John Chrysostom, On Lazarus

Have you condemned your sin? You have put off the burden. And who says these things? God himself, the judge. You tell your sins first, that you may be justified. For on what account are you ashamed and blushing, tell me, to speak of your sins? For are you speaking to a man, that he should reproach you? For are you confessing to a fellow servant, that he should make a public spectacle of it? To the Master, to the guardian, to the lover of mankind, to the physician you are showing the wound. For even if you do not speak, does He not know, He who knew even before it was done? On what account, then, do you not speak? For from your accusation does the sin become more burdensome? Rather, it becomes gentler and lighter. And because of this He wants you to speak, not that He may punish, but that He may forgive; not that He Himself may learn the sin; for how could He, who knows? but that you may learn how great a debt He forgives you. And He wants you to learn the greatness of the grace, so that you may continually give thanks, so that you may be more hesitant toward sin, so that you may be more zealous for virtue. If you do not tell the greatness of the debt, you do not recognize the abundance of the grace. I do not compel you, He says, to come into the midst of a theater, and to have many witnesses stand around; to Me alone tell the sin in private, that I may heal the wound, and deliver you from the pain. For this reason He placed within us the conscience, even more loving than a father. For a father, after rebuking his child once, or a second, or even a third, or even ten times, when he sees him remaining uncorrected, giving up, disowns him, and casts him out of the house, and cuts him off from the family; but not the conscience. But even if it speaks once, or a second, or a third, or ten thousand times, and you do not listen, it will speak again, and does not depart until the last breath; both in the house, and in the streets, and at the table, and in the marketplace, and on the roads, and often even in our very dreams it presents to us the images and fantasies of our sins. 5. And behold the wisdom of God. He made the accusation of the conscience neither continuous (for we would not have borne the burden, being constantly accused), nor so weak, as to give up after the first and second exhortation. For if it were to prick us every day and hour, we would have been choked by despondency; but if after reminding us once and a second time it desisted from its rebuke, we would not have reaped much benefit. For this reason He made this rebuke perpetual, but not continuous; perpetual, so that we may not fall into laziness, but being always reminded, even until the end, we may be sober; but not continuous nor successive, so that we may not fall down, but taking some respites and consolations, we may breathe again. For just as feeling no pain at all for sins is destructive, and engenders in us the utmost insensibility, so to suffer this continuously and beyond measure