by the mere nod of the emperor? The emperor is my fellow servant. And what of it? Although he wears purple, he has nothing more than my own essence. He is of the same condition as I am; and yet, at his single nod they are liberated, and by his brief letters the guilty party is absolved. No prefect resists, no prison guard opposes, no authority of laws stands in the way; but the dignity of the emperor becomes the release of the captive. And shall God, the master of angels and archangels, if He but nod, be unable to save? And indeed, when an emperor releases a man, he remits the punishment, not the sins; but God remits the sins. He says, "I do not wish for the adulterer to be an adulterer," and His word became a deed. "Let not the fornicator be a fornicator," and His word changed that man's mind and blunted the sin. And so that you may know, He said: "I will it: let the heaven be made," and

it came to be. "I will that the earth be made," and He brought it into existence from nothing. "I will that angels be made," and the choir of angels immediately rushed forth. ^A Since therefore the Word makes intellectual substances and bodies that did not exist out of nothing, can He not also resolve sins? For what is sin compared to the philanthropy of the Master? It is a spider's web; the wind has blown, and the spider's web is torn apart. God wills it, and is the sin not destroyed? I say these things not to make you more slothful, but to bring you to a faith of greater expectation and better hope. Never despair of a man, unless he be one who has despaired of himself. Consider, then, the prophet, who after the grace of the Spirit, after boldness towards God, after the multitude of his achievements, after such trophies, proclaims and says: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy" (Ps. L, 3). I have cast myself into the sea of the Master's philanthropy. And what do you wish, tell me? You heard the prophet saying: "The Lord has taken away my sin" (II Reg. XII, 13). Not only do I seek this; I seek my beauty, I seek my boldness. "According to the multitude of Thy mercies blot out my transgression" (Ps. L, 3). I seek even more, a greater brightness, a greater purity: "Wash me more thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Ps. L, 4). Attend with precision to the word, and strain yourself; the mercy ^B of God is ineffable, impossible to be grasped, surpassing the mind, overcoming reason, but it also has need of things from us. Attend, I say: God shows mercy, but He does not show mercy simply; rather, He says: "Give also something yourself." I mean, you are full of ten thousand sins, you have burdens of transgressions; I wish to lighten them. Give also your hand. Not because I need you, but because I wish you also to contribute something to your salvation. ^C How then was the thief saved, and did he resolve so many sins? But not by mercy alone, but also by his own faith. "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." What did God contribute to the salvation of that man? The remission of sins. What did the thief contribute to his own salvation? Faith. Of what kind? Great, high, reaching up to heaven. How do I say this? The Jews saw dead [men] being raised, demons being driven out, the sea being restrained, the earth giving forth [springs], a fish carrying a stater, a star leading the magi, the upper and lower creation acting as a bodyguard, and after these things they crucified Him. The thief, seeing none of these things, but rather Him being spat upon, insulted, did not take offense, ^D but confessed Him a King. See that he was not merely mercied, but he himself also contributed; for it is necessary for one receiving mercy himself to contribute to his own salvation. Again, the tax collector being a plunderer and greedy, how was he saved? Christ was present, and says to him: "Come,

follow me," and standing up he followed him (Matt. IX, 9). Just as the thief brought his word, so the tax collector provided his following. For just as with those who suffer from unfavorable health and incurable diseases, and who need expensive medicines, if a physician approaches and says to the sick man: "Many things are needed for the preparation of the medicine," and the sick man replies that he is poor and does not have them; the physician then says: "Provide this and that for me, and I will supply the rest myself"—in the same way, the Lord also says: "Give me confession, ^B tears, and repentance, and I will bestow the rest upon you from my own humanity." See what happens: if you remember your sin, God does not remember it. But if you forget it, God remembers it. For He says: "I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember them; but you, remember them" (Isa. XLIII, 25-26). Such were the saints: they forgot their good deeds but remembered their sins. Not as people now are accustomed to do, who forget their own scoundrelly acts, but if they have done anything worthy of praise, they bring it out into the middle, puffed up and boasting, hunting for praise from men. Did you do something good? Forget it, so that your Master might tell of it. Did you do something evil? Keep it in memory, so that your Master might forget it. Yield to your Master; for you do not recount your achievements as the Master recounts them. If you speak of them, you diminish them; but if your Master recounts them, He makes them greater. ^C But recount your sins yourself, that you may blot them out. But are you ashamed to confess, because you sinned? Recount them daily in your prayer. For I do not command you to expose them to some fellow servant who would reproach you; speak them to God who cures them. For does God not know them unless you tell Him? Does He desire to learn of them from you? He was present when you were committing them; He knew when you were doing them. You were performing them, and you were not ashamed to perform them. You were not afraid of the deeds themselves, yet you fear the words by which you become righteous? Speak them here, so that you may not have to speak them there; speak, and weep. Your sins are written in a book. Your tears are in place of a sponge: pour out tears, and these will be blotted out. Pour out tears, and the book will be found pure. ^D And that you may understand what the power of tears is, listen. Did the harlot pour out blood, and yet she wiped away her faults? But why do I mention a harlot, an impure woman? That pillar of the Church, that foundation of the faith, that head of the apostolic choir, I mean the blessed Peter; did he not deny Christ once, and a second, and a third time? Did he for that reason pour out blood? Nay, he sent forth fountains of tears, and he wept, and so he wiped away the stain of his sin. Do you not have a book at home in which you write your daily account? But have a book in your conscience, and write your daily sins there. What I mean is this: when you lie down on your bed, and no one is disturbing you, before you fall asleep, bring the book into the middle and reflect on your sins, saying to yourself: "Have I sinned today? In word? In deed?" This is what the prophet advises: "What you say in your hearts, be pricked in your beds" (Ps. IV, 5). In the day you do not lead a leisurely...

possible for you; but the fear of superiors, and conversations with companions, and business to be conducted, and the effort of raising children, the care of a wife, concern for providing meals, and six hundred other tasks distract you. But when you have cast yourself into bed as into a tranquil harbor, and there is no one to cause you trouble, say to your heart and to your soul: "We have wasted the day today, O soul. What good have we done, or what evil have we committed?" ^B And remember hell, that you may increase the good and remove the evil. If you are in bed, and [you] remember your sins, weep, and you are able to wipe them away in your bed. Entreat God, and thus dismiss your soul to sleep.

The excuse of sinners is this: "I am a sinner," he says, "and I cannot attend." Since you said you are a sinner, attend, that you may become righteous. Are you righteous? Attend, that you may not fall from righteousness. And what man is without sin, tell me? But for this reason there is the sacrifice and the Church; for this reason there is prayer and fasting. Since the soul has many wounds, and many remedies have been found for them, and an appropriate remedy has been prepared ^C for each of the wounds of the soul. You have the Church, the sacrifice being celebrated, the prayers of the Fathers, the provision of the Holy Spirit, the mention of the martyrs, the assembly of the saints, and many other such things able to recall you from sin to righteousness. You did not attend the prayer of the martyrs? And what excuse can you have, tell me? Did worldly care hold you? The crime is greater. You did not lend a small hour to God, so that you might receive an entire day? "I am a sinner," he says, "and I cannot." And because you are a sinner, for this reason enter. Do you not know that even they who minister at the altar, even they are shackled by sins? For they are clothed in flesh, and joined with blood, and bound by bones, and we ourselves who sit upon the throne and perform the duty of teaching are entangled in sins. ^D Yet we do not despair of the philanthropy of God, nor do we attribute any inhumanity to Him. For we are all human beings, fashioned from the same elements. We do not refuse the teaching, looking toward the philanthropy of God. And you, when you commit some sin, do not have so great a crime, for you are under a master and teacher. We, by how much we excel in dignity, by so much are we also liable to a greater crime. For the sin of a disciple is one thing, and that of a teacher is another. And this has come to pass according to the divine administration, that the priests themselves should also fall into sin; for if they had not sinned, nor were subject to the passions of life, they would have been inhumane toward others, and unforgiving. But for this reason also

God allowed those to whom He was to entrust the care of the Church and the people to fall into sin, so that because of their own lapses, they might show themselves more humane and accessible to others. For if they had not themselves sinned, nor been subject to sin, they would have given no forgiveness to those who sin, but, driven by an impulse of inhumanity, they would have cut everyone off from the Church.

