Word 4: On Repentance. -St. Maxim the Greek

Sermon 4: On Repentance, very profitable for those who read it with faith, sincere love, careful attention, and due discernment

My soul, behold: in this present year also, by the great longsuffering and abundant loving-kindness of God the Lover of mankind who created us, the Lord of all things, we have once again reached the calm and saving harbor of holy and soul-profiting Great Lent. In this season, all alike—both the righteous and sinners—take upon themselves an intensified ascetic struggle with great zeal.

The righteous do so for two reasons: first, that the virtue of righteousness and humble-mindedness which they have already acquired may become yet firmer and unshakable in them; second, that to their former virtuous life they may add still further spiritual accomplishments, that they may be counted worthy to receive greater rewards and more radiant crowns.

But sinners like ourselves, defiled and wretched, undertake this struggle in order by every kind of abstinence, by the afflicting of the body and by spiritual weeping to appease the fearful Judge whom we have angered by every kind of lawless deed throughout the whole of our accursed life, and that we may be made worthy to spend the remaining time in a life pleasing to God, honorable, and in the keeping of our Master’s saving commandments.

Let us therefore awake from the sleep of great and brazen sloth, and with all zeal let us labor, that the remaining time of our brief life may flow irretrievably toward the prize of the high calling (Phil. 3:14), where our true citizenship is, whence we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20). Let us watch with the wise virgins; let us take with us sufficient oil—that is, love of mankind that is like unto God’s own, and mercy toward all who live in want and sorrow—for by these above all is the Creator and Master of all most moved to compassion toward us. The foolish virgins neglected these things and were left outside the mystical bridal chamber, gaining no profit at all from their virginity.

Let us, O my soul, ever remember the Lord who commands us, saying: “Be like men who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” (Luke 12:36–37).

By this parable He clearly commands us, saying: Just as slaves of earthly lords, fearing beatings, always strive to please their masters and fulfill their every wish, so you, My disciples, work out your salvation with fear and love, ever striving to do what is dear and pleasing to Me, as I Myself command you by My commandments.

Let us acquire for ourselves raiment worthy of the mystical bridal chamber—that is, a praiseworthy life shining with every purity and holiness—so that we be not bound hand and foot and cast out of that mystical banquet into the outer darkness.

Having been invited—or rather, already having been invited—by the Lord Himself and His blessed disciples to the mystical marriage feast, let us not senselessly refuse this blessed calling, making excuses about a field, or a yoke of oxen, or marriage to a wife—those worthless and swiftly vanishing things in which they are entangled who mind earthly things, “whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame” (Phil. 3:19). But let us, O my soul, mind the things that are above, let us seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). Let us submit ourselves to the Savior who says: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26).

And what this following consists in, let us hear from the Lord Himself: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24).

Who fulfills these three commandments? He who at once renounces all his possessions and thereafter no longer desires them, but with his whole soul rejects them even unto death, seeing them as obstacles to his ascent to heaven and as depriving him of the good things prepared there for the righteous. He who thus renounces the thorns of this deceitful and vain life has truly denied himself—that is, all the desires of his flesh and the base passions of his soul—and has hated and cast them far from him with his whole soul. Such a one walks the straight paths in the footsteps of his Savior, having taken up his cross, which signifies the voluntary mortification of his passions and desires.

But he who, after his renunciation, again acquires fields and various possessions, and thereby entangles himself once more in the cares and tumults of this life—his fleshly and spiritual passions, which had somewhat quieted, rise up again, seize his wretched soul, wage war against it, and wound it in every way. Clearly, what is said in the wise proverb has happened to him: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly,” and “the sow, having been washed, returns to wallowing in the mire” (2 Pet. 2:22).

Such a one is far removed from the blessed life of the righteous that he hoped for, as our Lord showed in the parable: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Here, by “hand” the Master means the self-determining will and choice of each of us; by “plow” He means His own holy and saving commandments, by which we easily traverse the angelic, Gospel way of life; and by “looking back” what else does He indicate but a return to former habits and to the corruption of worldly life?

Is it not precisely “looking back” when one ceaselessly cares how to acquire more fields and possessions and herds of cattle, how to multiply many times over one’s silver and gold—from all of which a monk, at his tonsure, voluntarily renounced, promising the Master who dwells on high henceforth to be free of all these things in apostolic fashion, and to keep the Lord’s commandments in complete non-possession, in poverty and stillness, with all humble-mindedness, in purity and holiness of body and spirit?

