Catechesis II
CATECHESIS II
On Repentance, the Remission of Sin, and the Adversary "The virtuous man's virtue shall be his own, as the wicked man's wickedness shall be his. But if the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, [if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die] ."1
(1) Sin is a terrible thing, and the most grievous disease of the soul is iniquity, which corrodes the fibre of the soul and makes it liable to eternal fire. It is an evil freely chosen, the product of the will. For that we sin of our own free will, the Prophet clearly declares: "I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; how could you turn into bitterness, a spurious vine?"2 The planting was good, but the fruit of set purpose evil; and, therefore, the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burnt with fire, since it was planted for good, but its product was evil with malice prepense. "God made mankind straight," according to Ecclesiastes, "but men have had recourse to many subtleties."s For "His workmanship we are," says the Apostle, "created in Christ Jesus in good works."4 Though the Creator, being good, created unto good works, the creature of its own free will turned aside to wickedness. Therefore, sin, as we have said, is a grievous evil, but it is not incurable, being grievous to him only who cherishes it, but easy of cure for him who puts it away by 1 Ezech. 18.20, 21.
2 Jer.2.21.
3 Eccles. 7.29.
4 Eph.2.1O.
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repentance. Imagine a man holding fire in his hand. So long as he grasps the burning coal, of course he is burned, but suppose he puts away the coal, then he has automatically cast away the flame with it. If any man thinks that he is not being burned when he is sinning, Scripture says to him:
"Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his garments not be burned?"5 For sin burns; it cuts the sinews of the soul, and crushes the spiritual bones of the mind, and darkens the light of the heart.
(2) Yes, and someone will say: "What, then, is sin? Is it an animal? An angel? A demon? What is this which infects us?" Rest assured it is not an enemy attacking from without, but an evil springing up within you. "Let your eyes look straight ahead/'6 and there exists no evil desire. Steal not the property of others, and robbery is at an end. Be mindful of the judgment and neither fornication nor adultery nor murder nor any wickedness will prevail over you. It is when you forget God that you begin to entertain evil thoughts and commit wicked deeds.
(3) Yet you alone are not the source of the trouble, but there is also one who instigates you, the accursed devil. He makes his suggestions to all,7 but he does not prevail by force over those who do not give way to him. Therefore Ecclesiastes says: "Should the anger of the ruler burst upon you, forsake not your place."8 If you shut your door, you will be out of his reach and he will not harm you. But if you are so careless as to admit the lustful thought, reflection will cause it to strike roots within you; it will capture your mind and drag you down into an abyss of sins. But, you may say: "I am a Believer and no evil desire will overcome me, even though I dwell upon it often." Are you unaware that ofttimes a root by twining itself around a stone will crack it? Do not admit the 5 Prov.6.27.
6 Prov.4.25.
7 Translating the Maurist pasin (to all), rejected by Reischl-Rupp Oft stylistic grounds.
8 Eccles. lO.4.
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seed, since it will shatter your faith. Before it has a chance to blossom pluck out the evil by the roots. Remissness at first leads in the end to the ax and to the fire.9 When your eyes first trouble you, have them treated betimes, else you will be consulting the oculist after you have lost your sight.
(4) The chief author of sin, then, is the devil, the begetter of all evil. This not I, but the Lord has said: "The devil sins from the beginning."lo Before him no one sinned. Nor did he sin because by nature he was of necessity prone to sin-else the responsibility for sin would reflect upon Him who created him thus-but after being created good, he became a devil by his own free choice, receiving that name from his action. Though he was an Archangel, he was afterwards called devil (slanderer) from his slandering,n and though he was once a good servant of God, he was afterwards rightly named Satan, for Satan is interpreted "the adversary." This is not my teaching, but that of the inspired Prophet Ezechiel.
For, taking up a lament against him, he says: "You were a seal of resemblance, and crown of beauty; you were begotten in the Paradise of God," and a little further on:
"Blameless you were in your conduct from the day you were created until evil was found in yoU."12 The phrase,
"was found in you," is most appropriate, for the evil was not brought in from without, but you yourself begot it.
