Mercy for Those Who Fell

1 While I was thinking and anxiously turning over in my mind what I should do about those unfortunate brothers who, wounded against their will by the attack of a raging devil, have continued to endure their punishment for a long time, another enemy appeared before me, an opponent of the Father’s own love. This was the heretic Novatian, who not only, as the Gospel describes, passed by the wounded man lying on the ground, like the priest or the Levite, but would instead use a cunning and unusual cruelty to kill the wounded man by taking away the hope of salvation, by denying his Father’s mercy, by rejecting the repentance of his brother. How astonishing that so many things are bitter, harsh, and perverse! But it is easier to see the speck in another’s eye than the beam in one’s own. But, dear brothers, let us not be shaken or disturbed by the sudden madness of that treacherous heretic, who, although deeply guilty of division and schism and separated from the Church, has the sacrilegious audacity to hurl his accusations back at us. For although he has made himself unclean, defiled with the filth of sacrilege, he claims that we are unclean.

Although it is written that the dogs should remain outside, and the apostle has taught that these same dogs must be avoided, as we read when he says, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,” Novatian keeps working himself into a frenzy with his barking, like wolves seeking the gloomy darkness, where in his dark caves he can easily tear apart with brutal cruelty the sheep snatched from the Shepherd. He certainly declares that he and the friends he gathers are gold. We do not doubt that those who have deserted the Church and abandoned their faith could easily be turned into gold, but it must be the gold that represented the first sins of the people of Israel. But the gold and silver vessels taken from the Egyptians remain in the Lord’s possession, that is, in Christ’s Church. If you had remained in that house, Novatian, perhaps you too would have been a precious vessel. But you neither recognize nor lament that you have become chaff and straw.

The Claims of the Schismatics

2 Why, then, should empty things make you proud? You will suffer loss rather than gain. Why do you think yourself rich precisely because you have become poorer? Listen to the Lord’s voice in Revelation as He justly rebukes you: “You say,” says He, “‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, blind, poor, and naked.” Whoever leaves the Church of Christ should be certain that these riches of poverty are his when, with his darkened understanding, he does not hesitate to follow those reckless leaders of schism and instigators of division, whom John calls antichrists, whom the Evangelist likens to chaff, whom the Lord Christ characterizes as thieves and robbers, as He Himself declares in the Gospel, saying that “anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but gets in another way is a thief and a robber.” Moreover, in the same Gospel He says, “All who have come are thieves and robbers.” Who are these but those who desert the faith, violate God’s Church, and resist God’s order? The Holy Spirit rightly rebukes them through the prophet, saying, “You have made plans without me and formed an alliance without my Spirit, to add sin to sin.” How can those utterly perverse friends of Novatian, that deeply unfortunate few, answer these things, when they have plunged into such madness that they respect neither God nor human beings? Among them, the office of bishop is sought shamelessly, without any rule of ordination. But among us it is renounced in its own sees and in the seats of authority entrusted to it by God. Of them the Truth says, “They reject me so that they may sacrifice to me. They do not offer the holy offerings of the people of Israel or approach to offer the most holy things, but they will bear the shame of the error they have committed.”

The Ark and the Church

These few words are enough to show what they are. Listen, then, Novatianists, among whom the heavenly Scriptures are read rather than understood, if indeed they have not been tampered with. For your ears are closed and your hearts are darkened, because you let in no light from spiritual warnings that bring salvation. As Isaiah says, “The servants of God are blinded.” They are rightly blinded, because schismatics do not desire the law. That law points us to the one and only Church in the ark built under Noah before the flood through God’s providence, in which, to answer you briefly, Novatian, we find that both clean and unclean animals were enclosed. That ark alone was saved, together with those inside it, while everything outside it perished in the flood. Two birds were released from that ark, a raven and a dove. This raven truly represented impure people, those who would remain in perpetual darkness along the world’s broad road, and the apostates who would arise, feeding on unclean things, and never returning to the Church. As we read, it was sent out and never returned. Anyone found to resemble this bird, that is, the impure spirit, will therefore be unable to return to the Church, because the Lord will forbid them even if they wish to return, as He commanded Moses, saying, “Cast everything leprous and impure outside the camp.” But the dove that was sent out and returned represents the person who does not delay, because he can find no rest for his feet. And Noah received it into the ark. When it was sent out again on the seventh day, Noah received it with an olive leaf in its mouth.

3 Dear brothers, I consider these things carefully and without relying on human wisdom, but only as the heavenly Lord graciously allows our minds to understand what is necessary and relevant. I say that this dove itself has a twofold symbolic meaning for us. From the beginning of God’s ordering of things, it suggests its first and chief meaning, the symbol of the Spirit. And through its mouth it signifies the sacrament of baptism, provided for the salvation of humanity and celebrated, according to the heavenly plan, only in the Church.

