Moralitates
Examining the Wound of Sin
Augustine teaches the sinner to consider every circumstance of sin — place, time, perseverance, and manner — so that deep compunction may lead to God's mercy.
In penitence, what a sinner should consider, Augustine teaches in his book On Penitence, saying (and it is cited in On Penitence, Distinction V, chapter 1): "Let him consider the quality of the sin — in place, in time, in perseverance, in the variety of the person, and by what temptation he committed this, and in the manifold execution of that very vice." For the fornicator should repent according to the excellence of his own status or office, or according to the manner of a prostitute, and in the manner of his own act, and how he conducted his shamefulness — whether in a sacred place, or toward those to whom they owe the excellence of faith, as the house of lords and of many others, whether in a time appointed for prayer, as the feasts of the saints and times of fasting. Let him consider how long he persevered, and let him grieve that he sinned perseveringly, and how great the virtue was in the struggle. There are some who not only are not conquered, but willingly offer themselves to sin, and do not wait for temptation, but anticipate the will. And let him weigh within himself by what manifold action of vice he sinfully took delight. All of this variety must be shown, confessed, and lamented, so that when he recognizes how great his sin is, he may quickly find God merciful. In recognizing the increase, let him find himself — of what age he was, of what wisdom and rank, and the whole state of another who did not sin. Let him dwell on each of these points one by one, and let him feel the measure of the sin, cleansing with tears every quality of the vice, and let him grieve the virtue he meanwhile lacked.
The Hidden Damage Sin Causes
The sinner must mourn not only the guilt of sin but the robbery of virtue, the harm done to one's own soul, and the scandal brought to neighbors.
You should grieve and be cleansed through sorrow — not only because you sinned, but because you robbed yourself of virtue; for even though you may hope to obtain forgiveness, you can still grieve because you did not deserve the reward you now trust you'll receive. Let the sinner be tormented and grieve that now, barely escaping the punishment for past sins, he expects no glory from it — glory for which he ought to have fought with every moment of his life, since his time is so short. Let him weep too, because by offending in one thing he became guilty of all: he proved ungrateful, since, full of virtues, he did not truly fear God at all; for in this very way each sinner becomes more culpable — the more pleasing he is to God.✦ For this reason Adam sinned more grievously, because he abounded in every good. In yet another way, offending in one thing makes a person guilty of all, because every virtue suffers damage from a single vice; for if someone falls into greed, he destroys generosity and even diminishes chastity: out of love of money he either violates chastity or at least loves it less. For if so much chastity still remains in a person for God's sake that he refuses to lose it, nevertheless he guards it with less joy and less devotion when he sees financial loss flowing from it — and so it is with other virtues too: even if they are not driven out entirely, still, through the influence of a single vice, they are diminished somewhat or considerably, or worsened in intention. Therefore every virtue of whatever sin must be mourned, and pardon must be sought for all of them. You should also take notice — and in noticing, mourn — the soul of your neighbor, which the fornicator tore away from God or, having torn it away, confirmed in evil; and that he became an example of evil through the working of his own sin, when it would have profited him more if he had instead been a cause of conversion to others.
Grieving the Good We Robbed
Penitents must mourn the sorrow they caused, the good they withheld, the offense against God, and the virtues they lost — yet trust that grace restores what sin destroyed.