Thereafter, he mentions the reason: "You became haughty of heart because of your beauty: for the multitude of your iniquities you were wounded, and I cast you to the earth."13
Similarly, the Lord says in the gospels: "I was watching Satan fall as lightning from heaven."14 You see the harmony of the Old Testament with the New. When he fell, he drew many
9 Cf. Matt. 3.10.
10 1 John 3.8.
11 Cyril repeats in Cat. 8.4 that the devil was an archangel. His name of devil, i.e., slanderer, comes from the fact that he falsely charges men before God and God before men.
12 Cf. Ezech. 28.12·15.
13 Cf. ibid. 17.
14 Luke 10.18.
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away with him. To those who hearken to him, he suggests evil desires, whence arise adultery, fornication, and every kind of evil. By his agency our forefather Adam was cast out and exchanged for a Paradise that untilled produced fruits, a soil bringing forth thorns.
(5) "Well, then," you will say to me, "are we betrayed and lost?" Is there no salvation henceforth? We have fallen. Is it impossible to rise again? We were blinded. Can we never recover our sight? We have become lame. Can we never walk aright? In a word, we are dead; is there no resurrection?
Will not He who raised up Lazarus, already four days dead and fetid, far more easily raise you? He who poured out
His precious blood for us will free us from sin. Let us not despair, brethren, nor give ourselves up as lost. For it is a grievous thing not to believe in the hope of repentance. He who despairs of rescue increases his evils beyond measure, but once a man has placed his hopes in a cure, he readily shows concern for himself. For the robber who looks not for mercy proceeds to despair, but when he has hope of pardon, he often comes to repentance. If the serpent can rid itself of its old skin, shall we not rid ourselves of sin? And if thorny ground, when well tilled, has been changed into fruitful soil, shall salvation be irretrievable for us? Nature, then, admits of salvation, but the proper disposition is a requisite condition.
(6) God is a lover of man, and a lover in no small measure.
For do not say: "I have been a fornicator and an adulterer, I have committed grievous sin, and not once but very often; will He not forgive? Will He not grant pardon?" Listen to what the Psalmist says: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, Lord."15 The sum of your sins does not surpass the magnitude of God's mercies. Your wounds are not beyond the healing skill of the great Physician. Only surrender to Him with faith, tell the Physician of your malady. Repeat the words of David: "I said, I will confess against myself my iniquity to the Lord," and in like manner will be verified
15 Cf. Ps. 30.20.
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the second part of the verse: "And you forgave the wickedness of my heart."16
(7) Do you, who have but lately come to the catechesis, wish to see the loving-kindness of God? Would you see the loving-kindness of God and the extent of His forbearance?
Listen to the story of Adam. Adam, the first creature of God, was disobedient. Could He not have condemned him to death at once? But see what the Lord in His great loving-kindness does. Though he casts him out of Paradise-for he was not worthy, because of his sin, to live there-He settles him over against Paradise, that seeing whence and from what bliss he had fallen, he might be saved thereafter through repentance.
Cain, the first-born man, became a fratricide, from whose wicked designings first stemmed murder and envy. Yet consider his sentence for slaying his brother. "Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth."17 Though the sin was great, the sentence was light.
(8) This was truly an example of God's loving-kindness, but it is small compared to the sequel. Consider the story of Noe. The Giants sinned and great iniquity was then spread over the earth, and because of it, the deluge was foreordained.
In the five-hundredth year, God utters His threat; in the six-hundredth, He brings the deluge upon the earth. Don't you see the breadth of God's loving-kindness, how he delays execution a hundred years? Could He not have done at once what He did a hundred years later? But He purposely delayed, granting a reprieve for repentance. Do you see the goodness of God? And if the men of that time had repented, they would not have failed to experience the loving-kindness of God.
(9) Pass now, pray, to the others who were saved by repentance. Perhaps even among the women someone will say:
"I have committed fornication and adultery. I have defiled my body with every excess. Can there be salvation for me?"