is harmful. For the excess of despondency has the power, often casting one out of one's natural mind, to submerge the soul, and to render it useless for all good things. For this reason He has arranged for the reproach of conscience to assail us at intervals, since it is very sharp, and is accustomed to pierce the sinner more vehemently than any goad. For not only when we ourselves sin, but also when others commit the same offenses as we, it is roused fiercely and cries out against us with great vehemence. For the fornicator, and the adulterer, and the thief, not only when he himself is accused, but also when he hears others who have dared such things being accused, considers himself to be scourged, receiving a reminder of his own sin in the rebukes of others, and another is accused, but this one who is not accused is struck, when he has dared the same things as that man; just as, then, also in the case of good deeds, when others are being praised and crowned, those who have accomplished the same things as they rejoice and exult, as if they themselves, rather than the others, were being praised. What, therefore, could be more wretched than the sinner, when, as others are being accused, he himself is downcast? And what more blessed than the one living in virtue, when, as others are being praised, he himself rejoices

Κατέγνως σου τὴν ἁμαρτίαν; ἀπέθου τὸ φορτίον. Καὶ τίς ταῦτά φησιν; Αὐτὸς ὁ δικάζων Θεός. Λέγε σὺ τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου πρῶτος, ἵνα δικαιωθῇς. Τίνος γὰρ ἕνεκεν αἰσχύνῃ καὶ ἐρυθριᾷς, εἰπέ μοι, τὰ ἁμαρτήματα εἰπεῖν; μὴ γὰρ ἀνθρώπῳ λέγεις, ἵνα ὀνειδίσῃ σε; μὴ γὰρ τῷ συνδούλῳ ὁμολογεῖς, ἵνα ἐκπομπεύσῃ; Τῷ ∆εσπότῃ, τῷ κηδεμόνι, τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ, τῷ ἰατρῷ τὸ τραῦμα ἐπιδεικνύεις. Μὴ γὰρ, κἂν σὺ μὴ εἴπῃς, ἐκεῖνος οὐκ οἶδεν, ὅς γε καὶ πρὸ τοῦ πραχθῆναι ἠπίστατο; τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν οὐ λέγεις; μὴ γὰρ ἐκ τῆς σῆς κατηγορίας φορτικώτερον γίνεται τὸ ἁμάρτημα; Ἡμερώτερον μὲν οὖν καὶ κουφότερον. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βούλεταί σε εἰπεῖν, οὐχ ἵνα κολάσῃ, ἀλλ' ἵνα συγχωρήσῃ· οὐχ ἵνα αὐτὸς μάθῃ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν· πῶς γὰρ, ὁ εἰδώς; ἀλλ' ἵνα σὺ μάθῃς πόσον σοι συγχωρεῖ χρέος. Βούλεται δέ σε μαθεῖν τῆς χάριτος τὸ μέγεθος, ἵνα εὐχαριστῶν διατελῇς, ἵνα ὀκνηρότερος πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν ᾖς, ἵνα προθυμότερος εἰς ἀρετήν. Ἂν μὴ εἴπῃς τοῦ χρέους τὸ μέγεθος, οὐκ ἐπιγινώσκεις τῆς χάριτος τὴν ὑπερβολήν. Οὐκ ἀναγκάζω, φησὶν, εἰς μέσον ἐλθεῖν σε θέατρον, καὶ μάρτυρας περιστῆσαι πολλούς· ἐμοὶ τὸ ἁμάρτημα εἰπὲ μόνῳ κατ' ἰδίαν, ἵνα θεραπεύσω τὸ ἕλκος, καὶ ἀπαλλάξω τῆς ὀδύνης. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο τὸ συνειδὸς ἡμῖν ἐγκατέθηκε καὶ πατρὸς φιλοστοργότερον. Πατὴρ μὲν γὰρ ἅπαξ, ἢ δεύτερον, ἢ καὶ τρίτον, ἢ καὶ δεκάκις ἐπιτιμήσας τῷ παιδὶ, ἐπειδὰν ἴδῃ μένοντα ἀδιόρθωτον, ἀπαγορεύσας ἀποκηρύττει, καὶ τῆς οἰκίας ἐκβάλλει, καὶ τῆς συγγενείας διακόπτει· ἀλλ' οὐ τὸ συνειδός· ἀλλὰ, κἂν ἅπαξ, κἂν δεύτερον, κἂν τρίτον, κἂν μυριάκις εἴπῃ, καὶ παρακούσῃς, πάλιν ἐρεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἀφίσταται ἕως ἐσχάτης ἀναπνοῆς· καὶ ἐν οἰκίᾳ, καὶ ἐν ἀμφόδοις, καὶ ἐν τραπέζῃ, καὶ ἐν ἀγορᾷ, καὶ ἐν ὁδοῖς, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἐν ὀνείροις αὐ48.1013 τοῖς τῶν ἡμαρτημένων ἡμῖν τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τὰς φαντασίας παρίστησι. εʹ. Καὶ ὅρα σοφίαν Θεοῦ. Οὔτε διηνεκῆ τὴν κατηγορίαν ἐποίησεν εἶναι τοῦ συνειδότος (οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἠνέγκαμεν τὸ φορτίον, συνεχῶς ἐγκαλούμενοι), οὔτε οὕτως ἀσθενῆ, ὡς ἐκ πρώτης καὶ δευτέρας ἀπαγορεῦσαι παραινέσεως. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν καὶ ὥραν ἔμελλεν ἡμᾶς κεντεῖν, κἂν ἀπεπνίγημεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀθυμίας· εἰ δὲ ἅπαξ καὶ δεύτερον ὑπομνῆσαν ἀπέστη τῆς ἐπιτιμήσεως, οὐκ ἂν πολλὴν ἐκαρπωσάμεθα τὴν ὠφέλειαν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο διηνεκῆ μὲν ταύτην ἐποίησεν εἶναι τὴν ἐπιτίμησιν, οὐ μὴν συνεχῆ· διηνεκῆ μὲν, ἵνα μὴ εἰς ῥᾳθυμίαν ἐμπίπτωμεν, ἀλλ' ἀεὶ καὶ μέχρι τελευτῆς ὑπομιμνησκόμενοι νήφωμεν· οὐ συνεχῆ δὲ οὐδὲ ἐπάλληλον, ἵνα μὴ καταπίπτωμεν, ἀλλὰ ἀνέσεις τινὰς λαμβάνοντες καὶ παραμυθίας ἀναπνέωμεν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ μηδ' ὅλως ἀλγεῖν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασιν ὀλέθριον, καὶ τὴν ἐσχάτην ἀναισθησίαν ἐντίκτον ἡμῖν, οὕτω τὸ συνεχῶς καὶ πέρα τοῦ μέτρου τοῦτο πάσχειν ἐπιβλαβές. Ἡ γὰρ ὑπερβολὴ τῆς ἀθυμίας ἴσχυε καὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν πολλάκις ἐκβαλοῦσα φρενῶν, ὑποβρύχιον ποιῆσαι τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ πρὸς ἅπαντα ἄχρηστον ἐργάσασθαι τὰ καλά. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐκ διαλειμμάτων ἡμῖν τὸν τοῦ συνειδότος ἔλεγχον παρεσκεύασεν ἐπιτίθεσθαι, ἐπειδὴ σφόδρα ἐστὶν ἀπότομος, καὶ παντὸς κέντρου σφοδρότερον τὸν ἡμαρτηκότα νύττειν εἴωθεν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡνίκα ἂν ἁμαρτάνωμεν αὐτοὶ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡνίκα ἂν ἕτεροι τὰ αὐτὰ πλημμελῶσιν ἡμῖν, διεγείρεται σφοδρῶς καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς ἡμῶν καταβοᾷ τῆς εὐτονίας. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ πόρνος, καὶ ὁ μοιχὸς, καὶ ὁ κλέπτης οὐ μόνον ὅταν αὐτὸς κατηγορῆται, ἀλλ' ὅταν καὶ ἑτέρων τοιαῦτα τολμησάντων ἀκούῃ κατηγορουμένων, αὐτὸς ἡγεῖται μαστίζεσθαι, ἐν ταῖς ἑτέρων ἐπιτιμήσεσι τῆς οἰκείας ἁμαρτίας λαμβάνων ἀνάμνησιν, καὶ ἐγκαλεῖται μὲν ἄλλος, πλήττεται δὲ οὗτος ὁ μηδὲν ἐγκαλούμενος, ὅταν ᾖ τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνῳ τετολμηκώς· ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς κατορθώμασιν, ἑτέρων ἐγκωμιαζομένων καὶ στεφανουμένων, οἱ τὰ αὐτὰ κατωρθωκότες ἐκείνοις χαίρουσι καὶ ἀγάλλονται, ὡς οὐκ ἐκείνων μᾶλλον ἢ αὐτῶν ἐπαινουμένων. Τί τοίνυν γένοιτ' ἂν τοῦ ἡμαρτηκότος ἀθλιώτερον, ὅταν, ἑτέρων κατηγορουμένων, αὐτὸς καταδύηται; τί δὲ τοῦ ζῶντος ἐν ἀρετῇ μακαριώτερον, ὅταν, ἑτέρων ἐπαινουμένων, αὐτὸς χαίρῃ