Behold now, O my soul, is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). Let us therefore put away the works of darkness (Rom. 13:12), which are: fornication and all uncleanness of flesh and spirit, drunkenness, gluttony, riotous and foolish laughter, filthy speech, idle talk, slander, lying, envy, jealousy, flattery, haughtiness, demonic pride, love of money—which is the root of all evil and is called idolatry by the holy Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 6:10). Let us utterly hate all these things and cast them far from us while the fearful Judge in His love for mankind still bears with us patiently, granting us time for repentance. Let us come before His face with confession (Ps. 93:2). By “His face,” O soul, understand His righteous wrath and indignation toward us, as it is written elsewhere: The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth (Ps. 33:16-17). Let us take hold of God’s commandments—that is, let us repent before God by fulfilling His holy commandments—lest the Lord be angry with us and we perish from the way of righteousness (Ps. 2:12), which is communion and heavenly fellowship with those who are being saved.

The day of the Lord, O soul, is unknown; like a thief attacking in the night it puts to death the one it finds asleep. So too death comes upon us suddenly and snatches us from this temporary, wretched life. Let us cast away from ourselves all weakness and sloth. Let us not invent excuses for our sins—bodily infirmity, the arrival of friends, various feasts, invitations from relatives and neighbors. All these are empty and worthless justifications; not one of them can deliver us from the hand of the impartial Judge. For from all these things we once for all renounced before God’s chosen angels, promising the Master that we would spend the remaining time of our life in an evangelical manner: in complete lowliness, in poverty, in righteousness and holiness, according to the rules of the divinely inspired teachers of monastic life. But now, by breaking those rules and living a disorderly life, what else can we expect, wretched soul, except destruction—as those who have lied to God in the vows we made to Him?

Or do you think Holy Scripture speaks in vain when it says: You have hated all who work iniquity; You will destroy all who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloody and deceitful man (Ps. 5:5–6)? Or again: He will rain snares upon sinners; fire and brimstone and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup (Ps. 10:6)? Do you consider your way of life pleasing to God and reverent, and therefore remain in sloth? Alas, alas, O my wretched soul! Herein lies our heaviest and chief sin, the very cause of our condemnation: that we do not realize how grievously we offend the fearful Judge by every act of disobedience and transgression of His saving commandments. Such a state of soul is a sign of final hardness of heart and madness—unless we immediately cast this insensibility far from us.

Let us therefore set about repentance with diligence and sincerity. This outward garment of rough haircloth will profit us nothing for salvation; on the contrary, it will only bring us greater condemnation—that, while clothed in such poor rags, we live a life utterly unworthy of them and wholly inconsistent with them. This is clear both from our sinful deeds and from the many apostolic and patristic ordinances, and most of all from the divine commandments of the common Master and Judge, which He proclaimed in the form of the Beatitudes. Let us attend to them carefully.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). By the poor in spirit He means those who at all times and in all things think humbly of themselves, who condemn themselves, like the blessed Prophet who said: I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people (Ps. 21:6); and elsewhere: Lord, my heart is not lifted up, nor are my eyes raised too high; I have not walked in great matters nor in wonders above me (Ps. 130:1).

But we, wretched soul—what do we think of ourselves? Do we not constantly justify ourselves inwardly, considering ourselves doers of every righteousness and reverence, deeming ourselves exceedingly wise, filled with all wisdom and understanding? And therefore we judge ourselves worthy of being raised to some position of authority in order to guide others to salvation. To that end we strive by every means to obtain some ecclesiastical rank: we hypocritically pretend to lead a reverent life, we enter into friendship with those in power, fawning upon them and flattering them in every way; often we even give gifts and promise others if they will accomplish what we desire. All this, O soul, is plain proof of pride and of a heart puffed up with arrogance. How then shall we be accounted worthy by the common Judge of that blessedness promised to those who have hated all such things? And if we are unworthy of this divine blessedness, then we are wretched and already condemned—unless with a fervent soul we quickly love repentance and, before our departure, turn away from this vainglorious frenzy of ours. All the more is this necessary for us because the prophetic word strongly prays against those who, for the sake of fleeting glory, dare unlawfully to seize any kind of authority: Add iniquity to them, O Lord; add iniquity to the glorious ones of the earth (Isa. 26:15).