Let him groan, then, that the lives of others have been corrupted or kept uncorrupted through him, and over the good he might have given his neighbor by the example of what is right. Let him grieve over the sorrow he brought upon good people by his sinning, and over the joy he never offered them. And let him consider not only what he did and how he did it, but that, as we have said, by sinning he has offended God unjustly. Let him fear that pronouncement of Truth: 'You cannot serve two masters.'✦ Let him be afraid, then, that all the good things he did, if he persists in a single sin, he may have lost through sharing in what is evil — so that the one who served the devil through his crime has lost the virtues he once offered to God. Yet it is a devout conviction to believe that, once God's grace is received — the grace that destroys the evils within a person — it also rewards the good things done earlier, so that when it has destroyed what was not truly his own, he comes to love and cherish the good that God planted even in a sinner. In everything he does, let him either grieve and leave the world behind, or at least those things that cannot be managed without some admixture of evil — such as commerce and military service, and other things that are harmful to those who engage in them, like the offices of secular authorities — unless he undertakes them out of obedience that has been authorized. Let him place himself entirely in the power of the judge, keeping nothing of his own will back in the priest's judgment, so that he is ready to do whatever the priest commands for the sake of receiving the life of his soul — anything he would do to avoid bodily death — and let him do it with longing, because he is recovering a life that is infinite; for one who is about to become immortal ought to do with joy what a dying man would do to put off death.
The Offering of a Humble Heart
True prayer and almsgiving flow from a mind struck with compunction, for God accepts the humble giver first and the gift second, as with Abel and the widow's coins.
Always entreat God, confident of forgiveness, who would beg for earthly power in every way and without hesitation. Let a person refrain from many lawful things — someone who, in the freedom of their own will, has committed unlawful ones — and let them always offer God a mind and a heart struck with compunction, and then, what they can, from their possessions; then, let them offer what they offer with confidence: for the Lord looked with favor on Abel and on his gifts.✦ But it says 'to Abel' before 'to his gifts'; for accepting the mind — which it knew to be humble and pure — it rewards the gifts of that person's generosity. But toward Cain and toward his gifts it did not look; because it had seen his mind and did not find it so, it did not receive his gifts.✦ In judgment, then, the charity of the giver's heart is what must be weighed — nor is it so much a question of how much is given, but with what mind, with what devotion it is given, as far as one is able; for the widow, who had only two small coins, gave more than all the others, giving generously.✦ Whoever, then, wishes to redeem their sins with an offering of worldly goods, let them beware: let them first offer their mind.
Confession Without Division
Penitents must not split their confession out of shame, and they should tremble at approaching the Eucharist until a good conscience is restored.
A penitent should be careful not to let shame split his confession, so that he wants to reveal different things to different priests; for some people hide certain things from one priest while keeping them to be revealed to another, which is to praise themselves and tend toward hypocrisy, and always to lack the pardon he thinks he can reach in full through fragments. Moreover, let the person true penitence delights tremble; he shouldn't approach the Lord's body before a good conscience strengthens him, but in this separation let him consider the tremendous judgment, where he will separate the impenitent into a greater and more terrible fire; let him grieve that he doesn't dare take the saving food he so greatly desires.✦✦ These are the worthy fruits of penitence, freeing the captive soul and keeping it in freedom.
Guarding the Soul After the Fall
To attain perfect grace, the penitent must withdraw from worldly amusements, guard the soul more carefully after sin, imitate the virtuous, and seek worthy fruits of repentance.
