Беседа 12

1. The voice of the repentant is recognized in the words that we repeated after the reader: “Turn away Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities” (Ps. 50:11). And although we did not want to speak to your love, however, we learned from here that by the command of God we need to speak. We wanted to leave you without teaching this day, knowing how much food you have already received. But since you profitably consume what is offered to you, you go hungry every day. May the Lord our God help us in our lack of strength, and may hearing our word be beneficial to you. We know that we need to meet your good and useful desires. So, support us with your reverence and attention: reverence for God, attention to the word, so that you can tell us what He who shepherds you through us will find useful. So, the voice of repentance is heard in these words: “Turn Your face away from my sins and blot out all my iniquities,” and we have received a command from above to talk about repentance. We did not allow the reader to sing this psalm. But what He (the Lord) found useful for your listening, He put into the heart of the boy. So, we are talking about the benefits of repentance, especially in view of the upcoming great day [apparently, this means some kind of annual holiday], when it is especially appropriate to humble the spirit and tame the body. 2. The Holy Scriptures indicate three types of repentance. No one should proceed to baptism into Christ, in which all sins are cleansed, unless he first repents of his former life. No one starts a new life without repenting of the old one. However, it should be confirmed by the authority of Holy Scripture whether those approaching baptism must perform repentance. When the Holy Spirit, previously promised to them, was sent down to the apostles, and the Lord revealed the truth of His communication, they, filled with the Holy Spirit, began, as you know, to speak in different languages ​​- so that each of those who were there could hear their speech. Frightened by this miracle, those who heard it asked the apostles what they should do. Then the Apostle Peter told them that they must honor Him Who was crucified and accept His shed blood with faith (biberent). When it was announced to them about our Lord Jesus Christ and when those listening realized their guilt, they were embarrassed, so that what was once said by the prophet was fulfilled on them: “we returned to the passion when we were struck by thorns” (Ps. 32:4). They felt the bitterness of sorrow when the thorns of memories of sin began to prick them. They thought that they had done nothing wrong; the thorn had not yet been pierced. When Peter spoke, they, according to the word of Scripture, “were touched in heart” (Acts 2:37). And in the same psalm, where it is said: “I returned to passion when the thorns struck me,” it then says: “But I revealed my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You took away from me the guilt of my sin” (Ps. 31:5). When, pierced by these thorns of memory, they said to the apostles: “What should we do?” Peter said to them: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:37–38). So, now, if there are only those here who want to be baptized (we hope that they are more attentive to our word, the closer they are to forgiveness), we turn to them with a few words, so that they raise their thoughts to hope. Let them love what they want to be and hate what they were. Let them receive with reverence the new man who is about to be born. Whatever tormented them in their past life, whatever oppressed their conscience - great or small, what can be said and what cannot be said - let them not doubt that it will be released, so that human doubt does not hold back, to its detriment, what divine mercy is ready to forgive. 3. Let everyone remember an example of this in events from the history of the Jewish people, because the apostle says that “these were images for us” (1 Cor. 10:6). What is he talking about and what is he saying? “I do not want to leave you, brethren, ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud... and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and everyone ate the same spiritual food; and they all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank from the spiritual stone that followed; and the stone was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:1–4). That these were our models, said the one whom none of the believers ever contradicted. And although he lists many things, he only indicates the meaning of one object when he says: “the stone was Christ.” Having indicated only one thing, he left the rest for our examination. But let the researcher not be mistaken, let him not retreat from Christ and, having established himself on the rock, let him stand firm. “The stone,” says the apostle, “was Christ.” He pointed out that these were images for us and everything was hidden. Who will reveal the veils of images? Who will bare? Who dares to penetrate them? Sometimes in very shady places, dense