Perverse hope is a conversion which is deferred.
But they must fear that they fall into another abyss, and by hoping perversely they die, who could not die by despairing. For they change thoughts indeed far different, but no less pernicious; and again they begin to say in their hearts: If on any day I shall have turned away from my wicked path, a merciful God, as He truly promised through the Prophet, will forget all my iniquities, why should I turn today, and not tomorrow? Why today, and not tomorrow? Let today pass as yesterday, be in the most wicked pleasure, be in the gulf of crimes, wallow in deadly delight: tomorrow I shall turn, and that will be the end. It is responded to you: The end of what? You say: Of my iniquities. Well, rejoice, because on the morrow there will be an end to your iniquities. What if before tomorrow your end comes? Therefore, indeed you rightly rejoice, because on account of your iniquities, God promised you forgiveness if you turn: but no one promised you tomorrow. Or if perhaps the mathematician has promised, it is far different than God. Many mathematicians have deceived, because often they promised profits to themselves and found losses. Therefore, also for these badly hoping ones, the master of the household proceeds. Just as he went out to those who had badly despaired and perished by despairing, and called them back to hope: so also he proceeds to those who wish to perish by hoping and delaying; and he says to them through another book: Do not delay to turn to the Lord. Just as he had said to those: On whatever day the wicked turns away from his wicked way, I will forget all his iniquities; and he took away their despair, by which they had already given their soul to perdition, in every way hopeless of forgiveness: so also he proceeds to these who wish to perish by hoping and delaying; and he speaks to them, and rebukes them: Do not delay to turn to the Lord, nor defer from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you. Therefore do not defer, do not close what is open against you. Behold the giver of forgiveness opens the door for you; why do you delay? You should rejoice if he ever opens to one knocking: you have not knocked, and he opens, and you remain outside? Therefore do not defer. Scripture says in a certain place regarding works of mercy: Do not say, Go and return, tomorrow I will give; when you can do good immediately: for you do not know what the next day will bring. You have heard the command not to defer so that you may be merciful to another, and by deferring you are cruel to yourself? You should not defer to give bread, and you defer to accept forgiveness! If by having mercy on another you do not defer, have mercy also on your own soul pleasing God. Offer alms also to your soul. We do not say that you give to it, but that you do not drive away the hand of the giver.
Friendship with the powerful, when it harms safety, must be condemned.
But sometimes men greatly harm themselves from there, when they fear to offend others. Good friends are very powerful for good, and bad friends for evil. Therefore, the Lord, so that we may scorn the friendships of the powerful for our salvation, did not wish to choose senators first, but fishermen. Great is the mercy of the artisan. For he knew that if he chose a senator, the senator would say: My dignity has been chosen. If he chose a rich man first, the rich man would say: My wealth has been chosen. If he chose an emperor first, the emperor would say: My power has been chosen. If he chose an orator first, the orator would say: My eloquence has been chosen. If he chose a philosopher, the philosopher would say: My wisdom has been chosen. Meanwhile, he says, let those proud ones be deferred, they swell greatly. There is a difference between greatness and swelling: both are large; but not both are healthy. Let those proud ones be deferred, he says, they must be healed by some solid means. Give me, he says, that fisherman first. Come you, poor man, follow me; you have nothing, you know nothing, follow me. Poor idiot, follow me. There is nothing in you to be afraid of, but there is much in you to be fulfilled. Such a large fountain must have an empty vessel brought to it. The fisherman abandoned his nets, the sinner received grace, and became a divine orator. Behold what the Lord did, of whom the Apostle says: God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong; and God chose the base things of the world, and things which are not, to bring to nothing things that are. Finally, now the words of fishermen are read, and the necks of orators are bowed. Therefore, let empty winds be removed from the midst; let the smoke, which vanishes as it grows, be removed from the midst; entirely, these things should be scorned for salvation's sake.
Christ the physician must be obeyed, despising the opposing powers.
If anyone were sick in body in the city, and there was a very skilled doctor there, an enemy to the friends of the sick person: if anyone therefore were sick in the city with some dangerous bodily disease, and there was in the same city a very skilled doctor, an enemy, as I said, to the powerful friends of the sick person, who would say to their friend, Do not call him, he knows nothing: they would say this not with a judging mind, but with envy: would not he, for his own health, disregard the stories of his powerful friends, and in order to live a few more days, despite any offense given to them, employ that doctor, whom reputation had commended as very skilled, to drive away the disease of his body?
The human race is ailing, not with diseases of the body, but with sins. A great sufferer lies in the entire world from the east to the west. The omnipotent physician descended to heal the great sufferer. He humbled himself even to mortal flesh, as if down to the bed of the sick. He gives precepts of health, he is scorned: those who listen are freed. He is scorned when powerful friends say, "He knows nothing." If he knew nothing, his power would not fill nations. If he knew nothing, he would not exist before he was with us. If he knew nothing, he would not send Prophets before himself. Are not the things that were foretold now being fulfilled? Does not this physician prove the power of his art by fulfilling promises? Are not harmful errors being overturned throughout the whole world, and the desires of the world being tamed by the threshing? Let no one say, "The world was better before than it is now: since this physician began to exercise his art, we see many dreadful things here." Do not be amazed. Before anyone was cured, the physician's station seemed clean of blood: but now, seeing this, shake off vain delights, come to the physician; it is a time for health, not for pleasure.
The frenzied, and the lethargic.
Let us be healed, therefore, brothers. If we recognize the physician, let us not rage against him like madmen, nor turn away from him like those with lethargy. For many have perished by raging, many by sleeping. The frenzied are those who go insane by not sleeping. The lethargic are those who are oppressed by excessive sleeping. Truly, men are like this. Against this physician, some want to rage; and since He now sits in heaven, they persecute His faithful members on earth. He heals even such as these. Many of them, turned from enemies into friends, from persecutors into preachers. He even healed those very Jews who raged against Him when He was here, like madmen, for whom hanging on the wood, He prayed. For He said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Many of them, however, with rage calmed, as if their madness was subdued, recognized God, recognized Christ. After the Ascension, with the Holy Spirit sent forth, they turned to Him whom they had crucified, and in believing in the Sacrament, they drank His blood, which they had shed by raging.
Exempla.
We have examples. Saul was persecuting the members of Him who was already seated in heaven: he was heavily persecuting in madness, with a lost mind, with excessive disease. But with one voice from heaven He cried to him: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He struck the frenzied one, raised him healthy; killed the persecutor, brought to life the preacher. Many lethargics also are healed. For they are similar to those who do not rage against Christ, and are not malicious against Christians; but only by delaying they languish with sleepy words, become lazy to extend their eyes to the light, and those who wish to wake them are troublesome. "Leave me," says the languid lethargic, "I beg you, leave me." Why? "I want to sleep." But you will die from that. He, in love with sleep, responds, "I want to die." And charity from above: "I do not want [you to die]." Often, even a son exhibits this sentiment of charity towards an elderly father who is close to dying, already at the end of his age. If he sees that his father is lethargic, and recognizes this lethargic disease in him from the doctor, who tells him: "Wake your father, do not let him sleep if you want him to live," the son is present to the elder, knocks, plucks, pricks, is troublesome out of pity: nor does he quickly allow him to die by the very old age that would soon take him; and if he lives, the son rejoices, so that he may live a few more days with him who is about to die and with whom he will succeed. With how much greater charity should we be troublesome to our friends, with whom we will not live a few days in this world, but with God forever? Let them love us, therefore, and do what they hear through us, and worship whom we worship, so that they may receive what we hope for. Turned to the Lord, etc.