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Gospel: Saint Luke 3:
1-6
By
penance and freedom from sin we prepare
ourselves to
receive Jesus Christ
4.1
First Point
According to today's
Gospel, Saint John went about all the country adjoining the Jordan
preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins,[i]
in order to prepare the Jews for the coming of Our Lord. By doing this Saint
John makes known to us that the principal disposition we should bring to the
reception of Our Lord is penance and separation from all sin; we must, then,
give our greatest effort to this, because penance washes and purifies a soul
of the sins which sully it.
Saint Leo calls
penance simply a baptism; Saint Gregory of Nazianzen calls it a painful
baptism; Saint Ambrose says David spoke of this baptism when he tells us
that he wore himself out sighing and wailing, drenched his couch nightly
with his tears, and soaked his pillow with his weeping.[ii]
We, too,
should be able to say the same thing as David, because we need penance no
less than he did if we wish to draw Jesus Christ to us. This is why, as the
Gloss says, each of you should expiate sins of your past by penance, so that
you may once again draw near to the salvation you have lost and recover the
facility of returning to God from whom you have strayed. This is why God
declared by one of the prophets, be converted to me by fasting, weeping,
and mourning;[iii]
for these are the surest means of finding God when we have lost him, the
means that contribute most to obtaining for us that purity of heart which
David so ardently begged from the Lord. It was also with this in mind that
he asked God, wash me yet more from my iniquities and purify me from my
sins.[iv]
This penitent king
was fully persuaded that the stains of a sinful soul will not be washed away
save by the tears that flow from a humble and contrite heart. Let us
frequently beg God for the grace to cleanse ourselves so perfectly that no
trace of our sins will remain; and on our part let us contribute to this by
the penance we perform for our sins.
4.2
Second Point
It is said of Saint John
that he preached penance for the remission of sins[v]
because it is penance which procures the remission of sins for those who
have offended God. Saint Peter said to the Jews in the Acts of the Apostles,
do penance and be converted, so that your sins may be forgiven.[vi]
For such is the specific end of this virtue; it alone can appease the heart
of God irritated against sinners. God himself tells us this in Ezechiel,
saying if the wicked man does penance for all the sins he has committed,
and keeps all my precepts, and acts according to equity and justice, I will
no longer remember all his iniquities, and they will no more be imputed to
him.[vii]
Saint Peter, preaching to the Jewish people to make known to them the truths
of the Gospel, told them, Do penance to obtain the remission of your sins.[viii]
It was also by
means of this same virtue that the Ninevites, who had outraged heaven by
their disorderly conduct, induced God to revoke the sentence he had
pronounced against them to destroy their city.[ix]
This they could not do except by a conversion of their hearts, following the
preaching of Jonas and the invitation of their king. To avert the calamity
which threatened them, there was no other recourse for them, says Saint
Ambrose, than to fast continually and cover themselves with sackcloth and
ashes to appease the anger of God.
By the same
method you too will obtain the remission of all the sins which you committed
in the world, and all those which you still commit every day in God's house.
For, as Saint Jerome observes, every day God still addresses to people the
same threats he addressed to the Ninevites, so that just as these menaces
frightened those sinful people, they may in the same way convince people who
are living now to do penance. Let us then profit by such an admirable
example.
4.3 Third Point
As the prophet Ezechiel
informs us, not only does penance obtain for us the remission of our sins,
it also preserves us from sin, which is the greatest blessing we can enjoy
in this world. For after saying that if the wicked man does penance for
all his sins, God will no longer remember them, he adds, that man
will live by practicing the works of justice and he will not die.[x]
This is why Saint Peter comforts us so much when he tells us that the Lord,
on the day of his coming, will find in peace of soul those who have
brought forth worthy fruits of penance,[xi]
because he will find them free from sin. By this means, remarks Theodoret,
they will have made their salvation certain. As the Church sings, it was by
this means that Saint John the Baptist was able to preserve himself free
from the slightest sins.
In the same
way you will return to the grace of Our Lord and, according to Saint Peter,
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,[xii]
who will make you firm in goodness thanks to his dwelling in you. This Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Beg him to establish your heart so
firmly in good that on the day of his coming, as Saint Peter says, you
may be found pure and irreproachable in his eyes.[xiii]
Take care that when he comes he will not address to you the same reproach
that Saint John in the Apocalypse made to a bishop, telling you that you
have fallen away from your first charity.[xiv]
If he upbraids you with this now, remember the state from which you have
fallen, as this bishop was enjoined to do. Do penance, and return to
the practice of your first works.[xv]
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