The Many Fruits of Penitence

For besides the grace of baptism, which is common to all, and that most precious gift of martyrdom, which is won by being washed in blood, there are many fruits of penitence through which we can succeed in atoning for our sins. For eternal salvation is promised not only to the bare act of penitence, of which the blessed apostle Peter says, “Repent and be converted, so that your sins may be forgiven,” and John the Baptist and the Lord himself say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The weight of our sins is also overwhelmed by the warmth of love, for “love covers a multitude of sins.” In the same way a remedy for our wounds is provided by the fruits of almsgiving, because “as water puts out fire, so almsgiving puts out sin.” So too the washing away of offenses is gained by the shedding of tears, for “Every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears.” Then, to show that they are not shed in vain, he adds: “Depart from me, all you who work wickedness, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.” Again, by confession of sins their absolution is granted, for “I said, I will confess my sin against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the wickedness of my heart”; and again, “Declare your wickedness first, so that you may be counted righteous.” Forgiveness of sins committed is obtained in the same way by afflicting the heart and the body, for he says, “Look on my humility and my labor, and forgive me all my sins.” And above all it is obtained by amendment of life: “Take away,” he says, “the evil of your thoughts from my eyes. Cease to do evil; learn to do good. Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, give judgment for the orphan, defend the widow. And come, reason with me, says the Lord. Though your sins were like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they were red as crimson, they will be as white as wool.” [a]

Sometimes, too, the pardon of our sins is obtained by the intercession of the saints, for “if anyone knows that his brother is sinning a sin that is not to death, he asks, and he will give him life, for the one who sins not to death”; and again, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he is in sins, they will be forgiven him.” Sometimes too the stains of sin are removed by the virtue of compassion and faith, as in this passage: “By compassion and faith sins are purged away.” And often they are removed by the conversion and salvation of those who are saved by our warnings and preaching: “For whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” Moreover, by pardon and forgiveness on our part we obtain pardon for our own sins: “For if you forgive people their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins.”

You see, then, how many ways of obtaining mercy the compassion of our Savior has opened to us, so that no one who longs for salvation need be crushed by despair, when he sees himself called to life by so many remedies. For if you plead that through weakness of the flesh you cannot get rid of your sins by fasting, and cannot say, “My knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh is changed for oil; for I have eaten ashes for my bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,” then atone for them by generous almsgiving. If you have nothing you can give to the needy (although the claims of want and poverty shut no one out from this duty, since the widow’s two mites are ranked above the splendid gifts of the rich, and the Lord promises to give a reward for a cup of cold water), at least you can purge them away by amendment of life. But if you cannot reach perfection in goodness by rooting out all your faults, you can show a devout concern for the good and the salvation of another. And if you complain that you are not up to this service, you can cover your sins by the warmth of love. And if in this too some sluggishness of mind makes you weak, at least you should humbly, with a feeling of lowliness, beg for remedies for your wounds through the prayers and intercession of the saints.

Finally, who is there who cannot humbly say, “I have acknowledged my sin, and my unrighteousness I have not hidden,” so that by this confession he may also be able to add, “And you forgave the wickedness of my heart”? But if shame holds you back, and you blush to reveal your sins before men, you should not stop confessing them with constant pleading to him from whom they cannot be hidden, and saying to him: “I acknowledge my wickedness, and my sin is always before me. Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you.” For he is accustomed to heal them without any public exposure that brings shame, and to forgive sins without any reproach. And besides that ready and sure help, God, stooping down to us, has given us another that is easier still. He has placed the remedy in the keeping of our own will, so that we can tell from our own feelings that our offenses are forgiven, when we say to him: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

Whoever, then, wants to obtain forgiveness of his sins should make it his aim to fit himself for it by these means. Let no one be turned away by the stubbornness of a hardened heart from the saving remedy and the fountain of so much goodness. For even if we have done all these things, they will not be able to atone for our offenses unless they are blotted out by the goodness and mercy of the Lord. When he sees the service of devout efforts offered by us with a humble heart, he supports our small and puny efforts with the greatest generosity, and says: “I, I am he who blots out your wickedness for my own sake, and I will remember your sins no more.”

So whoever is aiming at this condition we have spoken of will seek the grace of amends by daily fasting and the mortification of heart and body. For, as it is written, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”; and that not without good reason, for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” And so one who would keep back “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” from this shedding of blood certainly comes under the lash of Jeremiah’s curse: for “Cursed,” he says, “is he who keeps back his sword from blood.” For this is the sword that, for our good, sheds that bad blood by which the material of our sins lives. It cuts off and pares away everything fleshly and earthly that it finds grown up in the members of our soul, and it makes men die to sin and live to God, and flourish with spiritual virtues. And so he will begin to weep no longer at the memory of former sins but in the hope of what is to come. Thinking less of past evils than of good things to come, he will shed tears not from sorrow over his sins but from delight in that eternal joy. And “forgetting the things that are behind,” that is, sins of the flesh, he will press on “to those that are ahead,” that is, to spiritual gifts and virtues.