CATECHESIS II FOR THE ILLUMINANDI
A Held at Jerusalem, concerning repentance and the remission of sins; and concerning the Adversary. And a reading from the prophet Ezekiel: As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted and live, and the rest.
I. Dreadful is sin, and most grievous is the disease of the soul, which is transgression: for it cuts asunder its nerves and becomes the cause of eternal fire; and it makes us masters of our own actions. And that we sin by our own free choice, the prophet says somewhere clearly: But I planted thee a fruitful vine, all true; how art thou turned into bitterness, O alien vine? The planting is good, whose fruit is evil through free will; and for this reason the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burned with fire; because it was planted for good, and brought forth evil fruit. For God made man upright, according to Ecclesiastes, and they themselves sought out many inventions; and the Apostle says: For we are His handiwork, created unto good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. The Creator, therefore, being good, created us for good; but the things well created by Him were turned to evil by their own free choice. B Great, therefore, is sin, but not incurable; great to one who holds fast to it, but easy to cure for one who believes. Imagine that someone holds fire in his hand: so long as he holds it, the coal burns; put down the coal, and you have put down that which burned. But if anyone thinks he is not burned while sinning, to him the Scripture says: Shall a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned? For sin cuts asunder the nerves of the soul, breaks the bones of the mind, and covers what is luminous in the soul.
II. But someone will say: What then is sin? Is it a living being? Is it an angel? Is it a daemon? What is it that produces it? It is not an enemy brought in from elsewhere, but C sin cuts asunder the nerves of the soul, and smashes the intelligible bones of the mind, and darkens what is luminous in the heart.
II. But someone will say: What then is sin? Is it a living being? Is it an angel? Is it a daemon? What is it that produces it? It is not an enemy brought in from elsewhere, but
A a wicked shoot springing up from you. See straight with your eyes, and there is no desire. Keep your own, and do not seize what is another’s, and rapine will be put to rest. Be mindful of the judgment, and neither fornication, nor adultery, nor murder will prevail in you. But when you have forgotten God, then at last you begin B to gush forth sources of evils.
III. Nor are you alone the author of this affair; but there is some other instigator and author, the devil. He suggests to all, but he does not overcome by force those who do not yield. For this reason the Ecclesiastes says: *If the spirit of the one having power should rise up against you, do not leave your place* (Eccles. x, 4). Shut the doors, remove him from you, and he will not harm you. But if you receive the seed of depraved desire, it will increase through the recurrence of thoughts, it will send out roots, it will bind your mind, and lead it into C an abyss of evils. But you often say: "I am faithful, and the daemon will not overcome me." But a root once found often splits a rock; do not receive the seed, lest it break through your faith. Before it blossoms, uproot the evil; lest, having been negligent at the beginning, you later require axes and flame. When you begin to have pain in your eyes, see to your cure for a short time, that you may not be blinded and then require the physician.
IV. The devil, therefore, is the prince of sin, the father of evils. The Lord Jesus says this, not I; He himself says concerning him: *That from the beginning the devil sins* (I Joan. iii, 8); no one sinned before him. He sinned, not by taking the necessity of sinning from his nature, for so the sin would recoil upon the Creator; but, having been created good, he became the devil, having obtained the appellation from his deed. Being an Archangel, he was called devil (calumniator) from slandering. From a good servant D of God, he became Satan; for Satan signifies the same as devil [or calumniator]. These teachings are not mine, but we have been instructed by Ezekiel. For he, pouring forth lamentations against him, says: *You are a seal of resemblance, in the paradise of God were you born* (Ezech. xxviii, 12). And after a few words: *You were born blameless in your days, until iniquities were found in you.* They were not summoned from elsewhere; you yourself gave birth to the evil. And on account of your sins you were wounded, and I cast you to the ground. The Lord again in the Gospels says: *I was seeing Satan as lightning falling from heaven to the ground* (Luc. x, 18).
A Do you see the harmony of the Old Testament with the New? He, when he fell, dragged many down with him; he suggests desires to those who obey him: from him come adultery, fornication, and whatever is evil. Through him our first parent fell by disobedience, and in place of a paradise that bore fruits of its own accord, he received a land bearing thorns.
