Penance That Ends and Penance That Never Ends

But the forgetfulness we have described applies only to grave offenses, which are also condemned by the Law of Moses. The inclination to these is destroyed and brought to an end by a good life, and so the penance for them also has an end. But for those small offenses in which, as it is written, “the righteous man falls seven times and will rise again,” penitence will never stop. For through ignorance, or forgetfulness, or thought, or word, or surprise, or necessity, or weakness of the flesh, or defilement in a dream, we often fall every day, whether against our will or willingly. For these offenses David too prays to the Lord, asking for cleansing and pardon, and says: “Who can understand sins? Cleanse me from my secret ones, and spare your servant from those of others.” And the apostle says: “For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, that I do.” Because of them the same man also cries out with a sigh: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” For we slip into these so easily, as if by a law of nature, that however carefully and watchfully we guard against them, we cannot avoid them altogether. For it was of these that one of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, declared and laid down absolutely: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and his word is not in us.” [a]

Further, for a man who is anxious to reach the heights of perfection, it will not help much to have reached the end of penitence, that is, to hold himself back from unlawful acts, unless he has always pressed himself forward in a tireless course toward those virtues by which we come to the signs of amends. For it will not be enough for a man to have kept himself clear of those foul stains of sin that the Lord hates, unless he has also gained, by purity of heart and perfect apostolic love, that sweet fragrance of virtue in which the Lord delights.

So far Abbot Pinufius spoke on the signs of amends and the end of penitence. And although he urged us with anxious love to decide to stay in his coenobium, yet when he could not keep us, since the fame of the desert of Scete drew us on, he sent us on our way.