Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Thou Art the Man by Peter Rothermel, ca. 1878. Rothermel

Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not take into account,
And in whose mouth there is no deceit.
Because I kept silent, my bones grew old
From my groaning all the day long;
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
I became miserable when the thorn pierced me. (Pause)

I made known my sin,
And I did not hide my transgression;
I said, “I will confess my transgression to the Lord,”
And You forgave the ungodliness of my sin. (Pause)

For this cause, everyone who is holy will pray to Him in a well-fitted time;
Surely they will not draw near to Him in a flood of many waters.
You are my refuge from the oppression of those who surround me;
O my exceeding joy, redeem me from those who encircle me. (Pause) (Ps 32:1–7)

Just as earlier he explained why he had been wounded, so now as he comes to the second section he tells the source of his anxiety bestowed by the Lord. What crafty naïveté, a purity more careful than that of a thousand laggards! His sin is said to have been revealed to Him from whom nothing is hidden, to whom the plea cries louder than the tongue. Even if He does not hear it from the man, He knows all with greater certainty than the perpetrator. Making known means making a confession of sins; concealing is cloaking something wholly in silence or hiding something with the heart’s dissembling. This is what foolish people do who believe that God can remain ignorant of their actions. On the other hand, those who are aware that He knows all things clearly abase themselves to humble confession and prayers of repentance so as not to suffer a hostile Judge when they could have Him as merciful Advocate. Some have considered a fault to be a minor sin committed through some carelessness; injustice, however, is the perpetration of some monstrous and savage deed. Here the purity of the confessor is revealed; he did not bear to hide even what was thought to be a venial error.

Here is revealed the great devotion of the Godhead, for at the mere promise of dedication He suddenly absolved his sins, for He regards the piety of prayer as if it were the outcome of an action. The penitent said in his heart that he would not keep silent before the Lord about his past deeds; then, just as if he had revealed all, he was absolved of what he wished to confess, and rightly, since it is the will alone which absolves or punishes anyone. I will pronounce means “I will state publicly, that my devoted and faithful confession may draw others to imitate me.” From his self-accusation follows the saving remedy, for since the guilty man did not spare himself, the Judge spared him. His wickedness of heart was his former decision to be silent, for he believed that he lay hidden from Him who can know with utter certainty all things before they come into being.

Now that he has completed the exordium and the narration or satisfaction, he comes to the conclusion of his prayer for pardon, in which he commends his request for forgiveness in such a way as to claim that it is shared even by all holy men; and rightly so, for he who is not a stranger to sins ought to involve himself in prayers of entreaty. What a saving cure! To withstand all sinners’ diseases, different remedies are offered them when sick; but if this one antidote is taken with a pure heart, the poisons of all sins are overcome.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 31.5–6