Sent out from the ark three times and flying through the air over the water, it already symbolized the sacraments of our Church. For this reason the Lord Christ commands Peter and the rest of His disciples, “Go and preach the Gospel to the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” That is, the same Trinity that acted symbolically through the dove in Noah’s days acts spiritually in the Church through the disciples.

The Dove and the Persecuted

4 Let us also consider the second meaning of the dove sent out from the ark during the flood, when all the depths burst open and heaven’s floodgates opened over the earth, because of the wickedness that people practiced daily before the Lord. As Moses said, “And the Lord God saw that human wickedness was overflowing on the earth, and that all their thoughts had turned to evil from the beginning of their lives. He said, ‘I will destroy the humanity I have made from the face of the earth, together with the cattle, the crawling creatures, and the birds of the air.’” So during the flood the dove is sent out from the ark, when the waters were violently rushing with all their force over the earth.

5 That ark represented the Church, as we have said above, battered on all sides by the raging waters. So the flood in Noah’s time foreshadowed the persecution recently unleashed over the whole world. The waters, bursting through the floodgates, converging from every side, and rising, represented the peoples who rose to devastate the Church. As Revelation teaches, “The waters you saw are peoples, nations, and kingdoms.” Moreover, the dove that could find no rest for its feet represented those who had denied their faith, who fell because they forgot God’s warnings, whether through simple ignorance or bold pretense.

The Lord foretold their coming destruction in the Gospel with these words, “I will compare anyone who hears my words but does not do them to a foolish man who built his house on sand. The storms came and beat against that house, and it fell, and its destruction was great.” And so that our comparison of the dove with those who denied their faith will not seem careless, the prophet rebukes the city as a dove, representing those who denied their faith, saying, “The dove does not listen to the voice.” That is, the glorious and redeemed city does not accept instruction and did not trust in the Lord.

6 As we said above, the dove’s inability to find rest for her feet represented the steps of those who deny their faith, those who, wounded by the shining serpent’s poison, turn toward their downfall by offering sacrifices.⁠a They could no longer step on the asp and the basilisk or trample the dragon and the lion. For the Lord gave His disciples this power, as He says in the Gospel: “Look, I give you power to trample all the enemy’s power, and serpents and scorpions, and they will not harm you.” So when so many malicious spirits attack and rouse themselves to destroy those who denied their faith, a way of salvation is provided for the wounded, so that, with whatever strength they have, they can drag their whole bodies and make their way to their camp, where they can be received and heal their wounds with spiritual medicines.

So, a few days after being received, the dove is sent out from the ark again. On returning, it shows not only its firm footing but also the signs of its peace and victory, in those olive leaves that it carried in its mouth. So its two departures show us two trials of persecution: the first, in which those who denied their faith fell defeated; the second, in which those who fell emerged victorious. For none of us doubts, dear brothers, that those wounded in the first struggle, the Decian persecution, later persevered so bravely in the second encounter that, disregarding the decrees of the world’s rulers, they kept their faith undefeated, because they did not fear, after the example of the good Shepherd, to give up their lives, shed their blood, and face every barbarity of the raging tyrant.

Judgment and Repentance

7 See how glorious and dear to the Lord are the people whom these schismatics do not hesitate to call wood, hay, and stubble. They presume that others like them, still bearing the same guilt for denying their faith, must not be allowed to repent. They base this judgment on the Lord’s saying, “Whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my Father in heaven.”⁠b How distressing! Why do they oppose the Lord’s commands, so that this offspring of Novatian, following his father the devil’s example, tries to carry out what Christ will do at the time of His judgment? For Scripture says, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay,” says the Lord.

8 We will answer them about the Lord’s saying, which they misunderstand and misinterpret. For when He says, “Whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father in heaven,” He certainly refers to the future, when the Lord will begin to judge people’s secrets, when we must all stand before Christ’s judgment seat, when many will begin to say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name done many wonderful works?” Yet they will hear the voice of the Lord saying, “Leave me, all of you who have practiced evil. I do not know you.” Then His saying will be fulfilled, “I will also deny them.”

But whom will the Lord Christ chiefly deny, if not all of you heretics, schismatics, and strangers to His name? For you who were once Christians are now Novatianists, no longer Christians, and have betrayed your original faith by changing the name you bear. I would like you to answer your own argument. Read and explain. Which of those who failed or denied Him did our Lord deny while He was still with them? He also says to the other disciples who remained with Him, “Will you also go away?” He had foretold that Peter would deny Him, yet after Peter did so, He did not deny him but supported him.⁠c He Himself comforted Peter when he later wept bitterly over his denial.

9 How foolish you are, Novatian, to read only what leads to the loss of salvation and pass over what leads to mercy, when Scripture cries out, “Repent, you who go astray. Change your hearts.” The same prophet also urges, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning, and tear your hearts and not your clothes. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and deeply compassionate.”

