Chapter IX.

In what way faith is necessary for repentance. Means for paying our debts, in which work, prayer, tears, and fasting are of more value than money. Some instances are adduced, and St. Ambrose declares that generosity is profitable, but only when joined with faith; it is, moreover, liable to certain defects. He goes on to speak of some defects in repentance, such as too great haste in seeking reconciliation, considering abstinence from sacraments all that is needed, of committing sin in hope of repenting later.

80. So, then, it is fitting for us to believe both that sinners must repent and that forgiveness is to be given on repentance, yet still as hoping for forgiveness as granted upon faith, not as a debt, for it is one thing to earn, and another presumptuously to claim a right. Faith asks for forgiveness, as it were, by covenant, but presumption is more akin to demand than to request. Pay first that which you owe, that you may be in a position to ask for what you have hoped. Come with the disposition of an honest debtor, that you may not contract a fresh liability, but may pay that which is due of the existing debt with the possessions of your faith.

81. He who owes a debt to God has more help towards payment than he who is indebted to man. Man requires money for money, and this is not always at the debtor’s command. God demands the affection of the heart, which is in our own power. No one who owes a debt to God is poor, except one who has made himself poor. And even if he have nothing to sell, yet has he wherewith to pay. Prayer, fasting, and tears are the resources of an honest debtor, and much more abundant than if one from the price of his estate offered money without faith.

82. Ananias was poor, when after selling his land he brought the money to the apostles, and was not able with it to pay his debt, but involved himself the more.227    Acts v. 1, 2. That widow was rich who cast her two small pieces into the treasury, of whom Christ said: “This poor widow hath cast in more than they all.”228    S. Luke xxi. 3. For God requires not money but faith.

83. And I do not deny that sins may be diminished by liberal gifts to the poor, but only if faith commend what is spent. For what would the giving of one’s whole property benefit without charity?

84. There are some who aim at the credit of generosity for pride alone, because they wish thereby to gain the good opinion of the multitude for leaving nothing to themselves; but whilst they are seeking rewards in this life, they are laying up none for the life to come, and having received their reward here they cannot hope for it there.

85. Some again, having, through impulsive excitement and not after long consideration, given their possessions to the Church, think that they can claim them back. These gain neither the first nor the second reward, for the gift was made thoughtlessly, its recall sacrilegiously.

86. Some repent of having distributed their property to the poor. But they who are doing penance must not repent of this, lest they repent of their own repentance. For many seek for penance through fear of future punishment, being conscious of their sins, and having received their penance are held back by fear of the public entreaties. These persons seem to have sought for repentance for their evil deeds, but to exercise it for their good ones.

87. Some seek penance because they wish to be at once restored to communion. These wish not so much to loose themselves as to bind the priest, for they do not put off the guilt from their own conscience, but lay it on that of the priest, to whom the command is given: “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine;”229    S. Matt. vii. 6. that is to say, that partaking of the holy Communion is not to be allowed to those polluted with impurity.

88. And so one may see those walking in other attire, who ought to be weeping and groaning because they had defiled the robe of sanctification and grace; and women loading their ears with pearls, and weighing down their necks, who had better have bent to Christ than to gold, and who ought to be weeping for themselves, because they have lost the pearl from heaven.

89. There are, again, some who think that it is penitence to abstain from the heavenly sacraments. These are too cruel judges of themselves, who prescribe a penalty for themselves but refuse the remedy, who ought to be mourning over their self-imposed penalty, because it deprives them of heavenly grace.

90. Others think that licence is granted them to sin, because the hope of penitence is before them, whereas penitence is the remedy, not an incentive to sin. For the salve is necessary for the wound, not the wound for the salve, since a salve is sought because of the wound, the wound is not wished for on account of the salve. The hope which is put off to a future season is but feeble, for every season is uncertain, and hope does not outlive all time.

CAPUT IX.

Quo pacto fides ad poenitentiam necessaria? Quot etiam solvendi subsidia cuique suppetant? Orationem, fletus ac jejunia pecuniis potiora esse. Quod ubi exemplis confirmavit, additoque ad veniam liberalitatem 0516Cmultum valere, sed fidei cunjunctam, vitia ejusdem liberalitatis nonnulla refert. His alios quosdam poenitentiae jungit defectus, eorum nempe vel qui statim reconciliari expetunt de solito luxu nihil remittentes, vel qui poenitentiam in sola sacramentorum abstinentia locant, vel demum qui spe poenitentiae effunduntur in libidines.

