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Our mouth has been defiled with insults; and to speak simply, we have defiled the earth and the air; for our iniquities have reached up to heaven, our plunderings have been raised higher than the mountains, our covetousness has been lifted above the clouds, our evils have reached up to heaven, our 60.701 sins are unforgivable, our failings have no comfort, our failure is inconsolable, and behold, the earth cannot bear our evils; and for this reason, Master, we need your mercy. You know the weakness of our nature; have mercy, Lord, on the work of your hands. For we call upon your compassion; do not deprive us of your help; send forth your mercy to us, the unworthy; grant your aid to us sinners, and let your face shine upon us, and we shall be saved. These things, my brothers, saying and doing, let us flee all evil and all impurity, let us flee all injustice and greed, let us flee vainglory, drunkenness and all insatiability, let us flee gluttony, the mother of all evils, let us flee the love of money, the beginning and root of all sin, let us flee hatred of our brothers and lack of compassion, let us flee slander and insult; let us flee fornication, adultery, and all blasphemy; let us flee theft, plunder; let us flee love of glory and partiality and strife and jealousy and the rest of the deceit of this vain life; lest our Lord Jesus Christ come and find us idle, and cut us in two, and pronounce against us, saying: 'Bind their hands and feet, take them, and cast them into the outer darkness; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.' O how much we will then weep, brothers, and lament and mourn and beat ourselves, gaining nothing from then on! Woe in that terrible hour, if we are thus found unrepentant; it would have been better for us not to have been born, if we are to be found thus.

Let us weep bitterly then, O brothers, so that we may not be eternally punished there; let us show mercy, so that we may receive mercy, so that we may be forgiven; let us ourselves distribute our money, so that others after our death, eating and drinking and squandering our labor, may not sing, saying: 'The rich man stores up treasure, and does not know for whom he will gather it;' and again, 'Behold the man who did not make God his helper.' For what is the benefit, brothers, when we labor, and others enjoy our labor? Let us send it ahead there, so that we may find it. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Let no one make the excuse, "I have a wife and children, and because of them I cannot distribute my money, lest dying I leave them poor."

B. No, brothers, no, I beseech you all, let us not be anxious about this. There is

for is there not a merciful God in heaven? who cares for and provides for the wife and the children, who also made them; only let us care for ourselves, weep for ourselves, prepare ourselves, let us secure ourselves beforehand for the judgments and courts there. For in that hour neither children nor wife, not father, not mother, not brother, not kinsman, but not even Abraham himself, or Noah, or Daniel, or Peter, or Paul will be able to deliver us from those incomprehensible torments, except our deeds. From heaven he comes to judge the living and the dead, he comes who tests hearts and minds; he comes, and who then can escape his hands? he comes sitting upon the throne of the Cherubim, and looking upon the abysses; he comes, the God of gods, and Lord of lords; he comes, the Ruler of rulers, and Judge of judges; he comes, the King of kings, and Justice of justices; he comes who makes public and convicts every vile and hidden mystery; he comes who makes manifest and reveals the errors of the hidden things; he comes who the thoughts and the deeds and the words and every intention

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Τὸ στόμα ἡμῶν μεμίασται ταῖς λοιδορίαις· καὶ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, ἐμιάναμεν τὴν γῆν καὶ τὸν ἀέρα· αἱ γὰρ ἀδικίαι ἡμῶν ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἤγγισαν, αἱ ἁρπαγαὶ ἡμῶν ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄρη ὑψώθησαν, αἱ πλεονεξίαι ὑπὲρ τὰς νεφέλας ἐπήρθησαν, αἱ κακίαι ἡμῶν ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔφθασαν, αἱ 60.701 ἁμαρτίαι ἡμῶν ἀσυγχώρητοι, τὰ σφάλματα ἡμῶν παραμυθίαν οὐκ ἔχει, ἡ ἀποτυχία ἡμῶν ἀπαρηγόρητος, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἡ γῆ τὰ κακὰ ἡμῶν βαστάζειν οὐ δύναται· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, ∆έσποτα, τοῦ σοῦ ἐλέους χρῄζομεν. Γινώσκεις τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν· ἐλέησον, Κύριε, τῶν χειρῶν σου τὸ ποίημα. Τὴν σὴν γὰρ εὐσπλαγχνίαν ἐπικαλούμεθα· τῆς σῆς βοηθείας μὴ ὑστερήσῃς ἡμᾶς· τὸ σὸν ἔλεος ἐξαπόστειλον ἡμῖν τοῖς ἀναξίοις· τὴν σὴν ἀντίληψιν δώρησαι ἡμῖν τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς, καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου, καὶ σωθησόμεθα. Ταῦτα, ἀδελφοί μου, λέγοντες καὶ ποιοῦντες, φύγωμεν πᾶσαν κακίαν καὶ πᾶσαν ἀκαθαρσίαν, φύγωμεν πᾶσαν ἀδικίαν καὶ πλεονεξίαν, φύγωμεν κενοδοξίαν, μέθην καὶ πᾶσαν ἀπληστίαν, φύγωμεν γαστριμαργίαν τὴν γεννήτριαν πάντων τῶν κακῶν, φύγωμεν φιλαργυρίαν τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ ῥίζαν πάσης ἁμαρτίας, φύγωμεν μισαδελφίαν καὶ ἀσπλαγχνίαν, φύγωμεν καταλαλιὰν καὶ λοιδορίαν· φύγωμεν πορνείαν, μοιχείαν, καὶ πᾶσαν βλασφημίαν· φύγωμεν κλεψίαν, ἁρπαγήν· φύγωμεν φιλοδοξίαν καὶ προσωποληψίαν καὶ ἔριν καὶ ζῆλον καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν ἀπάτην τοῦ ματαίου βίου τούτου· ἵνα μὴ ἔλθῃ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, καὶ εὑρήσῃ ἡμᾶς ῥᾳθυμοῦντας, καὶ διχοτομήσῃ ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἀποφαίνηται καθ' ἡμῶν λέγων· ∆ήσαντες αὐτῶν χεῖρας καὶ πόδας, ἄρατε αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἐμβάλλετε εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. Ὢ πόσα μέλλομεν τότε κλαίειν, ἀδελφοὶ, καὶ ὀδύρεσθαι καὶ θρηνεῖν καὶ ἑαυτοὺς κατακόπτειν, μηδὲν ὠφελοῦντες λοιπόν; Οὐαὶ ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ τῇ φοβερᾷ, ἐὰν οὕτως εὑρεθῶμεν ἀμετανόητοι· καλὸν ἦν ἡμῖν μὴ γεννηθῆναι, ἐὰν οὕτω μέλλωμεν εὑρίσκεσθαι.