But let us give due attention also to the remaining Beatitudes and see whether our life agrees with them.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). Here is the fruit given by God to reverent humility: spiritual mourning, which is born in a heart filled with humility from great compunction and divine love. Whoever truly thinks humbly of himself in his heart will always weep over himself, considering himself condemned and unworthy of heaven or earth, ever remembering his sins.

But we, O soul, being utterly possessed by love of glory because of our pride—if we attain some rank, how shall we ever weep or condemn ourselves, when we constantly surround ourselves with human praise and flattery, spending our life in jesting and all manner of blasphemy with those around us, adorning ourselves with costly silken garments, gold, and silver? By surrounding ourselves abundantly with all these things we put far from us that spiritual comfort which belongs to those who mourn for themselves, and we receive our good things in this life (cf. Luke 16:25).

As for the next Beatitude—“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5)—have we not, wretched soul, fallen completely away from it? Do we not rage against those who wrong us in anything more fiercely than wild beasts, rising up against them in great anger and striving by every means to avenge the insult done us? But he is meek, O soul, who with great humility and without disturbance patiently endures insults, reproaches, humiliations, the plundering of his goods, even blows and wounds, in imitation of his Savior and Lord. Whoever is faint-hearted in the face of these things, raises his hand to strike the one who strikes him, sharpens his tongue to revilings and insults, and is ready to go to law with his adversary—such a one has not yet set foot even on the threshold of the Gospel and apostolic life, and vainly adorns himself with the outward monastic habit so long as he has not put off the old man with all his passions and desires.

And our falling away from the next two Beatitudes—one of which blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the other the merciful—how shall I worthily describe it? Or rather, what weeping and what fitting lamentation shall I employ? Is it not worthy of tears and mourning that, contrary to all righteousness and every monastic rule, we dare to treat our brethren—the poor, the needy, widows, and orphans—in such a way? Not only do we despise them when we see them perishing from hunger and cold and utter want of life’s necessities, but we do not defend them against the powerful and lawless who oppress them, nor do we intercede when their goods are seized.

Yet we have a strict commandment spoken from the mouth of the most righteous and fearful Judge Himself: God stands in the assembly of gods; in the midst He judges among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of sinners? Give justice to the orphan and the poor; vindicate the humble and needy. Rescue the poor and deliver the needy out of the hand of the sinner (Ps. 81:1-4).

And what do I say—that we fail to defend and intercede for them when they are wronged, though often we have the power to deliver them from the injuries done them? We ourselves, wretched soul, often dare to treat them worse than worldly men do. Do you not count it the height of inhumanity and injustice on our part that we—who renounced before God and His holy angels all excess of food and bodily ease—then forget our vows and again acquire every kind of possession and herds of cattle, feeding abundantly on every delicacy and enjoying every comfort at the expense of the sweat and toil of the peasants subject to us? Those poor people, laboring ceaselessly and worn out providing in abundance the necessities of life that we demand, themselves remain always in want and poverty, often lacking even pure rye bread, eating it without salt because of their extreme need. Yet we not only remain insensitive and uncompassionate toward their bitter lot and deem them unworthy of any relief—though we have a commandment to care mercifully for those suffering poverty and want—but with utmost inhumanity we increase their hardship by yearly demanding crushing interest on the money they borrowed from us, and we never forgive them that annual payment, even if we have already received back ten times the principal. And not only do we oppress them in this way; if someone, because of extreme poverty, cannot pay the interest for the coming year, we demand—O cruelty!—additional interest upon interest. If they still cannot pay, we take away everything they have and drive them empty-handed from our villages, whereas we ought rather to show them special mercy and, in fulfillment of the divine commandment, supply them with all the necessities of life as our brethren.

If we are so merciless toward our poor brethren, O wretched soul, showing them no compassion or loving-kindness, but instead devouring them and tormenting them in every way—how do we not fear the fearful Judge and Lord who will say to us: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was naked and you did not clothe Me (Matt. 25:41–43), and so forth. Then He adds: Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it not to Me (Matt. 25:45).

