Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 5

While punishment is reserved for the day of judgment and the long-suffering of the Lord invites correction, impunity nourishes disdain in a servant. God, “who shall render to each one according to his deeds,” certainly does not impose on people the necessity to sin by virtue of predestination. One can read that he will ask a person to account for what he has done. “I have sinned,” the prophet says, “and what has happened to me?” As if to say, God certainly must not know the sins if he does not punish and chastise immediately; and again, “He thinks: ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.’ ” When he says, “God has forgotten,” he is making a judgment that the patience of the forgiver is actually negligence. He considers it an omission when, in reality, it is what this magnanimous administrator of justice has reserved for later.

On Grace 1:17

The mind fluctuates between presumption and desperation. You must have fear, otherwise presumption will kill you; you must have fear, that is, rather than counting on the mercy of God, lest you fall into judgment. You also need to have fear so that desperation does not kill you when you begin to think that the horrible sins that you have committed cannot be forgiven you. In that case, you end up not repenting and incur instead the sentence of Wisdom, which says, “I also will laugh at your destruction.” How then does the Lord treat those who are in danger from both these maladies? To those who are in danger from presumption, he says, “Do not be slow in turning to the Lord. Do not put it off from day to day, for suddenly his anger will come and in the time of vengeance will utterly destroy you.” To those who are in danger from despair, what does he say? “In whatever day the wicked person shall be converted, I will forget all his iniquities.” Accordingly, for the sake of those who are in danger because of despair, he has offered us a refuge of pardon. And for those who are in danger because of presumption and are deluded by delays, he has made the day of death uncertain. You do not know when your last day may come. You are an ingrate. Why not use the day today that God has given you to repent?

Tractates on the Gospel of John 33:8

“Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will render to everyone according to his works.” The fear of God must therefore take hold in your heart. If you do not want to sin, you should reflect on the fact that God is always present with you. This is the case not only in public but also in your own home, and not only in your home but in your own room, even at night in your very own bed, in your heart. If, then, you abolish the safe haven of penance and repentance, sins would increase out of desperation. As you see, those who think that the safe haven of repentance presented by the Christian faith is an occasion for sin have nothing more to say.And what happens next? Shouldn’t God have made provision for preventing sin from increasing since people would count on there being this hope of forgiveness? In other words, just as he has provided that sin would not be added to because of desperation, he should also make sure that sin also would not be added to because of hope. In reality, the person who despairs adds to his sins just as much as the one who counts on forgiveness. You might even say to yourself, “In the meantime, I will do what I want. Then, when I repent, God is good and will forgive me.” You certainly can say to yourself, “When I convert, he will forgive me”—if you know you will be alive tomorrow. Don’t the Scriptures warn you, though, saying, “Do not delay turning back to the Lord or put it off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you.” You see, divine Providence has kept watch over us, allowing us to avoid one or the other danger: in order to make sure we do not increase our sin out of despair, there is the safe haven of repentance; in order to make sure we do not increase them out of excessive hope of forgiveness, the day of our demise has been made unknown.

Sermons 352:9

Therefore the Savior warns each one of us ahead of time, saying, “Make friends quickly with your adversary, while you are going with him to court, lest your adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.” People turn the Word of God into their adversary when they do the very things that the word of God prohibits. In the Psalms they are told, “You hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.” If someone will not consent to this divine Word until he is on his way, that is, if he does not consent soon in this life, then once he is thrown into prison, into the eternal fire, there will be no more peace. In fact, the best adversary is the one who is hostile toward us in keeping us away from the hostility of sin that is the bearer of death. We learn from another passage of Scripture that we should repent soon because the more we delay our repentance, the more chance death has to lead us to damnation instead of salvation. And so Scripture says, “Do not delay turning back to the Lord or put it off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you.” The Word of God reveals that when the time of vengeance arrives, our repentance will certainly not deliver us from the pain of punishment; rather, God’s vengeful wrath will give us the sentence we deserve. This, in fact, will not be a time of forgiveness or of indulgence but of vengeance. It is deferred due to the long-suffering of God as he waits for the full number of saints to be completed. The blessed John recalls in the Apocalypse that the saints have in fact asked for this vengeance when they cry out, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And in order to teach that the time of vengeance is deferred, by divine disposition, because of those who still must join this gathering, John continues, “Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete.”

On the Forgiveness of Sins 2:5.1-3

“When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ ” The episode has the aspects of a scene between friends and expresses something delicate. However, some elements seem rather senseless and childish. They should not, in fact, have followed such a great teacher only to talk about frivolous things instead of asking to learn something. What need was there to ask when he had arrived? Or what advantage would have resulted from knowing? We must then seek wisdom from the wise and let a prudent silence be preferred over inept speeches. For the apostle exhorts us to flavor our speech with salt, and another of the wise invites us with similar words: “If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if you do not, put your hand on your mouth.” And we also learn from another place how evil it is to be condemned for any recklessness of language: “If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain.”

Commentary on the Gospel of John 3:4.25