That these things are so, and that I do not speak from mere conjecture, come, let us derive conviction from the history itself. Peter was about to receive the keys of ^B the kingdom of heaven; or rather, he had already been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and he was about to be entrusted with the multitude of the nations. For what does the Lord say to him? "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xvi, 19). Now, Peter was of a sharp and severe temperament. If he had also possessed the quality of never sinning, what room would there have been for forgiveness for those whom he instructed? Therefore, divine grace saw to it that he should withdraw from God for a short time and fall into a sin, that by the things he himself suffered, he might become more humane toward others. And observe whom He permits ^C to fall into sin: Peter, that coryphaeus of the apostles, the unshaken foundation, the unbreakable rock, the bulwark of the Church, the tranquil harbor, the tower that does not totter; Peter, I say, he who said to Christ: "Even if I must die with You, I will not leave You" (Matt. xxvi, 35); Peter, who by divine revelation had confessed the truth: "You are the Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi, 16). This man, then, on that night in which Christ was betrayed, entered the house, and stood by the coals, and was warming himself. And a girl coming up said to him: "You also were with this man yesterday." But Peter said: "I do not know this man." O Peter, is this what you had promised? Did you not lately say: "Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You" (Matt. xxvi, 35)? And now you deny, and say, "I do not know the man"? Not yet have tortures or lashes been shown to you, but having heard only the words of a small girl, you hasten to deny? You deny, Peter: when not yet the rack, not yet blows, not yet whips, ^D not yet furies, not yet sharpened swords, not yet prefects, not yet threateners, not yet death impending or announced, not yet prisons and precipices and seas are to be feared—and yet you deny? And again the girl: "Truly you also were with Him." But he said to her: "I do not know this man." Who is this who addresses you, that you should deny immediately? No one who inflicts violence, but a woman; or rather, not even a woman, but a mere doorkeeper, cast aside, a captive, of no account. O strange occurrence! A girl defeated Peter; a girl approaching disturbed Peter's faith. Peter, who was a pillar, did not endure the threat of a girl, but she only spoke, and he was shaken. Whom have you seen, O...

^A Peter, and you deny? A common girl, worthy of contempt, a doorkeeper; did you see her and deny? Yet nevertheless, a third time: "And you were with him?" In the same way he denied. And thus, looking upon him, Christ brought him to a remembrance of what had been said. He, understanding, began to weep and to repent of his sin. But yet, the Lover of mankind forgave his sin. For He saw, as God, that he had suffered something human. He fell into sin, in order that, considering his own transgression and the Master’s forgiveness, he might forgive others for the sake of humanity. For it was permitted that he—the one who was destined to be entrusted with the Church, the pillar of the Churches, the harbor of the faith, Peter the teacher of the world—should fall into sin, so that the forgiveness granted to him might become the ground of humanity for others. ^B And why have these things been said by me? Because we also, the priests, and those who sit upon the throne, are bound by sins. For this reason, the priesthood was not entrusted to an angel or an archangel, for they are sinless, lest they should suddenly strike the sinners of the people with thunderbolts; but a man, taken from among men, was entrusted with this throne, and he himself is bound by sin and pleasure, so that when he happens upon someone sinning, he may be more humane towards him out of his own transgressions. For if an angel were a priest, and he seized someone who had committed fornication, he would immediately destroy him, because he himself is not subject to this passion. If an angel had received the authority, he would not teach, but would immediately kill. For because he is a stranger to such a vice, he would grow angry against someone who had entangled himself in this crime. For this reason, then, the office of the priesthood is imposed upon a man who knows sins and experiences them in himself, so that he may forgive those who come to him, and the Church may not be despoiled through anger. ^C If there is any soul blackened by sin, let it not fear. Let it only repent. Even if it is at its last breath, and it is, as it were, towards the evening hour, let it not fear. Let it only repent with weeping. Imitate Hezekiah the king, who, having fallen ill, lay upon his bed; and having heard Isaiah saying to him, "Set your house in order; for you shall die, and shall not live" (IV Reg. xx, 1; Isa. xxxviii, 1), he turned to the wall, watered his bed with tears of repentance, and immediately received fifteen years of life. ^D Let no one despair of his own salvation. You are a publican? You can become an evangelist. You are a thief? You can steal paradise. You are a magus? You can worship the Master. There is no evil that is not dissolved by repentance. For this reason, God chose those who held the first place in wickedness, so that you might not in the end have an escape. Do not say to me, "I have perished"; and what—

^A what remains now? You have a Physician superior to the disease. You have a Physician who accomplishes healing by his will alone, and who desires it. He brought you out of nothing; how much more can he raise up and restore you, being that you already exist and are distorted? Did he not first take dust from the earth and fashion man? How did he make flesh from earth? How nerves, how bones, how veins, how eyes, how eyelids, how eyebrows, how a tongue, how a chest, how hands, how feet, how all other things? Was not the earth the underlying material? Was it not one substance? Skill therefore entered in, and fashioned that varied creation. Can you explain the manner by which he cleanses sins? For just as fire falling upon thorns consumes the thorns, to a much greater degree the will of God consumes our transgressions, and roots them out, and makes the one who has sinned like unto him who has not sinned. Do not search for the manner; do not inquire too curiously into what is happening, but believe in the miracle. Have you committed many and great sins? And who is without sin? Let this be enough for you as a sacrifice: "Declare you your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Isa. XLIII, 26). Acknowledge your sin: and this will be the beginning of your correction. Become sad and sorrowful; see that you shed tears. For did the harlot pour forth anything else? They were tears, and yet she obtained the remission of her sins.

^B Idem. — Weep before the time, that you may not weep there. Repent now while there is opportunity. Do not repent of your sins at that time when there is no time for repentance. Let us work what is good, while it is still in our power. If we lose money, we can recover it; but if we lose time, we have no ability to acquire another. A mad lover does not pine for his beloved as much as God pines for the soul that repents. For such is the philanthropy of the Master, that he turns away none of those who flee to him, but reaches out his hand to them.

There is no need of time for the one who desires to be saved; indeed, the thief was not saved through a lapse of time, but by believing only, he gained the inexhaustible treasure of the kingdom of heaven.

Do not cast away hope of salvation, nor depart from prayer: but approach, being a sinner, that you may glorify the Master, that you may give him the opportunity to demonstrate his own philanthropy in the forgiveness of your sins. For if you are afraid to approach, you have placed an obstacle to his goodness, and have hindered the abundance of his kindness, as far as it depended upon you.

He receives the lamentation of the penitent even very gladly, so that by this means they may resume their former splendor and adornment. And indeed it is much better and more profitable, before we stand at the tribunal of Christ, to be freed from crime, and to apply healing to those things which are to be brought against us, and to wash away the filth of every fault, before we fall into the punishments—

^A and pay the penalty to the just Judge.

S. Athanas.—There is need of swift repentance; lest otherwise, while a man hesitates and weaves delays, time should procure for him a depraved habit toward impiety, and he himself, becoming reprobate in mind, should consider things above as below, and things below as above.

In whatever state I find you, I will judge you; and in every single thing the end of all cries out. Thus, even to him who has lived his life with the greatest zeal for virtue, but who, at the end, has slipped toward wickedness, all previous labors are of no profit, as one who has faltered at the denouement of the drama; but as for him who has first lived flagitiously and wickedly, but afterward has returned to a better mind, he requires much time and great precision to overcome his long-standing wicked manner of life through the repentance of the time that follows, just as those whose bodies have been weakened by a long illness have need of a strict regimen and greater attention of mind. ^B

S. Clement.—Perhaps those vices to which one has been habituated from a boy can indeed be cut off [even] suddenly: but this is accomplished with the power of God, and human beseeching, and the help of brothers, and sincere repentance, and constant meditation.