Terrible is this saying, O my wretched soul, and fearful the sentence—especially for us wretched monks who, as it were, renounced all unrighteousness, lawlessness, and worldly usury, and gave God a vow henceforth to love all righteousness and mercy, sincere love and loving-kindness toward every human being, and especially toward those in distress. Yet forgetting our vows, we treat the peasants subject to us with such inhumanity—those whom the Lord calls His own brethren, concerning whom He clearly says through the mouth of blessed David: Because of the misery of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will deal boldly with him (Ps. 11:5-6). By this He plainly declares: Though for a time I seem to keep silence while the poor and needy are wronged and cruelly oppressed, I will not be silent forever; I will surely arise to defend them and take vengeance on those who oppress them.

The same thing He declares elsewhere through the same Prophet: The Lord protects the strangers; He will relieve the orphan and widow, but the way of the wicked He will destroy (Ps. 145:9); and again: I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the poor and will avenge the needy (Ps. 139:12).

If all this is so, O soul—and it cannot be otherwise—why do we remain so insensible to it? Why are we not terrified by the parable the Lord told of the rich man who hated the poor and of Lazarus, or by the expulsion of the virgins from the divine bridal chamber? And still more, why are we not convinced by that lover of riches whom God Himself rebuked, saying: Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have prepared? (Luke 12:20).

Or do you not know, O soul, the true and wise saying of the prophet and king David: The fool and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever (Ps. 48:10-11). Truly foolish is he who does not set his mind on the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, as the divine Apostle says, commanding us: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1–3).

He is called foolish who understands the power of the divine commandments impiously and wrongly, and therefore wanders along the byways of temporal pleasures and the vanities of this world, delighting and rejoicing in them like a worm in the mud where it is born, crawls about, and dies when the mud dries up.

Come, then, O my soul, let us at last awake and wipe away the pus that has gathered on the eyes of our mind because of our disobedience and madness. Let us understand that everything concerning us must be done according to the divine commandments, and let us strive to correct ourselves. Let us scatter abroad, according to God’s will, what we have wickedly gathered contrary to His commandment. Let us renounce once more; let us love a second renunciation, since we lied in the first, and let us obey that divine voice which cries aloud: He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever (Ps. 111:9). If the righteousness of him who gives his wealth to the poor endures with him forever, then the unrighteousness of the unmerciful will also remain with him unto endless ages in the unquenchable fire, as it was justly said to that unmerciful rich man: Child, remember that you received your good things in your lifetime (Luke 16:25).

Let us imitate, O my soul, that wise publican who became the Savior’s host and said: Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold (Luke 19:8). Let us imitate his good repentance and praiseworthy resolve, that we too may be made worthy to hear that divine voice: Today salvation has come to this house (Luke 19:9).

How long shall we remain deaf to the divine teaching which commands us: Do not trust in injustice, and do not covet robbery; if riches flow in, do not set your heart upon them (Ps. 61:10)?

Let us fear, O my soul, let us fear the threat of the divine Teacher who says: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days (James 5:1–3).

This just threat applies especially to us, wretched soul, who amass every kind of wealth yet refuse to give even a farthing to the poor who bow before us with tears and beg; we pass them by and will not even look at them. Therefore we too shall not be shown mercy by the righteous Judge, since we ourselves show no mercy to our neighbors who perish from hunger and cold: For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13). And we shall not taste the good things prepared for the righteous while we hunger and thirst for unrighteousness rather than for righteousness.

Let us not remain, O soul, in such darkness of mind and hardness of heart. Let us fear the fearful denunciation of Him who says: Woe to you who are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation (Luke 6:24–25).

Let us cast away all that unbelief with which our heart is sick concerning the commandments and ordinances of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us accept the Lord’s discipline, lest He be angry with us and we perish from the righteous way when His wrath is quickly kindled against those who transgress His holy commandments—those who, in their great presumption and hardness of heart, foolishly think they can appease the incorruptible Judge at their last breath with a repentance that is in truth ineffective, after having knowingly and willingly provoked Him throughout their whole life.

Repentance offered at the last breath, with tears and contrition of heart, with painful groaning and restitution of what was stolen, is indeed good—but it is good for those who lived lawlessly out of ignorance of God’s future judgment and the torments awaiting them. As for those who, knowing all this and fully understanding Holy Scripture, yet voluntarily trample God’s commandments and imagine they will appease the fearful Judge at their last breath—I do not know whether such a grace will be granted them. For the greater part of them are suddenly snatched from this life, struck before death with loss of speech and consciousness, presenting a pitiful spectacle to those who behold them lying mute and motionless, invisibly tormented for many days. Others have been taken suddenly, without the slightest moment granted them for repentance.