Fix your eyes, woman, upon Rahab, and look for salvation 16 Cf. Ps. 31.5.
17 Gen.4.12 (Sept.).
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for yourself too. For if she who openly and publicly practiced fornication was saved through repentance, will not she whose fornication preceded the gift of grace be saved by repentance and fasting? For observe how she was saved. She said only this: "Since the Lord, your God, is God in heaven above and on earth below."18 "Your God," she said, for she did not dare call Him her God, because of her wantonness. If you want scriptural testimony of her salvation, you have it recorded in the Psalms: "I will think of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me."19 0 the great loving-kindness of God, which is mindful even of harlots in Scripture. He did not say merely: "I shall think of Rahab and Babylon," but added, "among those who know me." The salvation procured by repentance is open to men and women alike.
(10) Even a whole people's sin does not defeat the mercy of God. The people fashioned a calf but God did not abandon His loving-kindness; men denied God, but God did not deny Himself. "These are your gods, 0 Israel,"2o they said, and yet the God of Israel, according to His wont, became their Savior. It was not the people alone that sinned, but also Aaron, the high priest. For Moses says: "And the wrath of the Lord was upon Aaron"; "and I prayed for him," he says, "ahd God forgave him."21 Now if Moses, making supplication in behalf of the high priest who sinned, prevailed upon the Lord by his importunity, will Jesus, His
Only-begotten Son, imploring God in our behalf, not prevail?
If He did not prevent Aaron, because of his falling away, from acceding to the high priesthood, can it be that he will prevent you, coming from paganism, from attaining salvation? Repent in like manner, brethren, and grace will not be withheld from you. Manifest henceforth a blameless habit of life. For God is a lover of man, and all time cannot worthily recount His loving-kindness. Nay, if all the tongues
18 Jos.2.11.
19 Cf. Ps. 86.4.
20 Exod. 32.4.
21 Cf. Deut. 9.20.
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of men were gathered into one, not even thus could they tell in part of the loving-kindness of God. For we relate in some measure what has been written of the mercy of God towards man, but we do not know how much He forgave the angels as well.22 For he pardoned them also, since there is only one without sin, Jesus, who cleanses us from our sins.
But of the angels, enough.
(11) If you want further instances from among men, come to blessed David and take him as a model of repentance. He fell, David the great, fell, when, after sleeping in the afternoon and while walking on the roof, he was careless with his eyes and nature had her way with him.23 The sin was consummated, but with it his honesty in avowing his sin did not pass away. Came the Prophet Nathan, swift censor, healer of the wound. "The Lord is wroth," he said, "and you have sinned,"24 he, the subject, speaking to the king. But David the king was not indignant, for he regarded not the speaker, but Him who sent him. He was not dazzled by the throng of his attendant soldiery, for his mind traveled to the angelic host of the Lord, and as though he saw Him who is invisible, he trembled, and he replied to him who came, or rather, through him to Him who sent him: "I have sinned against the Lord."25 You see the humility of the king, you see his confession. For had he been convicted by anyone? Did many share the guilty secret? The deed was done quickly and the Prophet was at hand at once to accuse him. The sinner acknowledged his sin and, because of his frank avowal, was quickly healed, for the Prophet Nathan who threatened him said at once: "The Lord also hath taken away thy sin."26
You see the swift relenting of God in His loving-kindness.
22 Some see here an echo of Origen. Cyril's teaching on the angels is orthodox, but he seems to imply here venial faults in the good angels, possibly derived from the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse, where faults are found with the angels of the churches.
23 Cf. 2 Kings 11.2.
24 Cf. 2 Kings 12.1ff.
25 2 Kings 12.13.
26 Ibid.
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Yet Nathan said: "Thou hast greatly provoked the enemies of the Lord."27 Time was when you had many enemies because of your uprightness, but your self-control protected you. Now that you have given up your strongest armor, you have enemies standing ready to rise up against you.