Κλαύσωμεν πικρὸν λοιπὸν, ὦ ἀδελφοὶ, ἵνα μὴ ἐκεῖ ἀθάνατα τιμωρηθῶμεν· ἐλεήσωμεν, ἵνα ἐλεηθῶμεν, ἵνα συγχωρηθῶμεν· σκορπίσωμεν ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ χρήματα, ἵνα μὴ ἄλλοι μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν ἡμῶν τὸν κόπον ἐσθίοντες καὶ πίνοντες καὶ σπαταλῶντες, ψάλλωσι λέγοντες· Θησαυρίζει ὁ πλούσιος, καὶ οὐ γινώσκει τίνι συνάξει αὐτά· καὶ πάλιν, Ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος, ὃς οὐκ ἔθετο τὸν Θεὸν βοηθὸν αὐτοῦ. Τί γὰρ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοὶ, ὅταν ἡμεῖς κοπιῶμεν, καὶ ἄλλοι τὸν κόπον ἡμῶν ἀπολαύωσι; Προπέμψωμεν ἐκεῖ, ἵνα εὕρωμεν. Ὃ γὰρ σπείρει ἄνθρωπος, τοῦτο καὶ θερίσει. Μηδεὶς προφασιζέσθω, ὅτι Γυναῖκα ἔχω καὶ τέκνα, καὶ οὐ δύναμαι δι' αὐτὰ σκορπίσαι τὰ χρήματα, ἵνα μὴ ἀποθνήσκων πτωχοὺς αὐτοὺς καταλίπω.

βʹ. Μὴ, ἀδελφοὶ, μὴ, παρακαλῶ πάντας ὑμᾶς, μὴ τοῦτο μεριμνῶμεν. Ἔστι

γὰρ Θεὸς ἐν οὐρανῷ ὁ οἰκτίρμων; ὁ μεριμνῶν καὶ διοικῶν τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ τέκνα, ὁ καὶ ποιήσας αὐτούς· μόνον ἡμεῖς ἑαυτοὺς μεριμνήσωμεν, ἑαυτοὺς κλαύσωμεν, ἑαυτοὺς εὐτρεπίσωμεν, ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς τὰ ἐκεῖ κριτήρια καὶ δικαστήρια προασφαλισώμεθα. Ἐν γὰρ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ οὔτε τέκνα οὔτε γυνὴ, οὐ πατὴρ, οὐ μήτηρ, οὐκ ἀδελφὸς, οὐ συγγενὴς, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἀβραὰμ, ἢ Νῶε, ἢ ∆ανιὴλ, ἢ Πέτρος, ἢ Παῦλος δυνήσονται λυτρώσασθαι ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῶν ἀκαταλήπτων ἐκείνων βασάνων, εἰ μὴ τὰ ἔργα ἡμῶν. Ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἔρχεται κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκροὺς, ἔρχεται ὁ ἐτάζων καρδίας καὶ νεφρούς· ἔρχεται, καὶ τίς λοιπὸν ἐκφύγῃ τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ; ἔρχεται καθήμενος ἐπὶ θρόνου Χερουβὶμ, καὶ ἐπιβλέπων ἀβύσσους· ἔρχεται ὁ Θεὸς τῶν θεῶν, καὶ Κύριος τῶν κυριευόντων· ἔρχεται ὁ Ἄρχων τῶν ἀρχόντων, καὶ Κριτὴς τῶν κριτῶν· ἔρχεται ὁ Βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων, καὶ ∆ικαστὴς τῶν δικαστῶν· ἔρχεται ὁ δημοσιεύων καὶ ἐλέγχων πᾶν φαῦλον καὶ ἀποκεκρυμμένον μυστήριον· ἔρχεται ὁ φανερῶς ποιῶν καὶ ἀποκαλύπτων τὰ ἐσφαλμένα τῶν κρυφίων· ἔρχεται ὁ τὰ ἐνθυμήματα καὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τὰ ῥήματα καὶ πᾶν ἐννοήμα