shade helps to enhance the light. “The stone,” he says, “was Christ.” Now that the light has appeared, let us begin to explore what the rest signifies, what the sea, the cloud and the manna mean. The apostle did not explain this, but only indicated what the stone meant. - Crossing the sea means, brethren, baptism. But since baptism or, in other words, the water of salvation, cannot have power if it is not sanctified by the name of Christ, Who shed His blood for us, the water is therefore marked by His cross, and the sea itself was red. The meaning of manna from heaven is clearly indicated by the Lord Himself. “Your fathers,” He says, “ate manna in the wilderness and died” (John 6:49). How could they live when the image could only predict life, but could not be life? “They ate,” he says, “manna... and died,” i.e. the manna they ate could not free them from death; This means that the manna itself was not deadly for them, but it could not free them from death. He who was foreshadowed by manna had the power to free from death. Manna fell from the sky. Look who she signified: “I am,” says the Lord, “the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51). Receive the words of the Lord with all attention and good intention, so that you can successfully read and hear them. “They ate,” says the apostle, “the same spiritual food.” What do the words “the same” mean, if not that our fathers ate the same food as we? I feel that it is somewhat difficult to present and explain what I decided to talk about. But I will trust in your goodwill. Let it ask me for help from the Lord. “They ate,” he says, “the same spiritual food.” It was not enough to say: “they ate spiritual food,” but adds “the same food.” These words: “the same” can only be explained as the same food that we eat. Well, someone will say, was this manna really the same food that I now eat? But nothing now is the same as it was then, and the very temptation of the cross has already ceased. Therefore, the word “same” must be understood as explained below, i.e. the same spiritual food. After all, those who ate this manna, thinking only to satisfy their bodily needs, to nourish their belly, and not their mind, did not eat anything special. The food was sufficient for their needs. But God nourished some, and foretold something to others. The first ate only bodily food, and not spiritual food. Whom does the apostle call our fathers, who ate the same spiritual food? Who, brothers, if not those who were truly our fathers, or, better said, who always remain our fathers? They are all alive. True, the Lord says to the unbelieving Jews: “Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died.” But who should be understood here by the word “Your Fathers”, if not those by whom you (i.e. Jews, to whom the Lord is speaking) do you imitate with your unbelief, and whose paths do you walk in as a result of your unbelief and opposition to God? In this sense, He also says to some of them: “Your father is the devil” (John 8:44). After all, the devil did not create any of the people by his own power and did not produce them through birth, and, however, he is called the father of the wicked not by right of birth, but because of his imitation. On the contrary, it is said about the good: “you are Abraham’s seed” (Gal. 3:29). Although the speech here is addressed to the pagans who did not come from the family of Abraham, however, they were called children of Abraham not by birth, but by imitation. Father Abraham withdraws and becomes alienated from the arrogant Jews. “If you were children of Abraham,” the Lord tells them, “you would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39). Like bad trees, due to their exaltation of origin from Abraham, they are uprooted, but children to Abraham can be created according to the promise even from stone. So, just as in the place where it is said: “Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died,” it means those who did not understand what they ate, and as a result of this misunderstanding, took only bodily food, so here the apostle calls our fathers not the fathers of unbelievers, not the fathers of the ungodly, who ate and died, but our fathers, the fathers of believers, who ate spiritual food and, therefore, the same food. “Our fathers,” he says, “ate the same spiritual food; and everyone drank the same spiritual drink." There were also those who understood what they were eating. There were also those who felt Christ more in their hearts than manna in their mouths. Of these, first of all, there was Moses, the servant of God, faithful “in all His house” (Heb. 3:2), who knew what to distribute and what was necessary to offer then, what was hidden in the present and clear in the future. So, I will say briefly: whoever understood Christ in the manna ate the same spiritual food as we do. Whoever sought only bodily satiation from food, he ate like the father of the unbelievers and died. The same must be said about drinking. The stone was Christ. They drank the same drink as we did, but it