Knowing this with certainty, the divinely inspired psalmist commands us: Understand therefore, you who forget God, lest He snatch you away and there be none to deliver (Ps. 49:22). Who are these who forget God, O soul? Are they not those who, in mad presumption, knowingly trample His saving commandments while being well-versed in Holy Scripture? The same divine psalmist confirms this when he clearly sings: But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness upon children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember His commandments to do them (Ps. 102:17-18). It is clear from this that those who remember His commandments to do them—that is, to fulfill them in deed—are the ones who remember God; while those who trample His commandments are justly called those who forget God. For this reason He also forgets them, as He Himself says through His prophet Hosea to the transgressors of His commandments, the ungrateful Jews: Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priest to Me; since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children… And as they sinned against Me, I will change their glory into dishonor (Hosea 4:6–7).

Terribly mistaken, O soul, are those who sin deliberately and hope for salvation through an ineffective and uncertain repentance at the end: For God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7), says the divine Apostle.

Therefore let us abandon such soul-destroying delusion and repent before God while the divine loving-kindness and goodness from above still grants us time for it. For, it is said, at an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). Let us put away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day (Rom. 13:12–13). But enough has already been said about this.

Let us now look, if you will, at the remaining Beatitudes and see whether we live in accordance with them.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8).

Here, at these words, great perplexity seizes me, O soul. How shall I worthily praise the unspeakable and superabundant gift that our loving Master bestows upon us? In the Beatitudes already mentioned, honors are promised to the worthy according to the nature and measure of each one’s correction. But here the Lord promises the very summit of divine desire: to behold face to face, in a hidden and noetic manner, the passionless and blessed divine Nature.

Seized by this longing, the blessed psalmist says: As the deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps. 41:1-2). I shall be satisfied when Your glory is revealed to me (Ps. 16:15/17). By “satisfaction” the Prophet means the most perfect, secret, ineffable, and insatiable delight in the divine beauty and love of God, which will be granted to those who have completely purified their hearts from everything—not only from every defilement of flesh and spirit, but from every disease of soul: wrath, anger, envy, satanic pride, contempt and judgment of one’s neighbor, and from every kind of evil, cunning, craftiness, flattery, and wicked opinions. For by all these things, O wretched soul, our heart is infected and constantly wounded in various ways, yet remains insensible.

To convince yourself that this is truly so, examine carefully, O soul, if you can, the wicked thoughts that crawl in the secret chamber of our heart, and you will surely find lurking there every kind of iniquity and God-hating Pharisaic pride. Because of it you justify yourself in everything, consider yourself in some way superior and better than everyone who labors in virtue, and regard every other person as worse than yourself, even if he manifestly lives a reverent life. But if your neighbor happens to sin in something through weakness of the flesh, you condemn him like the Pharisee, mock him, and do not cease to reproach him in various ways before all men. And if you see him living virtuously and praised by all, immediately your heart is pierced by the arrow of envy, and sorrow overtakes you because of your brother’s virtuous life, since he proves better than you before God and men. Overcome by the arrow of envy, you begin to hate him and strive in every way to hinder him and turn him aside from striving toward what is better.

And what of the defilements of our secret fleshly passions? Truly they are terrible, most foul, and manifold. Not only a sudden glance at a woman or at a youth’s beautiful face disturbs us, but even the sound of their voice when heard, or their clothing that falls into our hands, instantly defiles our heart. And what do I say about a glance, a voice, or clothing? Often the most subtle thought or a lustful memory of them suddenly arouses the passion of desire, sets the heart aflame with sinful fire, and the flesh immediately begins to rage and rave.

Being thus shamefully defiled in so many ways by flesh and mind, how shall we prove worthy of the grace promised by this Beatitude? It is impossible, O soul, utterly impossible to receive it until we mortify our members which are upon the earth (Col. 3:5), according to the word of the divine Apostle who says: Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

How shall our members be mortified when we constantly feed abundantly on the most delicious foods, are always surrounded by gold and silver, by glory and honor from men, when we are immersed in countless cares and tumults of this life, and our thoughts are ever darkened by wrath and anger, jealousy and envy?