God’s Promises of Mercy

10 So we have heard that the Lord is deeply compassionate. Let us hear what the Holy Spirit declares through David: “If his children abandon my law and do not follow my commands, if they profane my righteousness and do not keep my instructions, I will punish their crimes with a rod and their sins with lashes. But I will not take my mercy away from them completely.” We read similar words spoken by the Lord through Ezekiel: “Son of man, the house of Israel has lived in its own land, and they have defiled it by their crimes. In my sight their uncleanness has become like that of a menstruating woman. I have poured out my anger on them, and I have scattered them among the nations. I have judged them according to their sins, because they have defiled my holy name. Because it was said of them, ‘This is the people of the Lord,’ I have spared them, because of my holy name, which the house of Israel despised among the nations.” Along with this he says, “So say to the people of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord, I do not spare you for your own sake, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have defiled among the nations. You will know that I am the Lord when I am shown to be holy through you.’” The Lord also says to the same prophet: “Son of man, say to the people of Israel, ‘Why have you said, “We are wasting away in our sins, so how can we be saved?”’”

“Tell them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the sinner’s death. I desire the sinner to turn from his evil way and live. So turn from your evil way. Why do you surrender yourselves to death, house of Israel?’” Similarly, through the prophet Isaiah: “I will not be angry with you forever, nor will I always refrain from defending you.” And because the prophet Jeremiah prays to the Lord on behalf of the sinful people, saying, “Correct us, Lord, but with justice and not in anger, so that You do not reduce our numbers.” Isaiah also added, “For his sin I have afflicted him a little. I have struck him and turned my face away from him, and he suffered and went sadly on his way.” And because he struggles, he added, “I have seen his ways, and I have healed him, and I have given him true encouragement, peace after peace,” so that restoration is possible for those who repent, pray, and struggle, because otherwise they would perish miserably and turn away from Christ.

11 This is also shown in the Gospel’s account of the woman who was a sinner, who came to the house of a certain Pharisee where the Lord had been invited with His disciples, and she brought a jar of ointment, and stood at the Lord’s feet, and washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed them repeatedly. This provoked the Pharisee, who said, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of a woman this is who touches him, for she is a sinner.” Then the Lord, who forgives sins and welcomes those who repent, immediately says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

He answered, “Master, speak.” And the Lord said, “A certain creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. When they had nothing to pay with, he forgave both.” And He asked, “Which of these loved him most?” And Simon answered, “Surely the one he forgave most.” He added, “Do you see that woman? I entered your house, and you did not give me a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not wash my feet, but she has washed them with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You did not anoint my feet with oil, but she has anointed them. So I tell you, Simon, that her sins are forgiven.” See how generously the Lord cancels the debt for both debtors. See Him who forgives sins. See the woman who was a sinner, repenting, weeping, praying, and receiving forgiveness for her sins!

12 Be ashamed if you can, Novatian. Stop deceiving the unwary with your impious arguments. Stop frightening them with a clever argument about one passage. We read and revere the Lord’s heavenly judgment, without passing over His statement that He will deny him who denies Him. But does this refer to those who repent? Why should I spend so long proving individual examples of mercy? For God’s mercy is not denied even to the Ninevites, although they are foreigners outside the Lord’s law, when they beg for it because their city’s destruction has been announced. Nor is it denied to Pharaoh himself, who resisted with sacrilegious boldness, when he was struck with plagues from heaven, and, turning to Moses and to his brother, said, “Pray to the Lord for me, for I have sinned.”

At once God’s anger against him was suspended. Yet you, Novatian, judge and declare that those who denied their faith have no hope of peace and mercy, and you do not listen to the apostle’s rebuke when he says, “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yes, he will stand. God is powerful enough to make him stand.” So the Holy Spirit appropriately and necessarily rebukes you on behalf of these same people who denied their faith when He says, “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because if I have fallen, I will rise again. And if I walk in darkness, the Lord is my light. I will bear the Lord’s anger, because I have sinned against Him, until He upholds my cause, carries out judgment and justice, and brings me into the light. I will see His righteousness. My enemy will see me and cover herself with shame.”

Warnings Against Pride

13 I ask you, have you not read, “Do not boast, speak proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord lifts the poor from the earth. He raises up the beggar from the dung heap, and seats him with the mighty among the people”? Have you not read that “the Lord resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble”? Have you not read, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled”? Have you not read that “God destroys the remembrance of the proud, and does not abandon the memory of the lowly”? Have you not read that “a person must be judged by the same judgment he gives”? Have you not read that “anyone who hates his brother is in darkness, walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes”? I cannot discover, then, how this Novatian has become so wicked and lost, so mad with the rage of division, since, while in the one household, the Church of Christ, he would always have mourned his neighbors’ sins as his own, would have carried his brothers’ burdens, as the apostle urges, and would have strengthened those wavering in faith with heavenly advice. But now, since he began to practice Cain’s heresy, which delights only in killing, he has lately refused even to spare himself.