Moreover, whoever wants to attain the perfect grace of forgiveness should hold back from amusements and from the spectacles of the world. For if Dinah had held herself back, if she had stayed among her own people, she would not have been violated by a stranger's abduction.✦ So then, the soul that has once been seized and corrupted should be all the more on guard for itself and hold itself back; let it now fear what it has learned by experience, the things it did not know as a virgin. Let it choose someone to imitate, and not follow what its own mind condemns. For it judges itself, the one who does not distance from themselves a person lacking the fruit of repentance; for it praises and loves those it knows are not failing to bear fruit worthily. Seek worthy fruits, even if they are not fruits worthy of repentance: for they are worthy fruits of virtue, fruits that are not enough for the repentant; for repentance demands something more serious, so that the church may be satisfied in this way, so that the dead, appeased by grief and groans, may obtain life.✦1
Read the original Latin
In penitencia quid peccatorem considerare opporteat Augustinus in libro De penitencia docet dicens (et ponitur De penitencia Distinccio V caput 1): “Consideret qualitatem criminis in loco, in tempore, in perseverancia, in varietate persone, et quali hoc fecerit temptacione, et in ipsius vicii multiplici execucione. Opportet enim penitere fornicantem secundum excellenciam sui status aut officii, aut secundum modum meretricis, et in modo operis sui, et qualiter turpitudinem suam egit, si in loco sacrato, aut cui debent excellenciam fidei, ut domus dominorum, et aliorum multorum, si in tempore oracioni constituto, ut festivitates sanctorum et tempora ieiunii. Consideret, quantum perseveraverit, et defleat, quod perseveranter peccavit, et quanta virtus fuerit in pungnacione. Sunt, qui non solum non vincuntur, sed ultro se peccato offerunt, nec expectant temptacionem, sed preveniunt voluntatem. Et pertractet secum, quam multiplici accione vicii delectabiliter peccavit. Omnis ista varietas ostendenda et confitenda et deflenda, ut, cum cognoverit, quod peccatum est multum, cito inveniat Deum propicium. In cognoscendo augmentum inveniat se, cuius etatis fuerit, cuius sapiencie et ordinis, et statum omnem alterius non peccantis. Immoretur in singulis istis et senciat modum criminis purgans lacrimis omnem qualitatem vicii et defleat virtutem, qua interim caruit.
Dolendum est et dolore purgandum est non solum quia peccavit, sed quod se virtute privavit, nam licet speret se consecuturum veniam, dolere tamen potest, quia non promeruit, unde remunerari confidat. Anxietur et doleat, quod modo effugiens de preteritis penam miser non inde expectat gloriam, cuius omne tempus, quoniam tempus brevissimum est, debuit decertavisse ad consequendum premium. Defleat eciam, quoniam offendens in uno factus est omnium reus: ingratus enim extitit, qui plenus virtutibus Deum non omnino timuit; in hoc enim quisque peccator fit culpabilior, quo est Deo acceptior. Ideo enim Adam plus peccavit, quia omni bono habundavit. Eciam alio modo offendens in uno factus est omnium reus, quia omnis virtus patitur detrimentum ab uno vicio; nam si quis incidat in avariciam, largitatem destruit, et eciam castitatem minoravit: amore enim pecunie vel violaret castitatem, vel saltem minus amaret. Si enim tanta propter Deum adhuc castitas inest, ut nolit eam perdere, saltem tamen minori gaudio et minori affeccione tuetur eam, ubi videt procedere inde dampnum pecunie, sicque et in aliis, que etsi non expellantur, tamen percepcione unius vicii vel satis vel parum minuitur vel intencione deterioratur. Unde omnis virtus cuiuscumque criminis deflenda, et de omnibus indulgencia est petenda. Animadvertere eciam opportet et animadvertendo deflere animam proximi, quam fornicator Deo eripuit vel ereptam in malo confirmavit, et quod exemplum extitit mali in operacione sui criminis, cui magis profuisset, si aliis causa fuisset conversionis.
Gemat itaque aliorum vitam in sua corruptam vel incorruptam conservatam, et commodum proximi, quod dedisset exemplo boni. De tristicia doleat, quam bonis peccando intulit, et de leticia, quam eis non adhibuit. Et non solum cogitet, quid et qualiter fecerit, sed quoniam iniuste Deum, ut diximus, peccando offenderit. Timeat illam Veritatis sentenciam Non potestis duobus dominis servire. Timeat ergo, ne omnia bona, que fecit, dum in uno peccato perseveret, ex communicacione mali perdiderit, ut, qui servivit dyabolo per crimen, Deo quas obtulit, amiserit virtutes. Pium tamen est credere, ut recepta gracia Dei, que in eo destruit mala, priora eciam remuneret bona, ut, cum destruxerit, quod suum non invenit, amet et diligat bonum, quod eciam in peccante plantavit. In omnibus dolens aut seculum relinquat aut saltem, que sine ammixtione mali non sunt amministrata, ut mercatura et milicia, et alia, que utentibus sunt nociva, ut amministraciones secularium potestatum, nisi utatur hiis ex obediencia licencie. Ponat se omnino in potestate iudicis, in iudicio sacerdotis nichil sibi reservans sui, ut omnia eo iubente paratus sit facere pro recipienda vita anime, quecumque faceret pro vitanda corporis morte, et hoc cum desiderio, quia vitam recuperat infinitam; cum gaudio enim facere debet inmortalis futurus, que faceret pro differenda morte moriturus.
Semper deprecetur Deum, certus de venia, qui omnibus modis et sine dubio rogaret potestatem terrenam. Abstineat a multis licitis, qui in libertate arbitrii commisit illicita, semper offerat Deo mentem et cordis contricionem, deinde et, quod potest, de possessione - tunc, quod offerat, securus offerat: Respexit enim Dominus ad Abel et ad munera eius. Sed prius dicit “ad Abel”, quam “ad munera”; sumens enim mentem, quam cognovit humilem et puram, remunerat eius largitatis munera. Ad Cayn vero non respexit neque ad eius munera; mentem eius, quam viderat, quoniam non cognovit, eius munera non recepit. In iudicio itaque cordis consideranda est elemosina tribuentis, nec tam considerandum est quantum, sed qua mente, qua affeccione datur, quod potest - vidua enim duobus, que habuerat minutis, larga, plus omnibus posuit. Qui igitur peccata sua redimere vult temporalium oblacione, caveat: prius offerat mentem.
Cautus sit penitens, ne verecundia ductus dividat aput se confessionem, ut diversa diversis velit sacerdotibus manifestare: quedam enim celant uni, que alii manifestanda conservant, quod est se laudare et ad ypocrisim tendere et semper venia carere, ad quam per frusta totam pervenire putat. Paveat preterea, quem vera delectat penitencia: non prius ad Domini corpus accedat, quam confortet ipsum bona consciencia; sed in hac separacione tremendum iudicium cogitet, ubi maius et terribilius inpenitentes separabit in ignem; doleat, quod non audeat sumere, quem multum desiderat, cibum salutarem. Isti sunt digni fructus penitencie animam captivam elaqueantes et in libertate servantes.
Cohibeat se preterea a ludis, a spectaculis seculi, qui perfectam vult consequi graciam remissionis. Nam si Dina se cohibuisset, si inter suos remansisset, ab extraneo raptore corrupta non esset. Tanto itaque magis sibi caveat et cohibeat se anima, que semel rapta et est corrupta; timeat iam dicta experimento, quod ignoravit virgo. Eligat, quem imitetur, non sequatur, que animus suus dampnat. Se enim iudicat, qui penitencie fructum non habentem a se non elongat, laudat enim et amat, quos digne fructificare non ignorat. Querite fructus dignos, etsi non dignos penitencie: sunt enim digni fructus virtutum fructus, qui non sufficiunt penitentibus; penitencia enim graviores expostulat, ut sic placetur ecclesia, ut placata dolore et gemitibus mortuis impetret vitam.”
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jas.2.10 — For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all of it.
- ↩Matt.6.24 — No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
- ↩Gen.4.4 — And Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
- ↩Gen.4.5 — but to Cain and to his offering he had no regard; and Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
- ↩Mark.12.42 — And a poor widow came and threw in two small copper coins, which make up a quadrans.
- ↩Matt.25.41 — Then he will also say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'
- ↩1Cor.11.27-1Cor.11.29 — So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 1Cor.11.28 — But let a person examine himself, and in this way let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 1Cor.11.29 — For the one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
- ↩Gen.34.1-Gen.34.2 — And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Gen.34.2 — And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, and he took her and lay with her and humiliated her.
- ↩Matt.3.8;Luke.3.8 — Therefore bear fruit worthy of repentance. Luke.3.8 — Therefore, produce fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin plays on 'worthy fruits' in two senses: fruits adequate to repentance versus fruits of a higher virtue that go beyond what repentance alone requires. The distinction is preserved here.
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