V. What then, someone will say, have we perished utterly? Is sin a terrible thing, and is there no salvation? Have we fallen, and is it impossible to rise? Have we been blinded, and is it impossible to look up? Have we become lame, and is it impossible to walk aright? Or, to say it briefly, have we died, and is it impossible to rise again? Does He who raised Lazarus on the fourth day, [already] rotting, not have the power to raise us up? Can He who shed His precious blood for us not liberate us from sin? Let us not despair of ourselves, brothers; let us not cast ourselves aside; for it is an extreme evil not to believe in repentance. For he who does not expect salvation adds to his sins, but he who hopes for healing easily spares himself. The thief who does not expect [mercy] for nothing increases in despair; but if he has hoped, he often turns to repentance. Furthermore, the serpent casts off its old skin; are we not to cast off sin? And land that was thorny, when cultivated, changed into something fruit-bearing; are we, when taught, not to become better? Nature is capable of salvation, but it demands the will. B
VI. God is a lover of mankind, and not in a small way. Do not say: "I have lived lewdly, I have committed adultery, I have done terrible things; will God forgive me?" Hear what the Psalmist says: *How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord!* (Ps. XXX, 20). Your accumulated sins do not overcome the multitude of God's mercies; your wounds do not overcome the physician’s skill. Only give yourself [to Him] through faith; tell the physician the malady, say yourself as David did: *I said: I will confess against myself my sin to the Lord, and you have forgiven the impiety of my heart* (Ps. XXXI, 5).
VII. Do you wish to see God's love for mankind, if you do not fully believe the words of Scripture, you who have recently come to the catechism? Do you wish to see others saved in this way, so that you may believe that it is possible for this to happen even to you? Do you wish to see much of God's love for mankind? Adam, the first-formed, disobeyed God. Could He not have brought death upon him immediately? But He, most loving of mankind, casts him out of Paradise, yet settles him in the region opposite, so that by seeing [it] he might be saved through repentance. C Cain, the fratricide, inventor of evils, leader of murders, the first envious one and killer, with what penalty is he punished? *Groaning and trembling you shall be upon the earth* (Gen. IV, 12). Great is the sin, small the punishment.
VIII. It is love for mankind indeed, but still small. Think of the things in the time of Noah. The giants sinned by lawlessness. D
A such a magnitude that a flood was about to come. In the five hundredth year he speaks to Noah, and in the six hundredth he brings the flood upon the earth. Do you see the breadth of God's love for mankind extended over a hundred years? What He did then, could He not have done immediately? But He deliberately delayed it, giving an opportunity for repentance. Do you see the goodness of God? If only those of that time had repented! And they would have obtained the love of God for mankind.
IX. Come then, and consider others who have been saved through repentance, even among the number of women. You have acted the harlot, you have defiled B your body, you have become useless; you will ask, is there salvation? Look, O woman, to Rahab, and take courage for your salvation. He who had openly and publicly professed harlotry is saved. How was she saved? She believed. She said only, "Your God is God in heaven and on earth." She said "Your God," for she dared not call Him her own because of her lewdness. Imitate her faith and receive salvation. And do you wish to know that she was saved? It is written in the Psalms: "I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon." O the great counsel and love of God, that even in the Scriptures He mentions a harlot! But not simply: "I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon," but, "to those who know me." Salvation exists equally for men and for women.
X. Even if an entire people should sin, it does not overcome the love of God for mankind. The people fashioned a calf, and God did not cease from His goodness. C Men denied God, but God did not deny Himself. "These are the gods of Israel." Yet again, God is the savior of Israel. And not only the people sinned, but also Aaron the high priest. It is Moses who says, "And the Lord's anger was upon Aaron; and I prayed," he says, "for him, and God forgave him." Moses prevails upon God on behalf of the high priest; and will the only-begotten Son, by asking, not prevail upon God? Since He did not prevent Aaron, after he had stumbled, from entering into the high priesthood, will He prevent you, who have come from the Gentiles, from coming to salvation? Repent you likewise, and grace will not be prevented for you. Show your manner of life to be irreproachable; for God is truly D a lover of mankind, and not all time is sufficient to tell of the love of God for mankind; not even if all tongues were to come together, would they be able to recount even a part of the love of God for mankind. We speak a part of the things which are written, but we do not know how much He has even forgiven the angels; for He forgives even them, since He alone is without sin, He who has cleansed us from our sins. But let what has been said of them suffice, and let us now proceed to the things that pertain to us.