was spiritual, if they were guided by faith, and not by sensuality they were only excited. “The Rock was Christ.” Not another Christ then, but another now. One was a stone that produced water (Ex. 17:6), another that Jacob put under his head (Gen. 28:11), one a lamb that was slaughtered to eat the Passover, another a lamb that was entangled in the bushes, which Abraham had to sacrifice when, by the command of God, he spared his son, whom he wanted to sacrifice (Gen. 22:13). One lamb and another lamb, one stone and another stone, but the same Christ. Therefore, our fathers ate the same food and drank the same drink. In order for water to flow out of the stone, it received a blow from a tree (Exodus 17:5–6). Why from wood, and not from iron, if not because Christ was crucified on the cross in order to impart His grace to us? So, the same food and the same drink are eaten, but only by those who understand, who believe. For those who do not understand, there remains only manna, only water, i.e. food for the physically hungry, drink for the thirsty. But this is not the same food and drink for the believer; for him it is the same food as now. Then Christ had to come - now He has come. He who has to come and he who has come are different words, but the same Christ... 4. Next, I want to tell you about the doubt of God’s servant Moses. And this also served as an image for the ancient saints. Moses had doubts about water; When he hit the rock with his rod so that water would flow out of it, he hesitated. Reading about his hesitation, others, perhaps, will not stop at this point, will not try to delve into it, will not even want to ask about it. The Lord God, however, was not pleased with such hesitation, and He not only convicted Moses for this, but also punished him. It was because of this doubt that it was said to Moses (and Aaron): “You will not bring this people into the land that I am giving them” (Num. 20:12), and also: “die on the mountain that you will ascend” (Deut. 32:50). Here God appears, as you see, angry. But is it really against Moses, my brethren? Was all his work, all his concern for the people, all his love, when he said: “Forgive them their sin; and if not, then blot me out from Your book” (Ex. 32:32) - all this is condemned for one random, unexpected hesitation? And what do the words with which the reader ended the apostolic reading mean, that “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8)? Although I had already outlined something else for a solution, your zeal prompted me, however, to deliver something that perhaps you did not expect. Let us consider and, as far as possible, try to understand the mystery. Behold, God is angry and says that he (Moses) will not lead the people into the promised land; commands that he go up the mountain and die. And at the same time, he instructs the same Moses to do a lot: he indicates what to do, how to distribute the people, so as not to leave them here and there - somehow. He would never entrust this to a condemned person. Pay attention to something else, more surprising. Since it was said to Moses that he would not bring the people into the promised land (whatever pleased the Lord for the sake of some secret and for the purpose of edification), another was elected in his place - Joshua, called Hosea (Num. 13:17). And since Moses commissioned him to bring the people into the land, he changed the name of Hosea and called him Jesus, so that not through Moses, but through Jesus, i.e. It was not through law, but through grace that God's people entered the land of promise. And just as that Jesus was not true, but served as an image, so that land of promise was not true, but was an image of the true. For that people it was temporary, but the land promised to us will be eternal. In temporary images the eternal was promised and foreshadowed. Now, that Jesus was not the true Jesus, and that land was not the true, but was a type; so manna was not true, heavenly food, but served as a prototype, so the stone was not truly Christ, but only a prototype, and so was everything else. What should we think about Moses' doubt? Is there not some kind of image for the one who understands? Will this not move and motivate our spirit to explore? I see that even after that doubt, and after anger and threats of death, after taking away the right to lead the people into the land of promise, God reveals many things to Moses as a friend, as he had previously revealed. To Joshua himself, Moses is set as an example of obedience, and the Lord exhorts him to serve Him just as Moses served, promising to be with him as with Moses. It is clear, beloved, that the Lord Himself admonishes us, so that we do not reproach Moses in vain, but try to understand his doubt. The image was a stone, the image was the rod with which Moses hit it, the water that flowed out served as an image, and Moses, the doubter, also appeared as an image. He doubted the moment he struck. Then Moses began to doubt when the tree approached the rock. Now the quick-witted ones are