We have gone astray, O soul, we have gone astray from the straight and unfailing way of life of the holy monks, and we senselessly press on toward the prize of the high calling (Phil. 3:14)—not as Paul did, nor as those zealous ones who came after him for the sake of the good things kept in heaven. They at once left homeland, parents, kin, friends, possessions, estates, glory, honor, abundant food, and every bodily comfort, and fled irretrievably into the remotest deserts, taking up their cross—that is, the voluntary mortification of fleshly and spiritual passions and desires—holding fast to the saving commandment of their Lord who says: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Matt. 16:24). And elsewhere: So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:33).

Therefore, when we too, O soul, renounce not only all our possessions but even the very desires and fleshly passions and lusts; when with our whole soul we hate all human glory and honor, and sincerely love the glory and life to come, together with every kind of poverty, dishonor, disgrace, abstinence, and stillness; when we live in all humility, reverence, and uprightness of conduct; and when, having corrected all these things, we can say in the feeling of our heart with that blessed royal Prophet: But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people (Ps. 21:6); and when we are made worthy to endure every affliction and hardship, the plundering of our goods, wounds and persecutions, imprisonment and death for our sins and for the true faith in God—then, O soul, our hope of salvation will be firm, according to the divine decree which says: Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven (Matt. 5:11–12).

But as long as we cling, O soul, to our former worldly habits and ways, and do not put off our old man with his passions and desires, until then, I say with David, in vain do we rise early and sit up late, eating the bread of sorrow (Ps. 126:2). Truly it is the bread of sorrow, and not the bread of life, that they eat who, contrary to the Gospel commandment, throughout their whole life devour with every kind of injustice and usury the sweat-soaked labors of the poor, yet refuse to cease from this iniquity and do not strive to understand rightly and in a manner pleasing to God the commandment which says: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).

Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy, for the Lord will deliver him in the evil day (Ps. 40:1). But he who devours and oppresses him with yearly demands for interest is a stranger and has no part in such blessedness and deliverance in the evil day; for the unrighteous and extortioners will not inherit the kingdom of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Eph. 5:6).

If because of the transgressions mentioned above the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, then clearly because of the opposite—righteousness, chastity, love of the poor, and compassion toward all who live in sorrow—every grace and blessing from God comes upon the sons of obedience, as it is said: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth (Ps. 33:16-17).

Behold, O my soul, from many and various divinely inspired sayings of the All-Holy Spirit we have come to know the loving-kindness and goodness of our good Master toward those who fear Him in word and deed, and also the intolerable wrath that is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1:18) who trample His saving commandments and live unworthily of the Gospel and apostolic life—especially against us ourselves who knowingly transgress the will of our Lord.

Let us no longer remain in the negligence and hardness of heart in which we have spent the past time of our wretched life, but let us immediately awake from the deep sleep of insensibility and fear with our whole soul the truly fearful day of judgment—and even before it, the hour of death that comes suddenly; for we do not know the day or the hour when our Lord will come. Let us always be ready and carefully watch over the keeping of His holy commandments, adorning ourselves with every good and God-pleasing work of holiness and righteousness and God-like mercy toward all who are in sorrow and need, that we too may be made worthy to stand at the right hand of the incorruptible Judge and to hear with all the righteous that greatly desired and most blessed sentence: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34).

If we truly and with our whole soul believe in Christ the Savior and desire to attain His eternal kingdom, let us show it by deeds, not by words alone and these outward rags; for faith without works is dead and utterly useless.

To the readers of this word

You who are comforted by the teaching and ordinances of the Gospel and the Apostles, receive with spiritual joy the power of this word and be pleased to put it into practice. Regard it with love and attend to it without doubt, for this word on repentance contains no small profit.

To the one who wrote this word, render, I beseech you, recompense by your prayers acceptable to God, that I too may be made worthy, together with you, to fulfill the teaching it contains. Let none of you, I implore, consider that I have fully accomplished what is said in it; for truly I am that fruitless tree at whose root lies the noetic axe by which it is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10). I am that wayside, that stony ground, those thorns where the seed cast by the heavenly Sower falls and perishes, bearing no fruit for Him. I am the straw that is burned with unquenchable fire.

Therefore I beg you: pray for me, a sinner, that I too may be made worthy, together with your holiness, to be found pure wheat gathered into the eternal granaries of the Creator and Master of all, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—to whom be glory unto the ages. Amen.

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