A XI. Do you wish that I should show you other examples of repentance? Do you wish that we should come to David? Do you wish to see the blessed man? Take him as an example of repentance. The great man fell. After resting, while walking upon his roof in the afternoon hours, he looked carelessly and suffered a human weakness. The sin was completed, yet the integrity of his sound mind did not perish along with it. Nathan the prophet came as a reprover, a swift physician. "God is angry," he says, "and you have sinned." A private individual was speaking to a king. The king, distinguished by his purple, was not puffed up with insolence; for he did not attend to the person of the one speaking, but to him who had sent him; the surrounding circle of soldiers did not elate him, for he was beholding the angelic one; for he endured, seeing Him who is invisible. And he says to the one who had come, answering through him to Him who had sent him: "I have sinned against the Lord." Do you see the humility of a king? Do you see the confession? For did he not know if it were a reproof? Did the multitudes not know? The deed was done swiftly, the prophet was not present, no reprover was present, yet he confesses the evil. Because he confessed it with a sound mind, he attained the speediest cure. And again Nathan, who had reproved him, said: "And the Lord has taken away your sin." Do you see the very swift change of God’s wrath? "Yet, by provoking, you have provoked the enemies of the Lord." You had many enemies, but your chastity was guarding you; but now you have provoked them by the sin that has occurred. B
C XII. But he, although the prophet had said, "The Lord has taken away your sin," did not depart from repentance, even though he was king. He put on sackcloth instead of purple, and instead of gold-adorned thrones, he sat upon ashes and the ground. And he even had ashes for food, as he himself says: "For I have eaten ashes like bread." He wasted away the eye of evil desire with tears. The princes were urging him to eat bread, but he would not be persuaded; he extended the fast to the seventh entire day. Kings confess in such a way, and you, a private individual, ought you not to confess? And after the rebellion of Absalom, when there were many ways for flight, he fled through the Mount of Olives, as if invoking the Liberator. When Semei was cursing him, he said: "Let him alone, that God may look upon my humility." D
XIII. Do you see that it is good to confess? Do you see that there is salvation? Even Solomon fell. But what does he say? "Afterwards I repented." And Achab also became most lawless, an idolater, a monstrous man, a murderer of prophets, a stranger to piety, a coveter of the fields of others. But when he killed Nabutha, when Elijah the prophet came and only uttered threats, he put on sackcloth and tore his garments; and what does the merciful God say? "Have you seen how Achab was pricked to the heart before my face?"
A how fervent the prophet’s disposition was, softening so as to incline toward mercy! "For I will not bring the evil," he says, "in his days." And after the forgiveness, he did not depart from his wickedness. Yet God granted pardon absolutely, not being ignorant of the future, but rendering for the time what was fitting. For it is the work of a just judge to pronounce sentence justly in regard to each of the things that have happened.
XIV. Again, Jeroboam was standing at the altar. Because he had ordered the prophet to be seized, his hand becomes withered. Recognizing by his own experience the power of him who had come to him, he says: "Entreat the Lord, and let my hand be restored." Because Jeroboam said, "Entreat," the prophet healed him: and shall Christ not be able to heal you? Manasses also existed, a most lawless man, he who sawed Isaiah asunder; what is more lawless than this? He was led away captive to Babylon, having suffered from his enemies rewards worthy of his own determination. But what does the Scripture say? "Manasses was humbled, and he confessed to the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and brought him back into his kingdom." B He who had sawed the prophet asunder found salvation through repentance: and do you distrust repentance?
XV. Do you wish to know how strong this weapon of salvation is, how much confession prevails even against enemies? Ezechias routed one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the enemy through confession. And this is still a small thing; he dissolved a sentence of God pronounced against himself. For to him as he lay sick, Isaiah said: "You are dying, and shall not live." What hope, what salvation or expectation remained, when the prophet had pronounced this? But he was not called back from repentance. But mindful of what is written, "When you have turned and groaned, then you shall be saved," he turned to the wall, and stretching his mind through prayer to heaven, "Lord," he says, "remember me; for it is sufficient for my healing that you remember me." You are not subject to times, but you are the arbiter of life and the lawgiver; for our life does not run according to the birth or the alignment of the stars, but according to your will. And to him, whose life had been despaired of, fifteen years of life were added; and as a sign, the sun went back ten steps. But for the sake of Jesus the sun failed, not retreating, but failing, and showing the difference between the two. C And indeed he possessed the power to dissolve a sentence of God; and shall Jesus not be able to grant forgiveness of sins? Do you also turn and groan; shut the door; pray that you may be forgiven, D that he may remove from you the scorching flames; it possesses...