warning us, but let them wait patiently for the sake of others who are slow. Moses doubted when the tree approached the rock, and the disciples also doubted when they saw the Lord crucified. Their image was precisely Moses, the image of Peter, who denied three times. Why did Peter doubt? Because the tree approached the stone. When the generation of His death, i.e. His cross, the Lord foretold, Peter exclaimed in horror: “Lord! let this not happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22). He began to doubt when he saw that the rock was threatened by the rod. After all, the Lord’s disciples in this case lost the hopes that they had placed in the Lord. It was as if these hopes were taken away from them when they saw Him crucified, when they grieved for Him who had died. Here, the Lord meets them, after the resurrection, sadly talking among themselves about everything that happened; but he held back their eyes, so that they did not recognize Him; not moving away from the believers, but putting aside for a while those who were wavering, He, like a stranger, joined their conversation and asked what they were talking about. The disciples marveled that He alone did not know what had happened to the One who asked them: “Are You really one of those who came to Jerusalem and do not know about what happened in it?” And they remembered what happened to Jesus. They immediately began to explain the essence of their grief and show, without knowing it themselves, their wound to the doctor. “But we,” they say, “hoped that He was the One who was to deliver Israel” (Luke 24:13–21). Thus doubt arose due to the fact that wood was united with stone and thus the type of Moses was fulfilled. 5. Now consider the words: “die on the mountain that you climb.” In the bodily death of Moses the end of all doubt is foreshadowed, but on Mt. O wondrous mystery! However, finding out and revealing this is much more pleasant than the sacrament itself! Doubt was born near the rock, but it died on the mountain. When Christ was humiliated in suffering and lay like a stone before the eyes of everyone, naturally, His followers doubted Him, because the humiliation did not show anything great. Naturally, this humiliation became a stumbling block. In the resurrection the Lord appeared glorified, great, as if by a mountain. So let the doubt that was revealed at the rock die on the mountain. Let the disciples know their salvation, let them call on their hope. Pay attention to how this doubt dies, look how Moses dies on the mountain. Let him not enter the promised land, we don’t want there to be doubt there, let it die. Let Christ show us the death of this doubt. Peter was afraid and denied three times, because Christ was like a stone. But He rose again and became, as it were, a mountain, He confirmed Peter, and the doubt ended. How did the doubt stop? “Simon Ionin! do you love me? (John 21:16). The knower of the heart asks and wants to hear that He is loved. And once is not enough. He asks and listens to the saddened Peter. Peter is surprised that the Omniscient is testing him, and that he asks so many times when one answer would be enough even for someone who cannot know. But the Lord seems to say to him: “I wait until the legal number is fulfilled: let him confess his love three times, who denied three times out of fear.” So, having asked Peter so many times, the Lord thereby put an end to the doubt on the mountain. 6. But why, beloved, do we need to reveal all this? After all, it was hidden not for deception, but for our benefit. And we would not begin to read Scripture with such curiosity if it were always clear. However, let those who have the intention of proceeding to baptism, to whom I addressed a speech at the beginning of the conversation, turn back a little. The Red Sea is a baptism with which the people who crossed through it were baptized. The transition was baptism, but in the cloud. While the cloud covered what was foretold; For now, what was promised was hidden. Only now the cloud was hidden, and the revealed truth became clear, because the veil through which Moses spoke had already been removed. This covering (veil) was also in the church, so that the hidden things of the church remained inaccessible to sight. But at the moment of the Lord’s death, the veil was torn so that what had been hidden until then became clear. So, come to baptism. Fearlessly embark on your journey across the Red Sea. Do not be afraid of past sins that seem to be haunting the Egyptians. Your sins weighed you down with a heavy burden of slavery, but in Egypt, in the love of this age, on a distant journey, they forced you there to pursue earthly interests, to make bricks, as it were, and you committed shameful deeds. If your sins weigh you down, come calmly to baptism. An enemy may chase you to the water and then die. Be afraid of anything from your past life. Know that something will remain from your sins if anything from Egypt remains. I hear the voice of the careless: “I,” he says, “don’t worry about past