Sorrow, Repentance, and Correction

We spoke at length then about marriage. We showed that to put away one’s wife, or to marry a woman who has been put away while her former husband is still alive, is a completed form of adultery. We read Christ’s law: “Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced commits adultery,” and, “Whoever puts away his wife, except for a matter of sexual immorality, causes her to be adulterated.” I saw many of you bow your heads, strike your faces, and become unable even to look up. Then I looked toward heaven and said, “Blessed be God, because we are not sounding our words into dead ears. What is said takes hold of the hearers’ minds with great force.”

It is better never to sin at all. But it is no small contribution toward salvation to feel deep pain, condemn the sin within one’s own soul, and scourge the conscience with exactness. Such self-condemnation is already a part of righteousness and leads a person toward no longer sinning.

This is why Paul rejoiced after causing sorrow to those who had sinned—not because he had made them sorrowful, but because sorrow corrected them. “I rejoiced,” he says, “not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful to repentance; for sorrow according to God produces repentance leading to salvation without regret.”

Whether you felt pain then for your own sins or for the sins of others, you are worthy of countless praises. When someone grieves over the sins of others, he displays apostolic compassion and imitates the holy man who said, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” When someone is pierced by sorrow for his own sins, he extinguishes the punishment due for what has already been done and, through that sorrow, makes himself safer against future sins.