S. Clem. Alex. lib. 1 Paedag., cap. 9.—It is best indeed not to sin: but it is also good that those who have sinned should turn themselves to a better fruit. Just as it is most excellent to enjoy perpetual health, so it is also good to return to health after sickness.

Ejusd. Quis dives. salv. § 39.—True repentance consists in this, that one is not found again to be subject to the same crimes; but that he should root out from his soul those things for which he judged himself worthy of death. That is finally to be turned from sins, to make an end of sinning, and no longer to cast one’s eyes upon the things that are behind. ^C

Didymi.—The conception of sorrow for sins renders the mind of the penitent pure. God, receiving the virtue currently embraced, forgets the sins of old. That a person who has fallen should not rise again, but rather persist in sin, is the mark of a contemptuous and exceedingly foolish man. The impiety of those who have turned from impiety to piety, as it is a thing without place, is nowhere to be found. For it was not from the beginning, nor shall it be for ever and ever. The beginning of salvation is self-condemnation.

S. Nili.—God does not immediately inflict punishment upon those who sin; but he grants time for repenting, and for correcting and healing the error. No one has ever perished who has used the effective medicine of repentance. ^D

It is indeed a great thing never to admit of a fall; but if, by the sudden impulse of the enemy, a fall should sometimes occur, one must take refuge in the safer hope. For men are so constituted that they can be swayed toward contraries.

^A Spiritual teaching is accustomed to shake off the smoke that is deposited in souls by vice. The demons desire us to perish; but when we repent, they are thwarted, and that Scripture is fulfilled which says: "The desire of the wicked shall perish" (Ps. cxii, 10). Wherever the spirit of repentance enters, there it is evident that the destruction of all sin occurs, and the overthrow of the pestilential demons. Great power for salvation resides in a good change of mind, which we should cultivate continuously, so that we may be saved and not perish. It is no small thing for the lowliest men to ascend even one step on the ladder of virtues, and thereby, by withdrawing from vice, to place themselves on high. ^B Approach with weeping, unafraid, to that heavenly Physician, Jesus, and having exposed all the wounds of your soul, implore His aid. For there is no wound or passion that Christ, our merciful God, cannot heal. Strive to destroy the worms of the mind through prayer, and fasting, and continuous vigils. Christ, the King and God, in no way turns away those who yearn for Him and groan from the depths of their heart, even if they happen to be burdened by many sins; but rather, He welcomes and cleanses them, and bestows the gift of adoption, and, as time progresses, makes them workers of virtues.

S. Chrysost. hom. 2 in psal. L. — He said: "Have mercy on me." Where there is mercy, there is no place for censure. Where there is mercy, a judge does not sit. Where there is mercy, accounts are not required. Where there is mercy, salvation is obtained without interrogation. Where there is mercy, there is no need for a defense. Seek only mercy: why do you compel me to render accounts? I ask only for mercy, salvation without examination. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy" (Ps. l, 1). You have said "great"; tell me also how great. I do not know. For that it is great, I know; but I cannot comprehend how great. The quantity of its magnitude escapes me. Indeed, it can neither be explained in speech nor grasped by the mind. I see the fruit of mercy is great. For if it were not very great, few would have been saved. "Therefore I do not desire," He says, "the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn and live" (Ezech. xviii, 32).

^D The Same. — Since some complain that marriage, or military service, or trades, or servitude, or poverty, or certain other things are a hindrance to them from obtaining salvation, it pleases me this day to make this clear to you: that neither wealth, nor poverty, nor military service, nor commerce, nor marriage, nor children, nor trades, nor anything of the kind is an impediment to salvation. Jesus was invited to a wedding, and He went; but he even brought gifts. For He changed the water into wine. The Lord attended the wedding, and bestowed honor upon it; and do you insult it, and say that marriage is an impediment to salvation? Truly, nothing is an impediment to piety. Moses had a wife, and children; Elias was a virgin; and Moses brought down [manna] from heaven...

and Elias fire from heaven. Moses brought [the people] quails, and Elias bound the heavens with a word. Moses conversed ^A with God, and likewise Elias was deemed worthy of communion with God. Moses parted the sea and led the people through; Elias was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. Did virginity harm the latter? Was the former hindered by a wife? You have seen Elias the charioteer of the air; you have seen Moses the traveler of the sea: look now also at Peter, the pillar of the Church, for he too had a wife. And whence is it evident that he had a wife? We shall prove this from the testimony of the Gospel. For it says: "The Lord entered into [the house of] Peter’s mother-in-law, and she was sick, and He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose and served Him" (Mark I, 30, 31). You see that Peter also had a wife. Let no one ^B therefore make excuses, neither [by pleading] a wife, nor children, nor military service, nor trade, nor craft, nor servitude, nor wealth, nor poverty. For these are pretexts and clokes; these are the snares of the devil. You plead military service, and say that, "I am a soldier, and I cannot be saved." Was not the centurion a soldier? And he says to Jesus: "I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, but speak the word, and my servant shall be healed" (Matth. VIII, 8). And Jesus wondered, and said: "Amen I say unto you, I have not found such great faith in Israel" (ibid. 9). Did his military service hinder him? But you have to say: "I am a craftsman." And Paul was such a one, but also a spoiler of the churches; and after these things he became a herald and an apostle. But what then? Are you rich? And Abraham was rich, and he believed in God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. ^C But what else have you to say? "I am a slave"? Have you not read Paul writing to Philemon? "Onesimus, who was once useless to you, but now is useful both to me and to you in the Lord" (Philem. 16)? But [you say], "I am a king." And David also was a king, but when he sinned, and the prophet Nathan came to him and rebuked him for the sin which he had committed, he confessed his transgression, and said: "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan, having seen his swift repentance, says to him, "And the Lord has taken away your sin" (II Reg. XII, 13). For since the repentance was swift, the forgiveness was swifter. But you will say: "I am young." Look at Daniel, who muzzled lions, and tore the dragon asunder, and overthrew Bel, and condemned ^D the elders, and delivered Susanna. But what does he say? "I am incontinent and of a hot temperament." Look at Joseph, how he demonstrated great philosophy and embraced chastity; having torn his cloak, but not having torn his faith, he conquered the shamelessness of the Egyptian woman and did not satisfy her desire. But what then? "I am a widow"? Look at the Sidonian woman, who received Elias and ministered to him with bread and water. But you will say: "I am a harlot." Look at Rahab the harlot, who hid the spies with her, and saved her house. But you are poor? Look at Lazarus, that being in such great poverty, what great philosophy he demonstrated.

Do you love your children? Think also of Job. ^A Jesus, moreover, was invited to a wedding, and when he arrived, his mother said to him, "They have no wine." He said to her, "What is that to me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come." And saying this, he said, "Fill the water jars with water." And they did as he commanded, and stretching out his hand, he turned the water into wine (John 2, 1 sqq.). But why did he say, "Fill the water jars with water"? Could he who by his word alone created the heaven and founded the earth and all that is in them; whose gaze dries up the abysses; whom all creatures, both celestial and terrestrial, tremble before and shudder at, not have filled the jars by his word? Yet he says, "Draw out water." He says this so that, if they should deny the miracle, their hands which drew the water and their shoulders which carried it might convict them. ^B And at the [raising of] Lazarus he did the same. When the sisters of Lazarus came saying that Lazarus was dead, Jesus said to them, "Where have you laid him?" They say to him, "Come and see." O new and marvelous things! You said, "Lazarus is dead," but now you say, "Where have you laid him?" Did you not beforehand announce his death to your disciples, and yet you do not know the place? But I speak this for the sake of the Jews, because they are ungrateful. For as he approached the tomb, he said to the Jews, "Take away the stone from the tomb." And they took it away. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." He came out bound in grave-cloths. ^C Is he, therefore, who removes mountains into the heart of the sea, unable by a word to roll away the stone? Could he who crushed the stings of death, who broke the gates of hell, not also be able to tear apart the bonds of his garments? Nay, he says to them, "Unbind him." For what reason? Certainly so that, if they were inclined to deny it, their hands and their eyes would convict them.