A the power to quench fire, and the power to tame lions.
XVI. But if you are faithless, consider what once happened to Ananias and his companions. What springs did they release into the furnace of fire? What measure of water was sufficient to quench the flame rising to forty-nine cubits? Yet where the flame rose up fiercely, there a great spring of repentance was poured out, as they said: "For you are just in all that you have done to us," and, "We have sinned, and we have transgressed, and we have done iniquitously." Then repentance quelled the flames of the furnace; and do you doubt that it can also quench the fire of Gehenna? But someone, quick and ready to answer, will say to me that this discourse is ill-suited to the present purpose; for it was because Ananias and his companions refused to worship the idol that God gave them that extraordinary power. Yielding to this line of reasoning, and relying on an abundance of examples, I now turn to another instance of repentance.
XVII. For what is your opinion of B Nebuchadnezzar? Have you not heard from the Scriptures that he was most ungodly, most brutal in his ways, and possessed a lion-like resolve? Have you not heard that he brought the bones of the kings from their tombs into the light? Do you not know that he led the people away captive? Have you not heard that he put out the eyes of the king, having first made him watch his own children being slaughtered? Have you not heard that he seized the cherubim—I do not mean the intelligible and heavenly ones, but those constructed in the temple on the mercy seat of the ark, between which the Lord spoke? This Nebuchadnezzar tore down the veil of the sanctuary, overturned the altar, and taking all the vessels, C carried them off into an idol temple, and he burned the temple itself. How many deaths did he deserve for slaying kings, for burning the holy things, for taking the people captive, for storing sacred vessels in the temples of idols? Was he not worthy of ten thousand deaths?
XVIII. But you have seen the magnitude of his evils; now come to the loving-kindness of God. He became beast-like, he who was of a beastly and most cruel disposition; yet he became a beast not that he might perish, but that he might be saved through repentance. He had the claws of birds; for he had been a plunderer of the saints. He had hair like a D lion; for he was like a lion, plucking and roaring. He ate grass like an ox; for he was brutish, not knowing Him who had granted him the kingdom. His body was bedewed with dew; for after he had become
A...as once, after the midst of the furnace had become for Ananias and his companions like a whistling spirit of dew, he saw it and did not believe. But afterward, having been brought to his senses, he repented, as he himself says: "I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised Him who lives forever." And because he had been punished for many years, he praised Him who lives forever; he confessed Him who had granted him the kingdom, and he recognized the King of kings. And though he had sinned much in his deeds, by merely confessing with words, he experienced the ineffable clemency of God. He who had been the most lawless of all, by the divine judgment and the kindness of Him who corrects, was again adorned with the royal diadem and regained his royal thrones.
B XIX. If, therefore, there is any among you from the number of the Gentiles, or who has at some time blasphemed against Christ, or has plotted against the holy churches in times of persecution, let him have Nebuchadnezzar as an example for salvation: let him confess in similar fashion, that he too may obtain like amnesty. If any, desiring poorly, has been defiled by passions, let him take to himself the repentance of the blessed David; if any has denied Him, like Peter, let him die again in renewed struggle for the Lord Jesus. For He who did not begrudge the honor of the apostleship to him who wept, will not begrudge you the evangelical mysteries. Let Rahab be an example for salvation to women; but for men, let there be that varied example of the men of old which was recounted above.
C XX. But all of you, looking toward the clemency of God, be filled with good hope; not that we may fall back into the same sins again, but that, having obtained redemption and performing works worthy of grace, we may be able to blot out the chirograph of the decree that is against us by good works; by the power of the Only-begotten, the Son of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom is glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, both now and always, and for all the ages of ages. Amen.
CATECHESIS III, ON BAPTISM. — ARGUMENT.
In the first catecheses, the author, exhorting those to be baptized to show a preparation worthy of baptism, when in the previous one he had spoken of repentance and the remission of sins to be hoped for from God, in this one reveals the remedy in which God has established the remission of sins for the penitent, namely, baptism. He commends its dignity (n. 1) from the very close covenant by which it joins the soul with God, the grace of the Holy Spirit which it imparts (n. 2, 3, 4), the figures by which it was prefigured (n. 5), the excellence of its first author, John the Baptist, over other men (n. 6), and the example of Christ who received it (n. 9 and 11). He asserts its necessity for salvation from the decrees of Christ and the examples of the Scriptures (n. 4 and 10), defining that only martyrs obtain salvation without water baptism.