The Thief, King David, and Our Calling

If we recall the thief who was admitted into paradise because of a single confession, we will see that he did not gain such blessedness by the merits of his life, but received it as the gift of a merciful God. Or if we bear in mind those two grievous and terrible sins of King David, blotted out by one word of repentance, we will see that here too the merits of his works were not enough to win pardon for so great a sin, but that the grace of God overflowed. When the opportunity for true repentance was taken, God removed the whole weight of his sins through the full confession of a single word. [a]

If we consider also the beginning of the calling and salvation of mankind, in which, as the apostle says, we are saved not of ourselves nor of our works, but by the gift and grace of God, we can clearly see how the whole of perfection is “not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.” It is he who makes us victorious over our faults, without any merits of our works and life to outweigh them, and without any effort of our will being able to climb the difficult heights of perfection or to subdue the flesh we must make use of. For no tortures of this body and no crushing sorrow of heart can be enough to gain that true chastity of the inner man by human effort alone, that is, without the help of God, so as to win that great virtue of purity, which is native to the angels alone and belongs, as it were, to heaven. For the doing of everything good flows from his grace, who by multiplying his generosity has granted such lasting blessedness and such vast glory to our feeble will and our short and petty course of life.