Of Eusebius.

^A We have heard the Lord saying: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). I lighten your burden. For I know that you are not able to bear the burden of the law, and for this reason I have descended, that I might bring in grace for you instead, that I might lighten the burden of your sins. Let no one excuse himself, whether he be a magician, or a tax collector, or a blasphemer, from approaching repentance; let no one be afraid. "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." The Lord says these things, and urges us; wherefore let us not be negligent.

Judas approaching kissed Jesus, saying: "Hail, Rabbi." But the Lord said to him, "For what purpose are you come?" (Matt. 26:49, 50). Do you ask for what purpose I have come? In order that I might give you a kiss. O fraudulent kiss, full of iniquity and destruction, and a provider of Gehenna! The harlot, having kissed the feet of Jesus, recalled her soul, and tore up the handwriting of her sins; but this man, having kissed Him, was erased from the book of life. O the wisdom of the woman! O the ignorance of the disciple! ^B When she was kissing the feet of the Lord, angels were rejoicing and preparing a crown; but when this man was kissing, demons were rejoicing and weaving the rope of his halter. O kiss full of vinegar and gall! "Hail, Rabbi." He indeed is in good spirit; but you, Judas, mourn, because you have been cast out from joy.

Jesus said to Mary: "Do not weep, but go and tell my brothers, and Peter, that I have risen from the dead; and behold, He goes before you into Galilee. There you shall see Him." ^C Do you see the compassion of the Lord? He mentioned no one else's name, except Peter's. Why? Because the others had not said, "Even if it is necessary for us to die with you, we will not deny you." But this man, having said this, denied me; and having gone outside, he wept bitterly. He is therefore about to be afraid to come into my presence, thinking that his sin has not been loosed; for this reason I said, "and to Peter," so that he might behold me without hesitation with the remaining disciples. Tell Peter: "By no means be afraid. For I have not removed you from the place of glory; I have not set you as inferior to the rest; I have not put you away from the place of my right hand; I have not given the keys of the kingdom of heaven to another. ^D Do not be afraid; for whatever you have bound upon the earth, shall be bound in the heavens."

Do not fear, Peter. I have not removed you from my throne; I have not diminished my grace from you. For what I promised, I will fulfill. Upon your rock-like faith I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. You shall shepherd my sheep, you shall feed my lambs; you shall stand at my right hand like a commander. Do not let it cast you into fear that you denied me. I have seen your tears, and I have forgiven you your sin. It would have been good also for Judas, who betrayed me, if he had repented and had not hanged himself. For I am the God of those who repent. For this reason I descended to the earth, that I might grant repentance to the world. I forgave such a multitude of sins to tax collectors and harlots, and to you

shall I not forgive one sin? I love those who repent. Remember that I wept over Judas, and did not wish him to perish. It would have been good for him, when he threw the silver into the temple, if he had repented and not hanged himself. But because he remained unrepentant, for this reason he is punished eternally. I saw your tears, and I forgave you your sin. To David, who had committed two evils, adultery and murder, I granted forgiveness and restored him to the ancient rank of prophecy; and shall I not forgive you, who for my sake left house, and wife, and boat, for a single sin? Do not fear, Peter; ^A I am He who said: "There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents" (Luc. xv, 7). I am He who said: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matth. xi, 28). It would have been good even for Judas if he had turned back to me, and not become entangled in the snare of the halter and destroyed himself. For I did not even curse him, but rather, just as with the others, I washed his feet and gave him bread, and I found no fault with him, so that in this way he might be brought to repentance; but he did not wish it. For this reason he is punished eternally. But you, having repented, do not fear to be seen by me among the others. ^B For this reason I left the ninety-nine sheep and ran to the one. I have not diminished the grace given to you, Peter, for even your shadow will bring healing to the infirm, and through you handkerchiefs and aprons will put demons to flight, and the touch of your hand will make the man lame from birth capable of running.

TIT. IV.—Concerning those who shrink from doing penance.

Prov. xxviii, 13.—"He who covers his iniquity shall not prosper."

Jerem. viii, 4, 5.—"Thus says the Lord: Shall he who falls not rise again? Or he who turns away, shall he not return? Why then has this people turned away with a shameless turning, and they have held fast to their own counsel, and have not wished to return?"

Jerem. v, 3.—"They have hardened their faces harder than a rock, and they have refused to return."

Eccli. v, 4.—"Say not: I have sinned, and what evil has happened to me? For the Lord is a patient repayer."

Eccli. xviii, 22.—"Delay not even until death to be justified."

Matth. v, 25, 26.—"Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest the adversary deliver you to the judge, and you be cast into prison. Amen I say to you, you shall not go out from there until you pay the last farthing."

S. Basil.—If sin is good and useful, O man, keep it to the end. But if it is destructive to the one who commits it, why do you persist in deadly things? No one seeking to vomit bile, ^C from an evil and intemperate diet, brings on himself a greater quantity of it. It is worth the effort to cleanse that which is troublesome to the body, not to make the disease greater than the strength. The ship is manifest, up to what point the load

^A can be borne; but if it is loaded beyond measure, it sinks. Beware, lest when you have committed sins greater than those which can be forgiven, you suffer shipwreck before the hoped-for harbors. Take care, lest while you heap up for yourself a multitude of evils in the hope of liberation and pardon, you are actually gathering up sin, and failing to obtain forgiveness.

Vice, when kept silent, is a hidden disease in the soul. As, therefore, we would not call him a benefactor who shuts up deadly things within the body, but rather him who brings them to light through pain and laceration, so that the mode of cure may be known through the manifestation of the suffering; so it is clear that to hide sin is to prepare death for the one who is sick. For, he says, the sting of death is sin. ^B

Take care, O man, that you do not at some time repent of evil counsels when there is no profit in repentance.

Since we have sinned in the body, when we set our members as slaves to sin for iniquity, let us make confession with our mouth, using that same organ for the dissolution of sin. Have you reviled? Bless. Have you engaged in covetousness? Pay back. Have you been drunken? Fast. Have you been arrogant? Be humbled. Have you envied? Provide comfort. Have you committed murder? Render witness, or things equivalent to martyrdom, afflicting the body through confession; and then, after confession, you are worthy to sing to God on the ten-stringed psaltery. ^C

It is not difficult to fall, but to lie fallen and not to rise, willfully doing evil and being sluggish, and by the thoughts of despair, to conceal the weakness of one's own will.

Many of those who sin say, "I am full of shame; how can I approach God? How can I beseech Him?"—suffering from a diabolical shyness. Are you without boldness? For this very reason, approach, so that you may acquire great boldness. For is it a man who is about to be reconciled to you? It is God, who desires to free you from sins more than you do yourself. You do not desire your own safety as much as He desires your salvation. ^D

A soul that has once tasted sin and remains unfeeling provides great increase to the disease. For just as a spark, if it manages to catch hold of anything, thereafter consumes everything; so the nature of sin, when it has laid hold of the reasonings of the soul, and there is no one to extinguish it, becomes henceforth more severe and difficult to overcome, rising up through the addition of subsequent sins to greater contempt. Thus, indeed, many who often fail to extinguish the flame at the beginning have ended up in great shipwreck. For sin, not having something to push forward into...

is like a horse that has broken its bridle and throws its rider headlong. ^A

*Justin.*—The soul is with difficulty recalled to those goods from which it has fallen, nor is it again easily extracted from the evils to which it has become accustomed.