sins. I have no doubt that everything will be released to me in holy water through the care of the Church. But I’m afraid of future sins.” So, do you really like to stay in the land of Egypt? Flee from the enemy who oppressed and enslaved you. What do you think about enemies in the future? What you have already done remains, even if you did not want it, but what you are thinking about will not happen if you want it. But the further path is dangerous, and when I cross the Red Sea, I will not yet be in the promised land: after all, those people were still led through a great desert. However, try to get rid of Egyptian slavery. And do you really think that the One who delivered you from the great captivity will not help you on your way? Will He who delivered you from the ancient enemy not tame your new enemies? Just step on this path fearlessly, walk fearlessly and be obedient. Do not annoy that Moses, whose image this (first) Moses bore in his obedience. It is true that there is no shortage of enemies. Just as there were enemies who pursued the departing Jews, there were also those who delayed them along the way. In everything, beloved, they served as a type for us. But let not that which grieved Moses be in you. Do not be the bitter water that those people could not drink after crossing the Red Sea. There were trials there too. And now, when something like this happens, when people grumble, we point them to Christ, point out what He endured for us, how He shed blood, and they calm down, as if we had thrown a piece of wood into the water. Undoubtedly, you too will have Amalek threatening you along the way. Then Moses prayed and stretched out his hands. As soon as he lowered his hands, Amalek prevailed, and when he extended his arms again, Amalek became weaker. And let your hands be stretched out. Let Amalek, your tempter and enemy, weaken on this path. Be cheerful and sober in prayers and in good deeds in the name of Christ, because those outstretched hands signified the cross of Christ. The apostle prostrates himself on it when he says: “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Let Amalek weaken, let him be overcome and not hinder the march of the people of God. If you give up on a good deed, on the cross of Christ, Amalek will prevail. However, do not be overconfident and do not fall into despair. The alternation of courage and weakness in the hands of God’s servant Moses, perhaps, served as an image of your changeability. Sometimes in temptations you weaken, but do not fall yet. Moses lowered his hands a little, but did not fall at all. “When I said, “My foot falters,” Thy mercy, O Lord, upheld me” (Ps. 93:18). So, don't be afraid. There is a Helper on your way, Who appeared as a deliverer in Egypt. Don’t be afraid, start your journey, looking ahead calmly. Sometimes Moses lowered his hands, sometimes he raised them, however, Amalek was defeated (Ex. 17:11, 13). He could resume the war, but he could not win. 7. Let us now move on to a conversation about another type of repentance. I saw three types of it in the Holy Scriptures. The first applies to those entering the Church and wishing to proceed to baptism. I told about him. But there is another repentance - daily. How can we prove the need for this daily repentance? None other than that daily prayer, which the Lord taught us to pray, and in which, showing with what words we should turn to God, He cites, among other things, the following words: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). What are these debts, brothers? Since it is impossible to understand here other debts than sins, do we really ask again that the Lord forgive us the sins forgiven in baptism? After all, every Egyptian who pursued us is already dead. And if nothing remains from the pursuing enemies, why do we pray, if not because our hands are weakened against Amalek? “Forgive us our debts, just as we forgive”... The Lord indicated a remedy and together confirmed the agreement. Indicates a prayer and answers the one praying; He knew how things were done in heaven, and how one could ask for one’s desires. Do you want debts to be left behind? Leave it yourself. Why are you thinking about serving God, from Whom you yourself want to receive services? However, does Christ now walk on earth? Does the rejoicing Zacchaeus now accept Him into his house (Luke 19:6)? Does Martha prepare hospitality and dinner for Him (Luke 10:40)? He does not need anything like that now, sitting at the right hand of the Father. But “just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40), says the Lord. This is precisely the stretching of hands during which Amalek weakens. You spend money on the poor when you give to the hungry. Perhaps you will have less of what you give from, but in the house, and not in heaven. However, even here on earth, He, whose command you have fulfilled, will fill in what you lack. The apostle says about this: “He who gives seed to the sower and bread for food will provide abundance for what you sow” (2 Cor. 9:10). You are a