Repentance must not be deferred.
Repentance must not be deferred.
§ 142. All these things not only command one to repent but also forbid delaying and deferring repentance. For though no repentance is too late for one who is still living in this world, provided it is true repentance, the golden statement of Cyprian (from his Sermon de coena Domini, fol. 503) applies here: “No greatness of sin, no brevity of time, no extremity of hour, no wickedness of life” (if the contrition is true and the change of desires is pure) “excludes one from pardon. But in the breadth of her bosom mother love receives her returning prodigals, and, whether or not the heretic Novatus agrees, God’s grace accepts the penitent at any time.” The statement of Fulgentius (Letter 7, p. 555) also pertains: “No great extent of time rules out either God’s equity or His pity. Repentance before God is never too late. In His sight both the past and the future are considered as the present.” In fact, even the words of Rabbi Samuel in the Medras Thehillim applies: “Sometimes the gates of prayer are closed, and sometimes they are open, but the gates of conversion are never closed, as it is written: ‘The hope of all the ends of the earth and afar off on the sea’ [Ps. 65:5]. For as the sea is open and anyone can wash himself in it, so also whenever someone is converted, God receives him with open arms,” according to Weidner (in the preface to his book in which he explains the principal points of the Christian faith [Loca fidei Christianae praecipua], p. 28).
Nevertheless we must by no means misuse this doctrine for carnal security, since many people are usually deceived by very late repentance. (See Augustine, De vera et falsa poenitentia, ch. 17.) For that which is very late is rarely true. Therefore the Holy Spirit gives us a serious exhortation (Ps. 95:7–8): “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.” From this, Heb. 3:12–13 concludes as follows: “Take heed, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that would depart from the living God. But exhort one another every day, while it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” “Do not delay to be converted to the Lord, nor delay it from day to day, for the Lord’s wrath will suddenly burst forth. When you feel secure, you will be wasteful and will perish on the day of vengeance” (Sirach 5:[7]).
** Ambrose (Exhort. ad poenit.): “If one does penance at the end and if he dies reconciled, I do not know whether he dies secure. I am not secure. I can give repentance; I cannot give security. Pay attention to what I say. I shall explain this quite plainly, lest anyone understands me badly. Do I ever say, ‘He will be condemned’? I do not say that, but I also do not say, ‘He will be delivered.’ Will you tell me something else, holy bishop? I do not know what to tell you. I have said: I do not presume; I do not promise. I certainly do not know about the will of God. My brother, do you want to be free from doubt? Do you want to escape from what is uncertain? Repent while you are well.” Cyprian (Letter 52, sect. 15, f. 119): “The person who does not think he is going to die is unworthy to receive solace, nor also he who first begins to pray in illness or in danger. For then it is not repentance for his sin but the admonition of an urgent death which is compelling him to pray.” Augustine (Homily 41, vol. 10, f. 526): “If you are willing to repent at the time when you cannot sin, your sins have abandoned you, not you them.” Salvianus (De avarit., bk. 1, p. 35): “That person does not stop sinning who is forced when he is near death to recede from his sins only by impossibility but not by the will. For the person who departs from his wicked activities only at death does not abandon his sins but rather is abandoned by his sins. Cut off from his sins by this necessity, I think he still sins when he has quit because he has not stopped as far as his mind is concerned.” **
Bernard (Sermon 1 Epiphanius, col. 69): “Just as the kindness” (of God) “has appeared [Titus 3:4], beyond all hope, beyond all estimate, so also we can expect a similar difficulty of judgment. Do not, then, hold God’s mercy in contempt if you do not want to feel justice but wrath, but indignation, but fury. For that you might know how great a difficulty will take place, such a gentleness occurs first. Consider the greatness of the vengeance from the greatness of the indulgence. For God is limitless and infinite in His justice, just as He is in His mercy. He is frequent in pardoning, frequent in avenging,” etc.
Therefore it is extremely dangerous to postpone repentance to the very end of life. (1) The longer one defers repentance, the more difficult it is to return later (Prov. 22:6).
(2) Repentance should proceed from a filial love for God, not from the servile fear of punishment; and yet, in his last moments, the penitent is very often drawn to repent by his fear of death and hell.
(3) He who finally repents at the hour of his death does not so much appear to abandon his sins as to be abandoned by his sins.
(4) Sometimes illnesses include very intense pains and delirium. So how can a person in such a condition truly be concerned about repentance?
** Lud. Granatensis (Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Conc. 1, p. 323):
Those who have surrendered themselves entirely to their lusts all their lives, who have nourished their hearts in pleasures and luxuries, who have been willing to be called away from their wicked life by no threats of God, no promises, no beatings, no kindnesses, no warnings: will they repent in salutary fashion as they are almost abandoned now by that life in the very last act of life? I ask you: what is more preposterous than for you to want to begin a new life when there is no longer time to live? If you were to have a still longer span of life, would you persist longer in your iniquity just as you have done as long as you have been living? **
(5) At the time when they look at their wives, children, kin, and all the temporal things they will be deserting in a moment, very many people are so upset by their desire that, unless their heart first be taken out of them, it cannot be lifted up to God.