*S. Nili.*—If, because of those things you have committed against the divine law, you had ever wished to be angry with yourself and to apply the medicine of repentance, we might perhaps have conceived good hope for your salvation. But since you have utterly despised the divine fear, and have spat upon the very faith in Christ, it would have been better for you never to have been born from the womb.

*S. Clement.*—It is the extreme of servitude to succumb to vices and to surrender; just as, indeed, to overcome these is, in the end, true liberty. ^B

*S. Cyrilli.*—I fear death, because it is bitter to me. I fear Gehenna, because it is eternal. I fear the fire, because it is never extinguished. I fear Tartarus, because it is devoid of warmth. I fear the darkness, because it is empty of light. I fear the worm, because it does not die. I fear the angels, because they are unmerciful. Woe is me, that I did not hear you crying out and saying: "O soul, put an end to these pollutions of yours, and to all those things of mine which are an abomination!" Woe to me, that I have corrupted your temple, and have grieved your Holy Spirit! Lord, your judgments are true; for a temporary enjoyment of sin I am tormented eternally; for the pleasure of the flesh I am delivered to the fire. Just is the judgment of God. I was instructed, and I did not pay attention. They testified against me, and I laughed. ^C You will use these or similar words, O man, if you are snatched from here before you repent of your sins. O man, either fear Gehenna or strive for the kingdom.

*Fratres*, what fear, horror, and anguish is it necessary for us to experience when the soul departs from the body! For a host and army of opposing powers is present against us; the princes, I say, of darkness, the rulers of the world of wickedness: principalities and powers, and like those in a lawsuit, they detain the soul, bringing against it all the sins it committed, whether knowingly or unknowingly, from its youth until the age at which it was taken. Therefore, they stand there to accuse it. In what trembling, then, do you think the soul is concerned, until its case is pronounced by the just Judge? But if it is discovered to have lived negligently, it will hear that ^D most terrible voice: "Let the impious one be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God" (Isa. xxvi, 10). Then "a day of wrath, a day of affliction and anguish, a day of darkness and gloom" will overtake it, and it will be given over to the outer and eternal fire, in which, having been condemned, it will be punished for infinite ages.

TIT. V. — Concerning the drunkards.

*III Reg.* xx, 16. — "The son of Ader was drinking, and he was intoxicated, he and the thirty-two kings, his allies, with him." He went out

^A from the provinces, and Syria fled."

*Prov.* XXIII, 20. — "Be not a wine-drinker. For every drunkard and debauchee shall labor in poverty."

*Prov.* XXIII, 11. — "He who delights in drinking parties of wine, will leave ignominy in his strongholds."

*Prov.* XXIII, 29-32. — "To whom woe? To whom trouble? To whom disputing? To whom quarrels and idle talk? To whom bruises without cause? To whom are the eyes livid? Is it not to those who tarry in wine? Is it not to those who investigate where the drinking parties are? Do not be intoxicated with wine, but associate with just men. For if you give your eyes to flagons and cups, afterwards you will walk more naked than an open field."

*Eccli.* VII, 2. — "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of drinking."

*Joel* I, 5. — "Awaken, you who are drunk from wine, and weep, all you who drink wine unto drunkenness, because gladness and joy have been removed from your mouth."

*Isa.* V, 11. — "Woe to those who rise in the morning, and follow strong drink, who wait until evening. For wine will set them on fire. For with the lyre and the psaltery, and with timbrels and flutes they drink wine, but they do not look upon the works of God."

*Eccli.* XIX, 1. — "A drunken laborer will not be enriched."

*Eccli.* XXXI, 38. — "Much wine is bitterness of soul. Drunkenness multiplies the anger of a fool: it diminishes strength, and inflicts a wound."

*Eccli.* XXVI, 11. — "Great anger, a drunken woman." ^B

*Luc.* XXI, 34. — "Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be burdened with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all those who sit upon the face of the earth."

*Rom.* XIII, 13. — "As in the day, let us walk honestly; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities."

*S. Basil. Hom. 2 de jejun.* — Let us flee drunkenness, that common harlot, the mother of impudence, the laughter-loving, the maddened, prone to every kind of intemperance. For in the soul upon which drunkenness has cast shadows, no good thing can exist. ^C

*Ejusd. Hom. de ebriet.* — Drunkenness is a voluntary demon, born in souls from pleasure. Drunkenness is the mother of vice, the adversary of virtue. It makes the brave man a coward, the modest man lewd. It knows no justice, it removes prudence from the midst; and just as water is hostile to fire, so does the immoderate use of wine extinguish reason. Wherefore I am reluctant to hold a discourse against drunkenness: not because it is some light evil that deserves to be ignored, but because our speech will have no utility. For since he who is intoxicated is affected by error of mind and darkness, he who rebukes him pours out words in vain ^D to one who does not listen. To whom, therefore, shall we speak, if he who is in need of admonition does not hear what is said, and the sober and watchful man needs no help from words, being pure from the passion? What then

shall I do with those who are present, when my speech brings no utility, and yet keeping silence is not without difficulty? Shall we abandon our concern? But carelessness is not without its danger. Shall I address my words to the drunken? But I am sounding into dead ears. By what part, O man, do you excel the brute beasts? Is it not by the gift of reason, through which, having received it from your Creator, you became ruler and lord of all creation? He, therefore, who deprives himself of reason through drunkenness, has been compared to senseless beasts and has become like them (Ps. xlviii, 13). Indeed, I would say that those who suffer from drunkenness are even more brutish and senseless than the cattle. For all ^B quadrupeds and wild beasts have certain and defined times at which they are moved to sexual intercourse; but those whose soul is gripped by drunkenness, and whose body is filled with a heat brought on contrary to nature, are impelled to impure and obscene embraces at every time and every hour. And this does not only produce senselessness in them, but by the perversion of their senses, it renders the drunken man worse than any beast. For what beast is so oblivious, and so hard of hearing, as the drunkard? Do they not fail to recognize their own families, and often run to strangers as if they were their own relatives? Do they not often leap over shadows as if they were ditches and chasms? And their ears are filled with noise and clamor, as if they were beside a surging sea; and the earth seems to stand upright, and the mountains to run in a circle. These men at one moment laugh incessantly, and at another are racked with pain and weep inconsolably. And now they are bold and fearless, now timorous and cowardly. To them sleep is heavy, and difficult to shake off, and terrifying, and truly a neighbor to death, and their waking moments are more senseless than sleep. For their life is like a dream; those who do not even have a garment, nor food for the morrow, in their drunkenness deem themselves kings, command armies, build cities, and distribute wealth. ^C With such fantasies and such great deceit does the wine fill their boiling hearts. Others are carried away into contrary passions. For they are destitute of all hope; sorrowful, pained, bathed in tears, fearful, and startled by every noise. He who is vexed by a demon is pitied by all; but he who is drunk, though he is in the same calamity, is not even deemed worthy of pity, as one who has a struggle with a demon which he has brought upon himself voluntarily.

^D *Ibidem.* To whom woe? To whom tumult? To whom woes and babblings? To whom are there causeless wounds? To whom are the eyes livid? Is it not to those who tarry in wine, and look for where drinking parties take place? "Woe" is a mournful exclamation; now, those who are addicted to drunkenness are worthy of mourning, because drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. vi, 10). "Tumult" refers to the disturbance which wine brings to the mind and the thoughts. "Woes," likewise, because of the eructations and vapors which the pleasure of drinking moves. For these men, their feet are indeed bound, and their hands are bound by the

^A chains of drunkenness. And so, before these afflictions, at the very time they are carousing, the same things happen to them as befall those who are phrenetic. For when the membranes of the brain are full of that soot which wine brings up as it evaporates, the head is affected with an intolerable pain; and since it cannot remain upright on the shoulders, it falls now to one side, now to the other, sliding into the vertebrae. But what need is there to recount these things to drunken men? For they suffer from dizziness brought on by the hangover, they doze, they yawn, they see through a mist, they feel nausea. For this reason, they do not hear the teachers crying into their ears: *Do not be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery* (Ephes. v, 18). From this come the tremors and the weaknesses, because their spirit is weighed down by the immoderation of the wine, and their nerves are relaxed; hence, a trembling arises in the entire mass of the body. Why do you bring upon yourself the curse of Cain, trembling and wandering about throughout all your life? How long wine? How long drunkenness? You are in such danger that you have mixed yourself with wine and rottenness from daily hangover, reeking of wine and of that which is ^B putrid and corrupted.