worker of God when you give to someone in need; You sow in winter to reap in summer. So, why are you afraid, O you of little faith, that in this great house such a Great Householder will not feed His worker? Here you will have everything you need. God will give you everything you need to satisfy your essential needs, but not to satisfy your passions. Work without hesitation, stretch out your hands, and let Amalek faint. True, when you give something, as I have already said, your property decreases: you no longer see in your house what you gave until the Lord gives it again. But tell me, what do you lose when you forgive from your heart? When you forgive someone who sins against you, what decreases in your heart? You forgive, but you lose nothing. On the contrary, a certain wave of love was in your heart, flowing there. Having hatred towards your brother, you stopped the source of it. Not only do you lose nothing when you forgive, but you are watered even more abundantly. Love does not suffer from this (non angustatur). You yourself are putting a stumbling block there for yourself and annoying yourself. “I,” you say, “will stand up for myself, I will take revenge, I will show him, I will do this and that”; you worry, you suffer, you should forgive and be calm, live calmly, pray calmly. So, what will you do? Here, you will pray. I won’t ask when, but today you will begin to pray. Or will you not pray?! You are filled with anger and hatred, you threaten punishment, you do not forgive from your heart. But now you pray, now the hour of prayer comes, you begin to listen or say those words. When the first words are spoken or heard, you will reach the next ones. Because where else to go? Or do you want to run away from Christ, just not to forgive the enemy? But if you don’t want to say these words of prayer: “and forgive us our debts,” because you cannot say: “just as we forgive our debtors,” so as not to receive in response: “I will do to you as you do,” - so, if you skip these words and continue: “and do not lead us into temptation” (Matthew 6:13), then your creditor, whom you avoided, will catch you, like to that debtor who, having met a person to whom he owes money on the street, leaves the road he was walking just so as not to see the face of his creditor. You are thinking of doing the same in this case, trying to omit the words: “and forgive... just as we forgive,” not wanting to say them, avoiding the face of your lender. But who are you avoiding and who are you, the avoider? Where will you go, and where is the place where He would not be? Say: “Where will I go from Your Spirit and where will I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven - You are there; “If I go down to the underworld, you will be there too.” Where better for a debtor to escape from Christ than to go to hell? But He is there too. What will you finally do, if not what follows: “Shall I take the wings of the dawn and move to the edge of the sea” (Ps. 139:7-9), i.e. I will think in my hope about the end of the age, I will live in your commandments and I will rise on two wings of love. Take these two wings of love. Love your neighbor as yourself, and do not have hatred, as a result of which you want to flee from your lender (creditorem). 8. There remains a third kind of repentance, which we need to talk about at least briefly in order, with God’s help, to fulfill what has been assumed and promised. There is a more severe, deeper repentance, to which special sinners are subjected, removed from the sacrament of the altar, so that by unworthily receiving the mysteries they do not accept them as condemnation to themselves. Repentance is hard. The wound is severe. Perhaps adultery has been committed, perhaps murder, perhaps some kind of sacrilege - a serious matter, a serious wound - fatal, fatal. But the Doctor is omnipotent. After inventing a crime, after enjoying it and agreeing to it, after fulfilling it, the sinner already stinks like the four-day-old Lazarus. However, the Lord did not leave him, but exclaimed: “Lazarus! get out." The cave darkness gave way to the voice of mercy, death gave way to life, the lower gave way to the higher. The awakened Lazarus came out of the tomb, but was bound, like people who, in the consciousness of their sin, perform repentance. They have already awakened from death; They would not have realized their sins if they had not awakened. To recognize sin is what it means to come out of the cave, out of the darkness. But what does the Lord say to His Church? “Whatever,” he says, “you permit on earth, that will be permitted in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). So, when Lazarus went out, the Lord fulfilled the work of His mercy here, bringing to consciousness the already buried and stinking dead; the rest already relates to the responsibility of the church hierarchy, namely the words: “untie him, let him go” (John 11:39–44). But, beloved, avoid the necessity of resorting to this degree of repentance; Let everyone behave this way so as not to fall so