102: Mourning for Sins

Verily I say unto you, that every animal after its own nature, if it lose that which it desireth, mourneth for the lost good. Accordingly, the sinner who will be truly penitent must have great desire to punish in himself that which he hath wrought in opposition to his Creator: in such wise that when he prayeth he dare not to crave of God paradise, or that he free him from hell, but in confusion of mind, prostrate before God, he saith in his prayer: "Behold the guilty one, O Lord, who hath offended thee without any cause at the very time when he ought to have been serving thee. Wherefore here he seeketh that what he hath done may be punished by thy hand, and not by the hand of Satan, thine enemy; in order that the ungodly may not rejoice over thy creatures. Chastise, punish as it pleaseth thee, O Lord, for thou wilt never give me so much torment as this wicked one deserveth."

`Whereupon the sinner, holding to this manner [of penitence], will find the more mercy with God in proportion as he craveth justice.

`Assuredly, an abominable sacrilege is laughter of the sinner: insomuch that this world is rightly called by our father David a vale of tears.

`There was a king who adopted as son one of his slaves, whom he made lord of all that he possessed. Now it chanced that by the deceit of a wicked man the wretched one fell under the displeasure of the king, so that he suffered great miseries, not only in his substance, but in being despised, and being deprived of all that he won each day by working. Think ye that such a man would laugh for any time?'

`No, assuredly,' answered the disciples, `for if the king should have known it he would have caused him to be slain, seeing him laugh at the king's displeasure. But it is probable that he would weep day and night.'

Then Jesus wept saying: `Woe to the world, for it is sure of eternal torment. Oh wretched mankind, for that God hath chosen thee as a son, granting thee paradise, whereupon thou, O wretched one, by the operation of Satan didst fall under the displeasure of God, and wast cast out of paradise and condemned to the unclean world, where thou receivest all things with toil, and every good work is taken from thee by continual sinning. And the world simply laugheth, and, what is worse, he that is the greatest sinner laugheth more than the rest. It will be, therefore, as ye have said: that God will give the sentence of eternal death upon the sinner who laugheth at his sins and weepeth not therefor.'