*From the same, Homily on Fasting.* A servant flees from a master who strikes him, but you remain with the wine that strikes your head every day. The best measure for the use of wine is the body's need. But if you exceed these limits, you will return the next day affected by a heaviness in the head, yawning, seized with vertigo, and smelling of rancid wine. Everything will seem to you to be spinning, everything to be stumbling.

*From the same.* Woe to those who make bad use of a good thing! Do not blame the wine, but those who drink beyond the measure. The sea is deep, but the diver descends only as far as he can return from. If he goes down beyond the measure, and no longer has the power to swim up, he is immediately drowned. The cause of this is not the sea, but the immoderate desire of the swimmer. In the same way, the matter holds for wine: for the wine is not at fault, but he who uses it beyond what is sufficient. ^C

*From the same, Homily on Drunkards.* It is a truly pitiable spectacle to the eyes of Christians when a man in the prime of age and with a vigorous body, illustrious in military rank, is carried home by the aid of others, as one who can neither rise up nor walk on his own feet. A man who ought to be a terror to his enemies becomes an occasion for laughter to the children in the market-place; he is laid low without a sword, he is struck down without an enemy. A man of military prowess, while in the very flower of his age, has been taken as a prey to wine, and is ready to suffer whatever the enemies wish. Drunkenness is an exile of reason, a waste of strength, a corruption, a premature old age, and a short-lived death. For what else are the drunken if not the idols of the ^D nations? They have eyes, and they do not see; they have ears, and they do not hear; their hands are paralyzed, their feet are deadened. Who has contrived these snares? Who has [wrought] these evils?

Who has mingled for you the medicine of fury? ^A O man, you have turned the banquet into a battle! You drive out the young men, led by the hand as if they were wounded in war. You have extinguished the vigor of youth with wine. And while you invite them to dinner as if they were friends, you cast them out as dead, having extinguished their life with wine. When they are thought to be sated with wine, then they begin to drink, and they drink after the manner of beasts. For as the drinking proceeds, there enters to them a certain youth, carrying a large phial of chilled wine, and standing in the midst, he distributes the wine among the guests through oblique pipes, so that they may be treated equally in fair shares, and that no one may surpass another in drinking. ^B Look down, I pray you, at your miserable belly, and you will recognize the capacity of the vessel that receives it, namely, that it has the concavity of a single palm. Do not look to the flagon to see when it is empty, but look to your own stomach, which has been full long since. Therefore, "woe to those who rise early to pursue drunkenness until the evening" (Isa. v, 11), and spend the whole day in drinking! For wine burns them up; since that heat which the flesh contracts from wine arouses the fiery darts of the enemy. Indeed, wine submerges the mind; but it excites perturbations and pleasures like a swarm of bees. For what chariot of horses is carried along so recklessly with the charioteer thrown out? Or what ship, with the helmsman removed, is tossed by the waves as chance may have it, in such a way that it is not safer than a drunken man? From evils of this kind it has come to pass that men and women, having formed common dances, and having ^C surrendered their souls to the wine-demon, wound one another with the stings of passions. There is laughter from both, obscene songs, and lascivious gestures inciting to wantonness. You laugh, tell me, when you ought to be shedding tears and groaning over what has happened. You sing the songs of a harlot, having cast aside the psalms and hymns which you were taught. You move your feet and leap madly, and lead dances indecorously, when on the contrary you ought to be bending your knees in adoration of the Divinity. Which should I lament more, the unwed maidens, or those who are bound by the yoke of matrimony? For the former return having lost their virginity, and the latter have not returned their chastity to their husbands. For although perhaps some may have escaped the sin in body, yet they have certainly received the defilement in their souls. Let this also be said of the males. He saw badly, and was ^D watched while doing so. "Whoever looks at a woman to desire her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matth. v, 28). If casual encounters hold so much danger for those who curiously gaze upon women, what then will those who go there on purpose—in order to see women behaving indecorously through drunkenness, composed for dissolution, and singing lascivious songs, which, even when merely heard, are able to stir up the entire goad of lust in the unchaste—what will they say, or what excuse will they have? Is it not that they looked for this very purpose, so that they might arouse their desires? Therefore they are guilty according to the inevitable judgment of the

^A Lord for the sin of adultery. How shall Pentecost receive us, when Easter has been so insulted? Pentecost had the active and universally known visitation of the Holy Spirit; but you, having anticipated it, have made yourself a dwelling-place for the contrary spirit, and have become a temple of idols instead of becoming a temple of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You have drawn upon yourself the curse of the prophet, who said from the person of God: "I will turn your feasts into mourning" (Amos VIII, 10). How will you command your servants, when you yourselves serve foolish and harmful desires like slaves? How will you admonish your children, while you live a life without admonition and lacking in order? What then? Shall I leave you in these things? But I am afraid. Let fasting cure drunkenness; let a psalm cure obscene singing; let tears be the remedy for laughter; instead of dancing, let the knee be bent; instead of the clapping of hands, let the breast be beaten; instead of the adornment of clothing, let humility be taken up. Above all, let almsgiving redeem you from sin. For the ransom of a man is his own wealth, says Scripture (Prov. XIII, 8). ^B

Drunkenness does not receive the Lord; it drives away the Holy Spirit. For as smoke drives away bees, so does debauchery drive away spiritual gifts. Drunkenness is the beginning of godlessness, being a darkening of the ruling faculty, by which God is most of all naturally known. ^C

The Lord receives the one who fasts within the sacred precincts; but him who is addicted to drunkenness, He rejects as profane and unclean. For if you come tomorrow reeking of wine, and that rotten, how shall I account your debauchery as fasting? Do not count it that you are not drinking undiluted wine now, but consider that you are not pure from wine. Where shall I place you? Among the drunkards, or among those who fast? Drunkenness leaves you a person of doubtful status, like a slave. Immediately the first day of the fast will have to be struck from your account, since the remnants of drunkenness still cling to you. If you approach fasting as a drunkard, what gain will you have from this? For since drunkenness shuts you out of the kingdom, to what purpose would it henceforth be useful for you to fast? ^D

To those who live in drunkenness and licentiousness, the day is turned into the darkness of night, not because the sun is extinguished, but because their own sense is obscured by drunkenness.

Do you not know that he who insults the servants of God through drunkenness sins against Christ himself, and makes himself liable to eternal punishment?

He who attempts to admonish a drunkard, what profit will he eventually bring him?

If you obey the divine Apostle clearly crying out that the drunk will in no way attain the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. VI, 10), flee from this accursed drunkenness.

TIT. VI — De ignavis et segnibus, socordibusque, et ^A contemptoribus.

*Prov.* vi, 6 seqq. — “Go to the ant, O sluggard, and emulate her, considering her ways, and become wiser than she; for, having no farmer, and having none to compel her, nor being under a master, she prepares her food in the summer, and in the harvest she makes a great store. Go to the bee, and learn that she is a worker: and how she performs her work as a noble thing, whose labors kings and private men apply to their health. She is desirable to all and glorious, although she is weak in strength. How long, O sluggard, will you lie down? And when will you rise from sleep? A little you sleep, a little you sit; a little you slumber, a little you fold your hands upon your chest. Then poverty comes to you like a good runner, and want like a bad traveler.”