deeply. However, if anyone has to perform such repentance, let him not despair. Judas, the traitor, was destroyed not so much by the crime itself as by despair. He was not worthy of God’s mercy, and therefore it did not occur to him to resort to the mercy of the One Whom he betrayed, like those who crucified Him, but in despair he destroyed himself, hung on a rope and hanged himself. What he did with his body, the same happened with his soul. The breath of this air is also called spirit. And just as those who, squeezing their throats, kill themselves because it becomes impossible for them to breathe air, in the same way those who despair of God’s mercy internally kill themselves with this despair, so that they finally stop communicating with the Holy Spirit. 9. But pagans usually reproach Christians for repentance, which is established by the Church; and also against some heretics, the Catholic Church was forced to confirm the truth of repentance. Because there were those among Christians who said that for some sins there could be no repentance. But they were excommunicated from the Church and became heretics. The Holy Church does not lose its generosity, no matter how great the sins of people. But for this, the pagans usually reproach us, not understanding what they are saying, since they do not know the Word of God, which even makes the tongue of infants eloquent. “You,” they say, “help people sin when you promise them forgiveness if they repent.” It (repentance) seems to corrupt and not edify. They reduce all their speeches to this thought, wagging their tongues, and when we prove the opposite, although they remain defeated, they do not agree. How they are overcome, let your love briefly hear about this, because with His mercy the Lord has beautifully arranged everything in His Church. They say that we give scope to sin because we provide a refuge for it in repentance. But if access to repentance were closed, wouldn’t the sinner begin to multiply his sins as he despairs that they will be forgiven? He would say: “I have sinned, I have committed a crime, I no longer have any hope of forgiveness; repentance is useless. I will be condemned. Why shouldn't I live the way I want? Since there (in the future life) I will not meet love, at least here I will satisfy my passion. Why should I abstain? There the place is closed to me; no matter what I do here, it’s all in vain. Because the life that is promised after this one will not exist for me. Why shouldn’t I serve my lusts, why not fulfill and satisfy them, why not do what, although not permitted, is pleasant?” But maybe someone will tell him: “Unfortunate! you will be captured, accused, tortured and tormented for your crimes.” However, bad people know what to answer and this is what many answer. “After all, the sins of many who live badly and criminally,” they say, “remain unpunished: one can also hide or pay off when it is impossible to hide, and thus lead a cheerful, shameful, vicious, destructive life until old age. “Here,” they say, “so-and-so, who led a vicious life, did not die in old age?” But don’t you know, pointing this out, that that sinner and criminal died in old age because God wanted to show His long-suffering on him, waiting for his repentance? Therefore, the apostle says: “Or do you despise the riches... of God’s long-suffering, not realizing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment from God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:4-6). It is necessary that the fear of this judgment of God does not leave our thoughts; it is necessary, if you do not want to sin, to remember the presence of God not only in the place of meeting, but also at home, not only at home, but also on your bed, at night on your bed, in your heart. So, if you take away the refuge of repentance, sins multiply due to despair. So those who claim that sins can multiply for the reason that the Christian faith provides refuge for the sinner in the sacrament of repentance are already unanswerable. Besides, couldn’t God have foreseen that through the hope of forgiveness, sins would multiply? But just as He made sure that they did not increase as a result of despair, He also provided for the opposite, i.e. so that sin does not increase due to excessive hope. Indeed, just as a despairing person can multiply sins, so can one who hopes for forgiveness. The latter can say to himself: I will do as I want; God is merciful - when I turn to Him, He will forgive me. But he could speak so confidently only if tomorrow was known to him. But does Scripture teach you this when it says: “Do not hesitate to turn to the Lord and do not delay from day to day: for the wrath of the Lord will suddenly come upon you, and you will perish in vengeance” (Sir. 5:8-9)? So, in both cases, Providence took care of us: so that, due to despair, we would not multiply our sins, we were given the refuge of repentance, and so that we would not do the same due to excessive hope, the day of our death remains hidden from us. You might be interested in: