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Confession has strength, but in Hades this does not exist. Then as if someone said, How do you call upon mercy for the healing of transgressions? In what way having propitiated the divine? Thus he says that I have grown weary with my groaning, and I will wash out the bed of sin with the water of tears. Why these things? Because in wrath, he says, my 5.192 eye was troubled, and because of this I became old and moldy, the wrath from my enemies having created corruption in my soul. But if wrath alone instills so much fear in the one who has transgressed through it, how much more likely is it for those to be in despair of saving hope who have not only acknowledged in their own life the passions arising from wrath, but also as many as desire works, and greed, and pride, and ambition, and envy, and the rest of the swarm of human evils? For this reason, turning his word to all kinds of enemies, Depart, he says, from me, all you workers of iniquity. And in the following discourse, he shows the good hope of the right action that comes to us from repentance. For at once he both offered to God the words on behalf of repentance, and coming to a perception of God's favor toward him, he proclaims the grace and exults in the gift, saying, The Lord has heard the voice of my supplication; the Lord has received my prayer. Therefore, so that the good which came to him from repentance might remain with him perpetually and his life might not again have need of a second repentance, he prays for his enemies to be turned away, scourged by shame. For he who is ashamed at the attempt of evil, using shame as a guide so as not to be involved in the same things again, will abstain from the experience of similar things for the time to come. This, then, is the sequence of the good ascent: the fourth psalm distinguished the immaterial good from the bodily and more fleshly; the fifth prayed for the inheritance of such 5.193 a good; the sixth indicated the time of the inheritance, having mentioned the eighth; the eighth revealed the fear of judgment; the judgment advised sinners like us to anticipate the terrible things with repentance; then repentance, offered to God according to reason, announced the gain that comes to us from it, saying that The Lord has heard the voice of the one returning to him with tears. When this happened, so that the good might remain unchangeable for us for the time to come, the prophet exhorts the destruction of hostile thoughts to come about through shame. For it is not possible for a hostile and lawless thought to be extinguished otherwise, unless shame produces its destruction; for shame for things lived badly becomes a chasm fixed through depth, walling off sin from man through itself. Let us say, therefore, that Let all my enemies be greatly ashamed and confounded. And enemies, clearly, are those of the household who proceed from the heart and defile the man; when these have been turned away quickly with shame, the hope of glory which does not end in shame will receive us, by the grace of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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ἰσχὺν ἡ ἐξομολόγησις ἔχει, ἐν δὲ τῷ ᾅδῃ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστιν. εἶτα ὡς εἰπόντος τινὸς Πῶς καλεῖς ἐπὶ θεραπείαν τῶν πλημμελημάτων τὸν ἔλεον; ποίῳ τρόπῳ τὸ θεῖον ἱλεωσάμενος; οὕτω φησὶν ὅτι Ἐκοπίασα ἐν τῷ στεναγμῷ μου, καὶ ἐκπλυνῶ τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας στρωμνὴν τῷ τῶν δακρύων ὕδατι. διὰ τί ταῦτα; ὅτι ἐν θυμῷ, φησίν, ὁ 5.192 ὀφθαλμός μου ἐταράχθη, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παλαιός τις καὶ εὐρωτιῶν ἐγενόμην, τοῦ θυμοῦ τοῦ παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν μοι ἐγγενομένου τῇ ψυχῇ τὴν σηπεδόνα ποιήσαντος. εἰ δὲ θυμὸς μόνος τοσοῦτον ἐμποιεῖ φόβον τῷ δι' αὐτοῦ πλημμελήσαντι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον εἰκός ἐστιν ἐν ἀπογνώσει γενέσθαι τῆς σῳζούσης ἐλπίδος τοὺς μὴ μόνον τὰ ἐκ τοῦ θυμοῦ πάθη τῷ ἰδίῳ βίῳ συνεγνωκότας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσα ἐπιθυμία ἐργάζεται καὶ πλεονεξία καὶ τῦφος καὶ φιλοτιμία καὶ φθόνος καὶ ὁ λοιπὸς ἑσμὸς τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων κακῶν; διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τοὺς παντοδαποὺς ἐχθροὺς ἀποστρέψας τὸν λόγον, Ἀπόστητε, φησίν, ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, πάντες οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν. δείκνυσι δὲ τῷ ἐφεξῆς λόγῳ τὴν ἀγαθὴν ἐλπίδα τοῦ ἐκ μετανοίας προσγινομένου ἡμῖν κατορθώματος. εὐθὺς γὰρ ὁμοῦ τε τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῆς μετανοίας τῷ θεῷ προσήγαγε λόγους, καὶ εἰς συναίσθησιν ἐλθὼν τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ αὐτὸν εὐμενείας, δημοσιεύει τὴν χάριν καὶ τῇ δωρεᾷ ἐπαγάλλεται, λέγων Εἰσήκουσε κύριος τῆς φωνῆς τῆς δεήσεώς μου· κύριος τὴν προσευχήν μου προσεδέξατο. ὡς ἂν οὖν εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς αὐτῷ τὸ ἀγαθὸν παραμένοι τὸ ἐκ τῆς μετανοίας αὐτῷ προσγενόμενον καὶ μὴ δευτέρας πάλιν μετανοίας χρείαν ὁ βίος λάβοι, ἀποστραφῆναι τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ δεῖται δι' αἰσχύνης μαστιγουμένους. ὁ γὰρ αἰσχυνθεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ κακοῦ ἐγχειρήσει, παιδαγωγῷ πρὸς τὸ μηκέτι τοῖς αὐτοῖς συνενεχθῆναι τῇ αἰσχύνῃ χρώμενος, τῆς τῶν ὁμοίων πείρας εἰς τὸν ἐφεξῆς χρόνον ἀφέξεται. αὕτη τοίνυν τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἀναβάσεως ἡ ἀκολουθία· ὁ τέταρτος ψαλμὸς τὸ ἄυλον ἀγαθὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ σωματικοῦ καὶ σαρκωδεστέρου διέκρινεν· ὁ πέμπτος τοῦ 5.193 τοιούτου ἀγαθοῦ τὴν κληρονομίαν ἐπηύξατο· ὁ ἕκτος τὸν καιρὸν τῆς κληρονομίας ὑπέδειξε τῆς ὀγδόης μνησθείς· ἡ ὀγδόη τὸν τῆς κρίσεως ἐφανέρωσε φόβον· ἡ κρίσις τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἁμαρτωλοῖς προλαβεῖν τῇ μετανοίᾳ τὰ φοβερὰ συνεβούλευσεν· εἶτα ἡ μετάνοια ἡ κατὰ λόγον τῷ θεῷ προσαχθεῖσα τὸ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἡμῖν γινόμενον κέρδος εὐηγγελίσατο εἰποῦσα ὅτι Εἰσήκουσε κύριος τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ μετὰ δακρύων πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐπιστρέφοντος. οὗ γενομένου, ὡς ἂν πρὸς τὸν ἐφεξῆς χρόνον ἀμετάπτωτον ἡμῖν τὸ ἀγαθὸν παραμένοι, τὸν ἀφανισμὸν τῶν ἐχθρῶν νοημάτων δι' αἰσχύνης γενέσθαι παρακαλεῖ ὁ προφήτης. οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἄλλως ἐχθρόν τε καὶ παράνομον νόημα κατασβεσθῆναι, μὴ αἰσχύνης αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀφανισμὸν ἐμποιούσης· χάσμα γὰρ γίνεται διὰ βάθους ἐστηριγμένον ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς κακῶς βεβιωμένοις αἰσχύνη δι' ἑαυτῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀποτειχίζουσα. εἴπωμεν οὖν ὅτι Αἰσχυνθείησαν καὶ ἐντραπείησαν σφόδρα πάντες οἱ ἐχθροί μου. ἐχθροὶ δὲ δηλονότι οἱ οἰκιακοὶ οἱ ἐκ τῆς καρδίας ἐκπορευόμενοι καὶ κοινοῦντες τὸν ἄνθρωπον· ὧν διὰ τάχους ἀποστραφέντων μετ' αἰσχύνης διαδέξεται ἡμᾶς ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης ἡ εἰς αἰσχύνην μὴ καταλήγουσα χάριτι τοῦ κυρίου, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.