Paul the Simple

Blessed Abba Paul the Simple, a disciple of Saint Anthony, told the Fathers this story. Once he went to a monastery to visit and benefit the brothers. After their customary conversation they entered the holy church of God to celebrate the usual synaxis. Blessed Paul watched each person as he entered the church, seeing the condition of the soul in which each went into the assembly, for God had given him the grace to see what each person’s soul was like just as we see one another’s faces. Everyone entered with bright eyes and a shining face, and each person’s angel accompanied him joyfully. But Paul said that he saw one man black and dark over his whole body, with demons on either side holding him and dragging him toward themselves, while they had put a halter through his nose; his holy angel followed far behind, sad and downcast. Paul burst into tears, struck his breast with his hand, and sat in front of the church weeping bitterly for the man who had appeared to him in this state. Those who saw his sudden change and his tears asked him to tell them why he was weeping, fearing that perhaps he had seen some fault in all of them. They also urged him to enter the synaxis with them. Paul refused and remained outside, lamenting greatly over the man he had seen. Not long afterward, when the synaxis was dismissed and everyone was coming out, Paul again watched each person to see in what condition they emerged. He saw the man whose whole body had previously been black and dark coming out of the church with a bright face and a white body. The demons followed far away, while the holy angel walked close beside him and rejoiced greatly over him. Then Paul leaped up for joy and cried out, blessing God: “O the unspeakable goodness of God and His love for mankind!” Then he ran, climbed onto a step, and said in a loud voice, “Come and see the works of God, how awesome they are and worthy of all wonder! Come and see Him who wills all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us say: You alone are able to take away sins.” Everyone ran together, wanting to hear what he would say. When they had gathered, Paul told them what he had seen before they entered the church and what he had seen afterward. Then he asked the man to explain what had happened so that God had granted him such a sudden change. The man, exposed by Paul, boldly told everything concerning himself before them all. “I am a sinful man,” he said. “For a long time up to this day I have lived in fornication. But now, when I entered the holy church of God, I heard the reading from the holy prophet Isaiah—or rather, the voice of God speaking through him: ‘Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evils from your hearts before My eyes. Learn to do good. Even if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow. And if you are willing and listen to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land.’ I, a fornicator, was pierced in my soul by the prophet’s word. I groaned within myself and said to God, ‘You are the God who came into the world to save sinners. What You have now promised through Your prophet, fulfill also in me, a sinner and unworthy man. From this moment I give You my word; I commit myself to You and confess from my heart that I will no longer do evil. I renounce every iniquity, and from now on I will serve You with a clean conscience. Today, Lord, and from this very hour, receive me as one who repents and falls before You, and who from now on will abstain from every sin.’ With these promises I came out of the church, having resolved in my heart never again to do anything evil before God.” When they heard this, they all cried out to God with one voice, “How great are Your works, Lord! In wisdom You made them all.” Therefore, as Christians, knowing from the divine Scriptures and holy revelations how great is God’s goodness toward those who sincerely flee to Him and correct their former sins through repentance, and knowing that He restores the good things He has promised and does not demand punishment for earlier sins, let us not despair of our salvation. As He promised through the prophet Isaiah that He would wash those sunk in the filth of sin, make them white like wool and snow, and give them the good things of the heavenly Jerusalem, so again through the holy prophet Ezekiel He confirms to us with an oath that He does not desire their destruction: ‘As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live.’