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| Chapter VII. The answer showing how far we ought to preserve the recollection of previous actions.
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Chapter VII.
The answer showing how far we ought to preserve the
recollection of previous actions.
Pinufius: Your question,
as has been already said above, was not raised with regard to the
character of penitence, but with regard to its end, and the marks of
satisfaction: to which, as I think, a fair and pertinent reply has been
given. But what you have said as to the remembrance of sins is
sufficiently useful and needful to men who are still doing penance,
that they may with constant smiting of the breast say: “For I
acknowledge my wickedness: and my sin is ever before me;” and
this too: “And I will think for my sin.”2123
While then we do penance, and are still
grieved by the recollection of faulty actions, the shower of tears
which is caused by the confession of our faults is sure to quench the
fire of our conscience. But when, while a man is still in this state of
humility of heart and contrition of spirit and continuing to labour and
to weep, the remembrance of these things fades away, and the thorns of
conscience are by God’s grace extracted from his inmost heart,
then it is clear that he has attained to the end of satisfaction and
the reward of pardon, and that he is purged from the stain of the sins
he has committed. To which state of forgetfulness we can only attain by
the obliteration of our former sins and likings, and by perfect and
complete purity of heart. And this most certainly will not be attained
by any of those who from sloth or carelessness have failed to purge out
their faults, but only by one who by constantly continuing to groan and
sigh sorrowfully has removed every spot of his former stains, and by
the goodness of his heart and his labour has proclaimed to the Lord:
“I have acknowledged my sin, and mine unrighteousness have I not
hid;” and: “My tears have been my meat day and
night;” so that in the end it may be vouchsafed to him to hear
these words: “Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thine eyes
from tears: for there is a reward for thy labour, saith the
Lord;”2124
| 2124 Ps. xxxi. (xxxii.) 5; xli. (xlii.) 4; Jer. xxxi.
16. | and these words
also may be uttered of him by the voice of the Lord: “I have
blotted out as a cloud thine iniquities, and as a mist thy sins:”
and again: “I even I am He that blotteth out thine iniquities for
mine own sake, and thine offences I will no longer
remember;”2125
and so, when he
is freed from the “cords of his sins,” by which
“everyone is bound,”2126
he will
with all thanksgiving sing to the Lord: “Thou hast broken my
chains: I will offer to thee the sacrifice of praise.”2127
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