Sermon 29A

SERMON 29/A: "Let us open our hearts to divine teachings, and may the words of the Holy Scripture awaken in us the light of wisdom, driving away the darkness of ignorance. For just as the dawn banishes night, so does the knowledge of God dispel the shadows of falsehood."

ON THE VERSE OF PSALM 117:
"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good."

On the confession of sins and on the confession of praise.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. This is what the Holy Spirit has exhorted us through the voice of the psalm, to which we respond with one voice and one heart saying Alleluia, which in Latin is interpreted as praise the Lord. This same Holy Spirit exhorts you through our voice: Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Whether you sing praising His gifts, or you pour out your sins in sighing, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. For indeed, not only the remembrance of our sins but also the praise of our Lord is called confession, because, if we do one, we do not do it without the other. For we accuse our iniquity with hope in His mercy, and praise His mercy with remembrance of our iniquity. Let us therefore give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Some believe that certain creatures are evil because they offend the feelings of the unlearned. But this is false. For God made all things very good, for He is good. Some believe that God is unjust because often His faithful suffer many hard and harsh things in this temporal life. But those to whom this seems so are mistaken. For He chastises every son, not whom He rejects, but whom He receives, for His mercy endures forever.

Good and merciful Lord.

Let us therefore confess to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Let us say to the Lord our God: Wonderful are Your works, You have made all things in wisdom. Your judgments are just, You have chastised man for iniquity. Before I was humbled, I sinned. Let us say this in confession, for if certain adversities of our mortality are punishments, He nevertheless does good, for He is good. And if we are corrected by temporal pains and labors, He will not be angry to the end, nor will He be indignant forever, for His mercy endures forever. What is as good as our God? Men blaspheme, not only do they not humble themselves, but they even boast in their crimes. And He makes His sun rise over the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. What is as merciful as our God? Men persist in their offenses and crimes, and He ceases not to call them to conversion. What is as good as our God, from whom we perceive such comforts even in distress? What is as merciful as our God, whose future judgment we alter by changing ourselves? Let us confess to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Not all things are praised in confessions, but the praises of the Lord our God. For it has truly been said: How good is God to Israel to the upright in heart, surely He seems evil to those perverse in heart. But who among men, unless made upright after being perverse, begins to praise what they previously blamed, and to marvel at what they previously despised, confessing to the Lord, because now that they are upright themselves, He is good, who seemed evil to the perverse? And since he was perverse by his own malice, but corrected by His grace, it is fitting to confess at the same time that His mercy endures forever. We are evil; He is good; we are good from Him, evil from ourselves; He is good to us when we are good, He is good to us when we are evil. We rage against ourselves, He is merciful towards us. He calls us to convert; He waits until we convert; He forgives if we convert; He crowns if we do not turn away.

To whom and with what benefit it is owed by us to confess.

Let us praise the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Confession of sins has always seemed fearful to men, but in the presence of a human judge. For very often, with whips and various beatings, with claws, and also with fires, it is compelled, so that confession may be elicited by the mouth. And sometimes the limbs succumb to torture first, so that the framework of the body is loosened, before the spirit surrenders to the pains, revealing the secret crime. Executioners press on, all kinds of tortures increase. But in vain are the entrails laid open by laceration while the conscience is closed in denial. Why then does a man fear to confess under such tortures, except because those who have confessed are accustomed to be punished? He who confesses to a man is punished; he who confesses to God is freed. And no wonder. A man asks of a man what the asker does not know. But God, who urges us to confess, knows what we were unwilling to confess, nor does He learn at the moment we confess. Therefore, how much more does He free those who confess from eternal death, He who, knowing our iniquities even before we confessed, spared us from temporal death.

You may perhaps say: "What does God seek from me, that I confess what He already knows? For when a man seeks this from another man, he is ignorant." What do you think, except that God wants, from you, that your sin be punished by recognizing it, and forgiven by Him by absolving it? For how do you wish Him to forgive what you do not want to acknowledge? Listen to the psalm, and if you are awake, notice your voice there: "I have acknowledged my sin, and I have not concealed my crime. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my heart." Listen in another psalm: "For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me." Therefore, he did not shamelessly say to God: "Turn your face away from my sins." For then God deigns to turn His face away from man's sin, when man himself takes care to turn his own face to his sin, so that in the ears of God he may say: "And my sin is ever before me." God is not said to turn His face because He does not know, but because He forgives. If, therefore, you fear to confess to a human judge because he is wicked, or because he is compelled to fulfill the severity of the law, safely confess to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.