*Prov.* xix, 15. — “An idle soul shall hunger.” “The slothful are in want of riches.” *Prov.* xx, 4. — “The sluggard, when reproached, is not ashamed: in the same way he who borrows grain in the harvest.” *Prov.* xxvi, 13. — “The sluggard says, There is a lion in the road; and there are murderers in the streets.” *Prov.* xxiii, 21. — “Every drowsy man shall be clothed in worn-out and ragged garments.” *Prov.* xxvi, 14. — “As a door turns upon its hinge, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard, hiding his hand in his bosom, cannot bring it to his mouth.” “The ways of the scorner are in destruction.” *Eccli.* x, 18. — “By slothfulness the roof shall be humbled, and through idleness of hands the house shall leak.” *Eccli.* iv, 29. — “Be not quick with your tongue, and slothful and remiss in your works.” *Eccli.* xxxiii, 30. — “Idleness has taught much evil.”

*Matth.* xxv, 24-30. — “Coming, he who had received the one talent, said: Lord, I know that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter; and being afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours. But his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, if you knew that I am a hard man, reaping where I did not sow, and gathering where I did not scatter; you ought therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and coming, I would have received my own with usury. Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to every one that has shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that has not, that also which he seems to have shall be taken away from him. And cast the unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

*II Thess.* iii, 10-12. — “For when we were with you, this we testified to you: that if any man will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear that some among you walk disorderly, not

working, but busily prying. Now them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.” ^A

Idleness is the cause of wickedness. — This is a peculiar disease of an idle and slothful soul, to see dreams while the body is awake. ^B

Who, sitting or sleeping at home during the time of sowing, has filled his bosom with sheaves when the harvest has come? Who has harvested a vineyard he did not plant? Theirs are the fruits, whose are also the toils. The honors and the crowns belong to those who have labored. Who would crown him who has not descended into the arena against an adversary? Especially since, according to the Apostle, it is not enough to contend, unless one also contends lawfully (II Tim. ii, 5). Who is such an inept judge of a contest, that he would grant the same prizes to the victor and to him who has not contended at all? What general ever called those who did not even take part in the battle to a share of the spoils equal to those who have conquered? ^C

A good thing is not good when it is not done well.

TIT. VI. — Concerning hatred, and enmity, and dissension, and those who provoke battles.

“Scatter the nations that desire wars.” — Ps. lxvii, 31.

“And men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days.” — Ps. liv, 24.

“Who leave the straight paths, to walk in the ways of darkness. Who rejoice in wicked deeds, and delight in the perversity of evil.” — Prov. ii, 13.

“Where there enters insolence, there also is dishonor.” — Prov. xi, 2.

“The wicked does evil when he mingles justice.” — Prov. xv, 18.

“A wrathful man provokes quarrels.” — Prov. xvi, 28.

“A perverse man sends forth evils, and separates friends.” ^D — Prov. xvii, 19.

“Every wicked man stirs up contentions; but the Lord will send a merciless angel against him. One who loves sin delights in fights.” — Prov. xxv, 8.

“Do not rejoice, and do not rush into a fight quickly, that you may not repent in the end.” — Prov. xxvii, 17.

“Iron sharpens iron, and a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. One who kindles malice shall be destroyed by it.” — Isa. xxix, 21.

“They shall be destroyed who act unjustly by malice, and who make men sin by word.” — Jerem. iv, 22.

“Foolish children are they, and without understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have not learned.”

^A Eccli. xxviii, 9. — “A sinful man will trouble his friends, and bring in debate in the midst of them that are in peace.” Eccli. xxii, 24. — “As the smoke of the chimney, so are also revilings before blood.” Eccli. xxviii, 8. — “Abstain from strife, and thou shalt diminish thy sins: for a rash man kindleth war, and a sinful man will trouble his friends.” Matth. xii, 25. — “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” Matth. xxiv, 12. — “Because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.” Galat. v, 10. — “He that troubleth you, shall bear the judgment, whosoever he be.” Jac. iii, 16. — “Where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy, and every evil work.” ^B S. Basil. — “Charity hath failed, the root of the commandments.” — “In evil contests, he is more miserable who obtains the victory, because he departs having a greater portion of sin.” S. Greg. Naz. in tetr. 38 and 45. — “It is better to be rightly vanquished, than dangerously and wickedly to vanquish.” — “Know the bounds of enmity, but not of favor.”

TIT. VIII. — Concerning the repentance of God; and in what things the Creator repented.

and I repent of the good which I spoke to do to them.

TIT. IX. — Concerning Fraternal Hatred.

^A Gen. xxxvii, 4-6. — "The brethren (of Joseph), seeing that his father loved him more than all his children, hated him, and spoke no peaceable word to him. And they said each one to his brother: Behold, that dreamer comes. Come, let us kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we shall say: A wicked beast has devoured him; and we shall see what his dreams will be."

^B Judic. ix, 4-5. — "Abimelech hired men that were needy and vagabond, and they followed him. And he came into his father's house at Ephra, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerobaal, seventy men upon one stone: and there remained Joatham the younger son of Jerobaal, and he was hidden."

Judic. xi, 1 sqq. — "Jephthae the Galaadite was a man of great might, and he was the son of a harlot, who bore Galaad to Jephthae. And the wife of Galaad bore him sons, and the sons of the wife grew up, and cast out Jephthae, and said to him: You shall not inherit in the house of our father, because you are the son of another woman. And Jephthae fled from the face of his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered to Jephthae men that were needy, and they went out with him."

^C Malach. ii, 10. — "Has not one God created us? Has not one father of all of us? Why do you forsake each one his brother?"

"Everyone who hates a poor brother is far from friendship."

Luc. xv, 25 sqq. — "His elder son was in the field; and as he was coming and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And they said to him: Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound. But he was indignant, and would not go in. His father therefore went out, and began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years I serve you, and I have never transgressed your commandment: and you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But after this your son came, who has devoured his substance with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf. But he said to him: Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. But it was fitting to make merry and be glad, because this your brother was dead, and has come to life again; and was lost, and has been found."

^D I Joan. iv, 20, 21. — "If any man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer."

TITLE X. — On monks and their practice.

Prov. — "The Lord stores up salvation for those who act rightly; those who lead a solitary life on earth will rejoice." Eccli. II, 1. — "My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation; make your heart straight, and endure." Eccli. IX, 7. — "Do not look around in the streets of the city." Eccli. X, 14. — "In the midst of brothers, their leader is held in honor." Luc. XII, 32. — "Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom." Luc. IX, 62. — "No one who puts his hand to the plow, and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God." ^B 14 Luc. XIV, 28 ff. — "For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to finish it, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was unable to finish.' Or what king, going to engage in battle against another king, does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while he is yet far away, he sends an embassy and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, whoever among you does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple." Luc. XVI, 13, 14. — "No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Luc. XVIII, 29, 30. — "Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, life everlasting." ^C I Cor. IX, 24, 25. — "Those who run in the stadium, all indeed run, but one receives the prize; so run that you may obtain it. And everyone who strives for the mastery exercises self-control in all things; they indeed to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one." I Cor. XV, 58. — "Beloved brothers, be stable and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Ephes. VI, 10-17. — "Brothers, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil; for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the ^D

evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

^B II Tim. ii, 4. — “No soldier serving God entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enlisted him. But even if one competes in an arena, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully.”

II John 8. — “Watch yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may receive a full reward.”

St. Basil, *Hom. de grat. act.* — An excellent wrestler, once he has girded himself for the stadium of piety, must bear the blows of his opponents bravely, in the hope of that glory which is acquired through crowns. For even in the gymnastics, those who through the labors of the wrestling-school have become accustomed to the pain, are not constrained by the bitterness of the wounds, but rather advance against the enemy, disregarding the present labors due to the desire for victory and public proclamation.