(12) Thus, then, did the Prophet comfort him, but blessed David, though he heard most surely the words: "The Lord hath taken away thy sin," did not cease from repentance, despite his kingly office. He put on sackcloth28 instead of purple, and quitting the throne inlaid with gold, sat upon ashes on the ground. Nor was he content to sit upon ashes; he fed upon the ashes as he himself says: "For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle my drink with tears."29 He melted his lustful eye with tears, saying: "Every night I flood my bed with weeping; I drench my couch with my tears."30 When the magistrates of his people urged him to eat bread he refused and prolonged his fast for seven days. If a king made his confession in this way, ought not you, a private individual, to confess? After the revolt of Absalom, when there were many roads of escape open to him, David chose to flee by the Mount of Olives, as though his prophetic spirit invoked the Redeemer, who would one day ascend into heaven thence.
And when Semei cursed him bitterly he said: "Let him alone,"31 for he knew that to him who forgives it shall be forgiven.
(13) You see what an excellent thing is confession. You see that there is salvation for the penitent. Solomon also fell; but what does he say? "Afterwards I repented."32 Achab, too, the king of Samaria, was an iniquitous idolater of surpassing wickedness, a murderer of the Prophets, an enemy of piety, a coveter of the fields and vineyards of others. Yet when he
27 Cf. 2 Kings 12.14.
28 Cf. ibid. 16, 17.
29 Ps. 101.10.
30 Ps.6.7.
31 2 Kings 16.11.
32 Prov.24.32 (Sept.). Solomon's penance is not generally accepted.
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slew Naboth by Jezebel's hand and the Prophet Elias came and merely threatened him, he rent his garments and put on sackcloth. And what does the merciful God say to Elias?
"Hast thou not seen Achab humbled before me?"33-as though urging the fiery spirit of the Prophet to condescend towards the penitent. "I will not bring the evil in his days."34 Though after his pardon Achab was not to desist from his wickedness, the forgiving God forgives him, not that He was unaware of the future, but granting forgiveness in keeping with the current moment of repentance. For it belongs to the just judge to pass sentence consonant with each several deed.
(14) Again, Jeroboam stood sacrificing to idols upon the altar. When he gave the order for the arrest of the Prophet who censured him, his hand withered on the instant; but having learned by experience the power of the man before him, he says: "Entreat the Lord for me";35 and because of these words his hand was again restored. If the Prophet healed Jeroboam, will not Christ be able to heal and free us from our sins? Manasses, too, was a heinous sinner. He cut asunder Isaia,36 was defiled with all manner of idolatry, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Led captive to Babylon, by experience of suffering he learned his lesson, and repenting drew healing from his affliction. For Scripture says:
"Manasses was humbled before the Lord, and he prayed and the Lord heard him and brought him again into his kingdom."37 If he who had sawn asunder the Prophet was saved, will you who have committed no such enormity not be saved? Take care that you do not, without reason, underrate the efficacy of repentance.
(15) Would you know the power of repentance? Would you understand this strong weapon of salvation and the might of confession? By confession Ezechia routed a hundred and 33 3 Kings 21.29.
34 Ibid.
35 Cf. 3 Kings 13.6.
36 This is not stated in Scripture, but derived from Jewish tradition.
37 Cf. 2 Par. 33.12, 13.
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eighty-five thousand of the enemy.3S That was important, but it was little compared to what shall be told. The same king's repentance won the repeal of the sentence God had passed on him. For when he was sick, Isaia said to him: "Give charge concerning thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live."39
What expectation was left? What hope of recovery was there, when the Prophet said: "For thou shalt die"? But Ezechia did not cease from penitence, for he remembered what was written: "In the hour that you turn and lament, you shall be saved."40 He turned his face to the wall, and from his bed of pain his mind soared up to heaven-for no wall is so thick as to stifle reverent prayer-"Lord," he said, "remember me."41 "For it is sufficient for my healing if You remember me. You are not subject to circumstances, but are Yourself the legislator of life. For not on birth and conjunction of stars, as some vainly say, does our life depend. No, You are the arbiter, according to Your will, of life and the duration of life." He whom the Prophet's sentence had forbidden to hope was granted fifteen further years of life, the sun turning back its course in witness thereof. Now while the sun retraced its course for Ezechia, for Christ it was eclipsed, the distinction marking the difference between the two, I mean Ezechia and Jesus. Now if even Ezechia could revoke God's decree, shall not Jesus grant the remission of sins? Turn and lament, shut your door, and beg for pardon, that God may remove from you the scorching flames. For confession has the power to quench even fire; it can tame even lions.