80. Ergo et agendam poenitentiam, et tribuendam veniam credere nos convenit; 434 ut veniam tamen tamquam ex fide speremus, non tamquam ex debito; aliud est enim mereri, aliud praesumere. Tamquam ex syngrapho fides impetrat: praesumptio autem arroganti est propior, quam roganti. Prius solve quod debitum est; ut quod speraveris, impetrare merearis. Solve boni affectum debitoris, ut versuram 0516D non facias, sed fidei tuae censu contracti nominis fenus evacues.

81. Plura solvendi habet subsidia, qui Deo quam is qui homini debet. Homo pecuniam pro pecunia reposcit, quae non semper debitori praesto est: Deus affectum exigit, qui in tua potestate est. Nemo pauper 0517A est qui Deo debet, nisi qui se ipsum pauperem fecerit. Et si non habet quae vendat, habet quae solvat. Oratio, lacrymae, jejunia, debitoris boni census est, multoque uberior, quam si quis ex pretiis fundorum pecuniam sine fide deferat.

82. Denique pauper erat Ananias, cum vendito agro, pecuniam deferret ad apostolos; unde nec solvere se potuit, sed implicavit (Act. V, 1, 2). Dives illa vidua quae duo aera minuta in gazophylacium misit, de qua dictum est: Haec vidua paupercula plus omnibus misit (Luc. XXI, 2). Non enim pecuniam Deus, sed fidem quaerit.

83. [Alias cap. IX.] Neque ego abnuo liberalitatibus in pauperes factis posse minui peccatum; sed si fides commendet expensas. Quid enim prodest collatio 0517B patrimonii sine gratia charitatis?

84. Sunt qui ad jactantiam solam decorem largitatis affectent; ut eo se probatos vulgo videri velint, quod sibi nihil reliquerint: sed dum praesentis saeculi mercedem requirunt, non recondunt futuri; et quia hic perceperunt mercedem suam, illic sperare non possunt.

85. Sunt qui opes suas tumultuario mentis impulsu, non judicio perpetuo, ubi Ecclesiae contulerunt, postea revocandas putarunt: quibus nec prima merces rata est, nec secunda; quia nec prima judicium habuit, et secunda habuit sacrilegium (17, q. 4, c. Sunt qui opes).

86. Sunt quos poenituerit opes suas divisisse pauperibus: sed eos qui poenitentiam agunt, hoc solum 0517C poenitere non debet, ne ipsius poenitentiae agant poenitentiam. Nam plerique futuri supplicii metu peccatorum suorum conscii, poenitentiam petunt, et cum acceperint, publicae supplicationis revocantur pudore. Hi videntur malorum petiisse poenitentiam agere bonorum.

87. Nonnulli ideo poscunt poenitentiam, ut statim sibi reddi communionem velint. Hi non tam se solvere cupiunt, quam sacerdotem ligare; suam enim conscientiam culpa non exuunt, et sacerdotis 0518A induunt, cui praeceptum est: Nolite sanctum dare canibus, neque miseritis margaritas 435 vestras ante porcos; hoc est, immundis impuritatibus sacrae communionis non impertienda consortia.

88. Itaque videas eos mutata veste incedere, quos lugere et gemere oportebat; quia vestem illam ablutionis et gratiae sordidarunt: feminas autem margaritis onerare aures, curvare cervices, quas bene Christo, non auro, inclinarent: quae se ipsas flere debebant, quod margaritam quae de coelo est, perdiderunt.

89. Sunt etiam qui arbitrentur hoc esse poenitentiam, si abstineant a sacramentis coelestibus. Hi saeviores in se judices sunt, qui poenam praescribunt sibi, declinant remedium, quos vel poenam suam 0518B conveniebat dolere; quia coelesti fraudarentur gratia (De Poenit., dist. I, cap. Sunt qui arbitrentur).

90. Alii proposita spe agendae poenitentiae, licentiam sibi delinquendi propagatam putant; cum poenitentia remedium peccati sit, non peccandi incentivum. Vulneri enim medicamentum necessarium est, non vulnus medicamento; quia propter vulnus medicamentum quaeritur, non propter medicamentum vulnus desideratur. Infirma deinde spes quae committitur tempori; cum omne tempus incertum sit, omni spes tempori non sit superstes.