*Idem, in Psalm. i.* — I would say that the exercise and worship of piety are very much like a ladder; that ladder, I mean, which blessed Jacob once saw: of which one part was indeed lowly and abject, but the other reached up to heaven itself. Therefore it is worth the effort that those who are being instructed to live according to the prescription of virtue should first plant their steps on the lowly rungs, and thus ascend to the next one in order, until they have reached the height capable of human nature through a progress consistent with reason. Just as, therefore, on the ladder the first ascent is the withdrawal from the earth, so also in the way of life that pleases God, the beginning of progress is the separation from evil.

^D *In Reg. fus. disp.*, art. 5. — He who proposes to follow God must be freed from the chains of this life’s attachments. This is achieved by complete withdrawal and the forgetting of old habits. For unless we remove ourselves from carnal kinship and the custom of common life, and by the cultivation of virtue migrate, as it were, to another world, according to him who said, “Our commonwealth exists in the heavens” (Philippians iii, 20), it is impossible for us to attain what is proposed to us; that is, to be acceptable to God, especially when the Lord explicitly says, “Unless one renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke xiv, 33).

*Ibid.*, art. 6. — A soul that looks toward the multitude of lawless men has, first, no space to perceive its own sins and to crush itself through repentance for its faults; but by comparing itself with those who are worse, it gathers a certain opinion of its own virtue. Then, on account of the tumults and occupations which this life is accustomed to bring, it is pulled away from the memory of God, not only from rejoicing and being glad—

in God ^A is it deprived, but it also becomes accustomed to complete disregard and forgetting of His judgments. There could be no greater evil than this, nor any more destructive passion.

Renunciation is, as the discourse has shown, a loosening of the bonds of this material and fleeting life, and a migration toward the heavenly mode of living.

By continence, we do not mean an absolute abstinence from foods—for that is a certain violent dissolution of life—but rather that which occupies itself in macerating the affections.

Continence is the extinction of sins, the driving away of disturbances, the mortification of the body even to its own natural affections and desires; it is the beginning of the spiritual life, the advocate of heavenly goods, which destroys the sting of sin within itself.

It is not to be thought that piety is to be pursued in order to indulge in sloth and leisure, or that labor is to be shunned; but rather that it is the subject matter ^B for struggle, for greater labors, and for patience in tribulations.

Thus at length we become a temple of God, when the continuous memory of God is not interrupted by earthly cares, nor is the mind disturbed by unexpected trials; but the lover of God, fleeing from all things, withdraws to God; and casting far from himself those things which entice us to vice, he dwells in those pursuits which lead to virtue.

Health is obtained by labors, and salvation by sweats.

Possess nothing redundant, but casting off every burden Of this vain and evil life of labors here below, Prepare yourself swiftly for heaven, Having encased your precious soul with the Word. Let the flesh be mastered, and let it be well tamed.

Do you see these worthy men, homeless ^C and virtually without flesh or blood, and on this account drawing near to God; these unwashed-footed men who lie upon the ground; these who are lowly and exalted; these who move among men yet are exalted above men; these who are in bonds and yet free; these who are captured and yet cannot be captured? Those who have nothing in the world, and yet have all things above the world; those whose life is twofold, the one despised, the other diligently cultivated and sought after? These, I say, because of their mortification are immortal, because of their release are joined to God, are strangers to love [of creatures] and desire, and are seized by a divine love that is void of passion: ^D whose fountain is the Light, and whose splendors are these rays; whose are the angelic psalmodies, and the all-night vigil, and the soul’s departure to God, ravishing itself into heaven before death; whose it is to purify, and also to be purified; who acknowledge no measure to their ascent and deification.

It is necessary to practice and to exercise a life free from all reproach.

^A It is proper to honor and meditate upon God, and to omit nothing of those things which are pleasing and acceptable to Him.

S. Athan. — It is an excellent thing to have a study of a pious and God-devoted life, with moderation and true conscience.

It behooves one who strives for continence to flee the crowds, so that he may have his mind undistracted and his heart untroubled; for there is much disturbance in the midst of crowds.

S. Clem. Alex. — *Quis div. sit salv.* — The kingdom of God is not for the sleeping and the slothful, but the violent take it by force (Matt. xi, 12). For this kind of violence is worthy of praise, namely, to offer violence to God and to extort life from Him. And when He sees Himself constrained by certain ones violently, or rather, steadfastly, He gives way and yields. For He rejoices in being overcome in such a manner.

S. Nili. — For do athletes contend wearing clothes? The law of the wrestling arena leads them naked into the stadium, whether it be heat or cold. But if any one of them rejects the stripping, he has also rejected the contest.

"The naked shall flee on that day." On account of this, the author of Proverbs said to the trainer: "Take away his garment." For he has passed over; that is, he has entered into the contest; and he must wrestle naked, or rather, not only naked, but also anointed. For indeed, being naked prevents the opponent from grasping the wrestler; as for the oil, even if it is caught at some time, it ensures that one slips out of the grip. And for this reason, ^B wrestlers strive to scatter dust over their opponents, so that by making the smoothness of the oil rough with the dust, they may be able to catch them.

Philonis. — A man who is studious of virtue needs few things, as one who is on the boundary between immortal and mortal nature. For he has the need for things because of his mortal body, but he needs only few things because of his soul, which is burning with the desire for immortality.

TITLE XI. — Concerning those who are learning; and that they ought to approach learning studiously and diligently, and not to shun the labor of instruction, but to ask and learn from those who are more skilled.

"Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders, and they will speak to you." (Deut. xxxii, 7)

"My son, let not evil counsel catch you, nor one that forsakes the instruction of youth." (Prov. ii, 16)

"To a fool who asks for wisdom, it will be reckoned as wisdom." (Prov. xvii, 28)

"Receive instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than tested gold." (Prov. viii, 10)

"Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget it, that it may give to your head a garland of graces." (Prov. iv, 5)

"Desire, and you shall be instructed." ^C

(Prov. iv, 13) "Son, give your heart to instruction." (Eccli. vi, 18-33) ^A "Son, from your youth receive instruction, and until you are gray-haired you shall find wisdom. As one who plows and who sows, come to her, and wait for her good fruits. For in working with her, having labored a little, you shall quickly eat of her produce. How harsh is wisdom to the unlearned, and the senseless will not remain in her! Search for her, and she will be manifested to you; and when you have become possessed of her, do not let her go. For in the end you shall find rest in her, and she shall turn into delight for you. And her fetters will be for you a protection of strength, and foundations of virtue, and her chains for a robe of glory. For the ornament of life is in her. Son, if you choose, you shall be instructed; and if you apply your soul, you shall be wise."

Philo: To seek and to inquire is a thing most useful for acquiring knowledge. ^B He who labors with hunger and thirst for knowledge, and strives to learn what he does not know, leaving aside all other cares, hastens to listen, and by night and by day keeps watch at the doors of the wise. That someone knows that he is ignorant is of wisdom; just as to know that one has acted unjustly is of justice.

TITLE XII. — Concerning vagrants, and those who willingly migrate from place to place.

(Zach. viii, 10) "To him who goes out and to him who comes in there shall be no peace from tribulation."

(Eccli. xxix, 24) "A wicked life of lodging from house to house; and where he shall lodge, he shall not act with confidence." ^C

TITLE XIII. — Concerning hirelings, and those who defraud hirelings.

(Levit. xix, 13) "The work of your hireling shall not remain with you until morning."

(Deut. xxiv, 14-15) "You shall not unjustly deny the wages of the needy and the poor from among your brothers, or from the proselytes: on that very day you shall pay him his wages. The sun shall not set upon it, because he is poor and has his hope in it; and he will not cry out against you to the Lord, and it will be a sin for you."

(Jerem. xxii, 13) "He who builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not in judgment, works for his neighbor for nothing, and does not pay him his wages." ^D

(Eccli. xxxiv, 27) "He sheds blood who defrauds the wages of his hireling."

(Eccli. vii, 22) "Do not injure a servant who works in truth, nor a hireling who gives his soul."

(Rom. iv, 4) "To him who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt."

(Jac. v, 4) "Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, which has been withheld by you, cries out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."