Section CLXIV

Therefore, when we are first born, we are received in the arms of mercy—

and are not abandoned by them before we have persisted as rebels even unto the end. Since Celestine knew this well, he wrote to the bishops of the provinces of Vienne and Narbonne in these words¹:

We have learned that penance is denied to the dying, and that the desires of those who, at the time of their death, desire their soul to be assisted by this remedy are not granted. I shudder, I confess, that anyone of such great impiety should be found as to despair of the piety of God, as though he could not at any time come to the aid of one hastening to him and liberate a man endangered beneath the burden of sins from the weight from which he desires to be freed. What else, I ask, is this than to add death to a dying man and by one’s own cruelty to kill his soul, lest it be able to be absolved? For God, most ready to come to aid, when inviting to penance, thus promises²: “The sinner,” he says, “on whatsoever day he shall have been converted, his sins shall not be imputed to him.” And again³: “I do not will the death of the sinner, but only that he be converted and live.” Therefore whoever⁴ has denied penance for the past at the time of death takes salvation away from a man. And he has despaired of the clemency of God who did not believe that God could suffice to assist the dying even in a moment. The thief⁵ hanging upon the cross at Christ’s right hand would have lost the reward if the penance of one hour had not assisted him. While he was in punishment, he repented, and through the profession of one declaration, with God promising, he merited the dwelling of paradise. Therefore the true conversion to God of those placed at the end is to be judged by the mind rather than by time, the prophet asserting this in such wise⁶: “When you have been converted and groan, then you shall be saved.” Since, therefore, the Lord is the inspector of the heart, penance is not to be denied at any time to one who asks, since he binds himself to that judge to whom he knows all hidden things are revealed.

Things most similar to these are read in Ivo⁷ and Gratian⁸, attributed to Julius;—

—and Leo has things most similar to these when writing⁹ to Theodore, bishop of Forum Julii:

But to those who, in a time of necessity and at the urgent moment of danger, implore the aid of penance and immediately of reconciliation, neither is satisfaction to be forbidden nor reconciliation denied, because we can neither place measures upon the mercy of God nor define times for it. With him true conversion suffers no delays of pardon, as the Spirit of God says¹⁰ through the prophet: “When you have been converted and groan, then you shall be saved.” And elsewhere¹¹: “Tell your iniquities first, that you may be justified.” And again¹²: “For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him plentiful redemption.” Therefore, in dispensing the gifts of God, we ought not to be difficult, nor to neglect the tears and groans of those accusing themselves, since we believe the very affection of repenting to have been conceived from the inspiration of God, as the Apostle says¹³: “Lest perhaps God give them penance, that they may recover themselves from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will.”

But since the piety of God is so great, and his long-suffering mercy reaches so far that, for as long as men live, it never wholly casts them away and abandons them, will there be those who doubt either the instituted order of salvation or its fecundity and efficacy? Especially since there is no man whom Leo does not judge should be addressed with these words¹⁴:

To you, once cast away; to you, driven from the seats of paradise; to you, dying through long exiles; to you, dissolved into dust and ashes, for whom there was now no hope of living—through the Incarnation of the Word power was given that you might return from afar to your author, recognize your parent, be made free from a servant, be advanced from a stranger into a son; so that you who were born of corruptible flesh might be reborn of the Spirit of God, and obtain through grace that which you did not have through nature; and, if you recognize yourself as a son of God through the spirit of adoption, dare to call God—

“—Father.”

For just as¹⁵ “Adam, neglecting the precepts of God, introduced the condemnation of sin, so Jesus, made under the law, restored the liberty of justice. Just as the former, obeying the devil even unto transgression, merited that in him all should die, so the latter, obeying the Father even unto the cross, brought it about that in him all should be made alive. Just as the former, covetous of angelic honor, lost the dignity of his nature, so the latter, assuming the condition of our infirmity, placed in the heavenly regions those for whom he descended to the infernal regions. Finally, just as to the former, fallen through pride, it was said¹⁶, ‘You are earth, and into earth you shall go,’ so to the latter, exalted through subjection, it was said¹⁷, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.’”

For when human nature was assumed by the Only-begotten¹⁸:

Iniquity returns to innocence, and oldness to newness; aliens come into adoption, and strangers enter into the inheritance. From impious they begin to be just, from covetous benign, from incontinent chaste, from earthly heavenly. But what is this change except that of the right hand of the Most High? Since¹⁹ the Son of God came to dissolve the works of the devil, and so inserted himself into us and us into himself that the descent of God to human things became the advancement of man to divine things.

For the Word²⁰ “was made flesh so that a passible nature might be taken from the womb of the Virgin, and that which could not be perpetrated against the Son of God might be admitted against the Son of Man. For although at his very birth the signs of divinity flashed forth in him and all the increments of bodily advancement were filled with divine miracles, nevertheless he had assumed the truth of our infirmities and, excepting fellowship in sin, had excluded from himself nothing of human weakness, so that he might both bring his things into us and cure our things in himself. For by the almighty physician a twofold remedy was prepared for us wretched ones—”

“—of which one is in a sacrament, the other in an example, so that through the one divine things may be conferred, through the other human things required. For just as God is the author of justification, so man is the debtor of devotion.”

Certainly²¹, “the first Adam and the second Adam were one in flesh, not in work; and in the former all die, in the latter all shall be made alive. The former through the desire of pride made a journey to misery; the latter through the fortitude of humility prepared the way to glory. Hence he himself says²²: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’ The way, namely, in the form of a just manner of life; the truth in the expectation²³ of a certain thing; life in the reception of eternal felicity.”

“Just as Jewish impiety, so diabolical pride did not know this mystery²⁴ of great piety. For if they had known²⁵, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty. But because the counsel of God’s mercy was hidden from the enemy of the human race, and God²⁶, reconciling the world to himself in Christ, was covered by the veil of flesh placed before him, he persisted in raging against him in whom he could find nothing of his own. For this could rather have profited his malignity: if he had spared him and abstained from pouring out his blood, through which the captivity of all was to be dissolved and liberty repaired. But²⁷ the darkness did not comprehend the light, nor could lying blindness behold the wisdom of truth. Meekness, therefore, maintained its appointed patience and, after the power of the angelic legions serving him had been restrained, he drank the chalice of sorrow and death and transferred the whole punishment into triumph. Errors were conquered, powers were subdued, the world received a new beginning, so that a condemned generation would not harm those for whose salvation regeneration came to their aid.”

Therefore the ineffable reparation of our salvation, which commends itself by universality, likewise excels in efficacy and fecundity. For by it captivity is dissolved, liberty repaired, original²⁸—

damage is repaired, and the rationale of human life is so administered²⁹ “that no place is left to us either for pride or for sloth, because we have nothing except what we have received, and we are continually admonished not to hold the gifts of God’s grace negligently. For he who precedes us with aid justly presses upon us with a precept; and he who leads us to glory benignly invites us to obedience.”