Mercy and the Judgment of God

He was shown to be an evangelist and a writer. The tax collector who was with the Pharisee is necessary for remembrance; likewise the woman who lost the drachma and found it (Luke 18:10; Luke 15:8).

But from beginning to end, if anyone were to consider the men of all life in their respective times, he would find many first entangled in sins, then having been moved by a slight inclination toward the better, having established a purpose. For it is the property of God alone to set everything right without any deficiency. But man, being driven by generation and corruption and being subject to so many things, could never be shown to be blameless through the cutting away of forgiveness.

Look toward David the king of Israel, whom God chose by election, and who adorned himself with praises through testimony, saying: 'I have found a man after my own heart, David the son of Jesse' (Acts 13:22). This man, after that brilliant exaltation of praises, because he was seized by the passion of carnality and fell into those things which we all know, yet after the rebuke of the prophet, he came to a calculation of the evil, and left a written record for those looking toward repentance in the future regarding the toil.

And we behold, as in an image, in the Psalter, the man: now being gripped by sorrow in the body, and then making time for weeping in the night, the common rest from pains; and flowing with tears upon the bed as if from the springs of the eyelids, and again to us having labored out the fiftieth psalm (Psalm 50), a type of one propitiating God. Not was the lamentation produced in vain for him, but the heavy groans drew in mercy, and he received both the authority of the royal power and the boldness of supplication toward God.

Similarly, he who had the lot of ruling Nineveh was accompanied by the multitude of sins toward destruction together with the peoples beginning to perish (Jonah 3), and he proclaimed the rebuke of sin approaching with little time left for the punishment. But since they, having sensibly wronged themselves, fled the trial of the calamity, he was grieved that the prophet of evils did not relent, and he became harshly angry toward the mercy of God.

And he who, everywhere both through words and deeds, makes known to us how much favor he has toward men, nurtures the gourd over the head for the...

The ray of the sun provides a covering for the vegetable that is withering, yet the shadow, failing to provide continuous protection, dries it up. Then, as if struggling to wake up to what is happening, it the person reproaches and blames. If one so passionately grieves over a withered vegetable, would God not be moved by a city approaching such danger? Learn, then, you harsh and unmerciful ones, the goodness of Him who created us, and do not become bitter and heavy-handed judges among fellow slaves, until He who reveals the secrets of hearts arrives to distribute the state of the expected life to each according to their lot by His sovereign authority. Do not issue your decisions in secret, so that you may not be subjected to the same, and walk as if pierced by the words of your own people as if they were sharp. For it seems to me that even the Gospel forewarning of this serves as a safeguard, saying: 'Do not judge, so that you may not be judged' (Matthew 7:1). For it does not cast out judgment and good-knowledge, but names the harshest condemnation 'judgment.' Therefore, if you wish, make the scale light, if you do not want to be dragged down by the condemning tablet and your own deeds when our life is being weighed in the balance of God's judgment.

Being surrounded by a body and living in the flesh, do not ever reject life from medical treatment. For even if you live for a long time in both well-being and health, you will not continue to be without sickness as if there were no need for the care of the healer. And having a soul inclined toward earthly things, whenever it becomes filled with the efforts of the body, do not reject mercy, so that you may not be deprived of forgiveness when you become in need of it. If someone is a priest and has been granted to lead the people, let him see the falls of those under his care with sympathy, knowing that even if the order of life differs from the many, it has not hindered the nature of those being shepherded, and that he, sharing in it, may perhaps one day share in transgression. Moses, knowing these things—for he was a man and knew human nature—commanded the calf to be used by the priest, because he was entirely a sinner and in need of cleansing and many things. What the fleshly calf was then, this is now the bodiless sin.