(16) If you doubt it, consider what happened to Anania and his companions. What streams did they pour out? How many measures of water were needed to quench a flame forty-nine cubits high? But wherever the fire threatened to overwhelm them, there their faith gushed rivers, as they repeated the words that worked like a charm: "You are just
38 Cf. 4 Kings 19.35.
39 4 Kings 20.1.
40 Cf. Isa. 30.15.
41 Cf. Isa. 38.2, 3; 4 Kings 20.2, 3.
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in all you have done to us: for we have sinned and committed iniquity."42 And their penitence subdued the flames.
If you do not believe that penance can quench the fire of Gehenna, learn that from the story of Anania and his companions. But some keen listener will say: "In their case,
God justly delivered them. Because they refused to commit idolatry, God gave them this power." Since this objection has in fact been raised, I shall go to a different example of repentance.
(17) What think you of Nabuchodonosor? Have you not heard from Scripture that he was bloodthirsty, fierce, with the disposition of a lion? Have you not heard that he disinterred the kings?43 Have you not heard that he brought the people away into captivity? Have you not heard that he put the king's sons to the sword before his eyes and then blinded him?44 Have you not heard that he shattered the Cherubim?45
I do not mean the invisible Cherubim-it were blasphemy to think it-but the sculptured images, and the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, from the midst of which God was wont to speak with His voice. He trampled upon the veil of sanctification, he took the censer and carried it away to a temple of idols; he seized all the offerings; he burned the temple to its foundations. What punishment did he not deserve for slaying kings, for burning the holy objects, for reducing the people to captivity, for putting the sacred vessels in the temples of idols? Did he not deserve ten thousand deaths?
(18) You have seen the enormity of his crimes. Turn now to the loving-kindness of God. N abuchodonosor was turned into a wild beast; he dwelt in the wilderness; God scourged him to save him. He had claws like a lion's, for he had preyed upon the saints. He had a lion's mane, for he had been a 42 Cf. Dan. 3.27, 29.
43 Cf. Jer. 8.1; Bar. 2.24, 25.
44 Cf.4 Kings 25.7.
45 Again an assumption on the part of Cyril.
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ravening, roaring lion. He ate grass like an ox, for he had behaved like a brute beast, not knowing Him who had given him his kingdom. His body was drenched with dew, because, after seeing the fire quenched by the dew, he had not believed.
And what happened? Afterwards he says: "I, Nabuchodonosor, raised my eyes to heaven, ... and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and glorified him who lives forever."46 When therefore he acknowledged the Most High, and uttered words of thanksgiving to God, and repented of his past wickedness, and recognized his own weakness, in that hour God restored to him his royal dignity.
(19) What then? If God granted pardon and a kingdom to N abuchodonosor after such terrible crimes, when he had made confession, will He not grant you the remission of your sins if you repent, and the kingdom of heaven, if you live worthily? God is merciful and quick to forgiveness, but slow to vengeance. Therefore let no man despair of salvation.
Peter, the chief and foremost of the Apostles, denied the Lord thrice before a little serving maid; but, moved to repentance, he wept bitterly. His weeping revealed his heartfelt repentance, and for that reason not only did he receive pardon for his denial, but retained his Apostolic prerogative.
(20) Therefore, brethren, having before you many examples of sinners who repented and were saved, be you also earnest in confessing to the Lord, that you may receive pardon for past sins, be made worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the kingdom of heaven with all the saints, In Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
46 Cf. Dan. 4.31.