Section CX

But since such is the constitution of human nature, and such its weakness, that it neither easily contains itself within the limits of the honorable and the just, nor is overcome by vices only with great difficulty, therefore God, that he might disclose more fully and illustriously his benevolent and merciful will toward men, decreed that even unto the very end of mortal life the medicine of penance should be available to all, and that for all there should be at hand a second plank, by seizing which they might escape the destruction of shipwreck.

There were not lacking in the third century of the Church those who imprudently treated men bound by more atrocious crimes either more leniently or more harshly than was fitting. Cyprian refuted these with ardent zeal¹, and, among many other things, writes these also for our purpose²:

Penance alone remains, which may make satisfaction. But those who take away penance for the crime close the way of satisfaction; thus it happens that, while false salvation is either promised or believed through the rashness of certain men, the hope of true salvation is taken away. But you, most beloved brethren, whose fear is readily inclined toward God and whose mind, although established amid ruin, is mindful of its evil: as penitents and those grieving over your sins, examine them; acknowledge the most grievous crime of conscience; open the eyes of the heart to an understanding of your offense, neither despairing of the mercy of the Lord nor yet now claiming pardon as your due. As much as God is always indulgent and good in the pietas of a father³, so much is he to be feared in the majesty of a judge.

For this reason,

if anyone makes prayer with his whole heart⁴; if he groans with true lamentations and tears of penance; if he inclines the Lord to pardon his offense by just and continual works, he can have mercy upon such persons, who also declared his mercy⁵, saying: “When, having been converted, you shall groan, then—”

“—you shall be saved, and you shall know where you were.” And again⁶: “I will not the death of him who dies, says the Lord, so much as that he should return and live.” And the prophet Joel, at the Lord’s own admonition, declares the pietas of the Lord⁷: “Return to the Lord your God, because he is merciful and gracious and patient and of much compassion, and one who⁸ bends his sentence against the evils inflicted.”

Since the clemency and goodness of God are of such a kind and so great, therefore

we judge that no one is to be prevented from attaining grace by that law which has now been established⁹, nor that spiritual circumcision ought to be impeded by carnal circumcision, but that absolutely everyone is to be admitted to the grace of Christ; since Peter also speaks in the Acts of the Apostles and says¹⁰: “The Lord has said to me that no man is to be called common and unclean.” Moreover, if anything in men could impede the attainment of grace, more grievous sins could impede adults and those advanced and greater in age. But if even to the most grievous offenders¹¹, and those who long before sinned greatly against God, when afterward they have believed, remission of sins is granted, and no one is prohibited from baptism and grace, how much more ought an infant not to be prohibited, who, recently born, has sinned in nothing except¹² that, born carnally according to Adam, by his first nativity he contracted the contagion of ancient death?

Therefore access to penance and grace is obstructed to no one and lies open to all.

For, says Cyprian¹³, if day is born equally for all, and if the sun is poured forth upon all with an equal and like light, how much more does Christ, the true sun and day, bestow in his Church the light of eternal life with like equality? The sacrament of this equality we see celebrated in Exodus¹⁴, when manna flowed down from heaven and, by a prefiguration of future things, exhibited the nourishment of heavenly bread and the food of Christ who was to come¹⁵. For there, without distinction either of sex or of age, a gomor was gathered equally by each. Whence it appeared that the indulgence of Christ and heavenly grace, which was afterward to follow, are divided equally among all, without difference of sex, without distinction of years, without acceptance of person; that the gift of spiritual grace is poured forth over the whole people of God.