But if he had read that “a righteous person’s righteousness will not deliver him on the day he goes astray, and a wicked person’s wickedness will not harm him from the day he turns back,” he, who always opposes those who repent, would long ago have repented in ashes. He works more readily to destroy what is built and standing than to rebuild what lies fallen. He has turned many of our deeply unfortunate brothers into pagans again, frightening them with his false objections, by saying that repentance by those who denied their faith is useless and cannot help them toward salvation, although Scripture cries out, “Remember where you have fallen from, and repent, or I will come to you unless you repent.” Indeed, in writing to the seven churches and rebuking each for its own crimes and sins, Scripture said, “Repent.” Surely this was addressed to those He had redeemed at the great price of His blood?

14 How impious and wicked you are, heretic Novatian! After knowing of so many great crimes committed deliberately in the Church, and before you yourself abandoned your place in God’s family, you certainly taught that these crimes could be erased from memory if good deeds followed, in keeping with the testimony of Scripture, “But if the wicked person turns from all the sins he has committed and does what is right, he will live eternally and will not die in his wickedness. For the sins which he has committed will be erased from memory by the good deeds that follow.” Consider again whether we should heal the wounds of those who denied their faith and fell, stripped bare by the devil, thrown down as they are by the force of the flood that the serpent sent from his mouth after the woman. “But what shall I say?” says the apostle.

“Do I praise you? In this I do not praise you, because your gatherings do more harm than good. For where there are rivalries and dissensions among you, are you not worldly and living in a merely human way?” We should not wonder why this Novatian now dares to treat those who denied their faith so wickedly and harshly, since we have earlier examples of this kind of betrayal. Saul, once a good man, is later overcome by envy,⁠d among other things, and tries to do everything cruel and hostile to David. Judas, chosen among the apostles and always united and faithful in God’s household, later betrayed God himself.

False Shepherds and the Lost Sheep

The Lord had indeed foretold that many would come as ravenous wolves in sheep’s skins. Who are these ravenous wolves but those who conspire treacherously to destroy Christ’s flock? As we read in Zechariah: “Look, I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who have turned away, and will eat the flesh of the chosen and tear their claws to pieces.” Similarly, in Ezekiel He rebukes shepherds of this kind, robbers and butchers, to express His meaning, saying, “Shepherds, why do you drink the milk and eat the curdled milk, and destroy what is strong, and fail to care for the weak, heal the lame, or bring back those who wander, and allow my people to wander among thorns and briars?”

“Because of these things, says the Lord, look, I will come against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from them. I will drive them away so that they cannot feed my sheep. My sheep will no longer be theirs to devour, and I will search for them as a shepherd searches for his flock on a day of darkness and cloud. Thus I will seek out my sheep, and I will seek them out in every place wherever they are scattered. I will search for what was lost and bring back what had wandered, and I will heal what was lame and watch over what is weak, and I will feed my sheep with justice.”

15 Who says these things? Surely He who left the ninety-nine sheep to look for the one that had wandered from His flock. As David says, “I have wandered like a lost sheep,” and Christ finds it and brings back that tender, sinful one on His shoulder. He joyfully calls His friends and household together and says, “Rejoice with me, for my sheep that was lost has been found.” “I tell you,” He says, “that there will be such joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” He continues: “Or what woman with ten denarii, if she loses one, does not light a lamp and clean her house all day, searching until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the denarius that I had lost.’ I tell you, there will be such joy before God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

But let those who do not repent of their wickedness learn from the Lord’s own answer what awaits them. For we read in the Gospel that some men came from the Galileans to the Lord and told Him about those whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices. The Lord answered them, “Do you think that those Galileans were greater sinners than other Galileans, because they suffered such things? No, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.” “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, do you think that they owed a greater debt to death than everyone else living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you,” He said, “unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”

An Appeal to Repentance

16 Let us, then, wake ourselves as fully as we can, dear brothers. Rousing ourselves from the sleep of laziness and complacency, let us take care to obey the Lord’s commands. Let us search with all our hearts for what we have lost, so that we can find it, because, Scripture says, “whoever seeks will receive, and the door will be opened to whoever knocks.” Let us clean our house spiritually, so that every secret and hidden place in our hearts, truly illuminated by the Gospel’s light, can say, “I have sinned against You alone and done this great evil in Your sight.” For the death of sinners is evil, and in hell there is no repentance. Let us think especially about the day of judgment and repayment, and what we must all believe and firmly hold, that God shows no partiality, since He commanded in Deuteronomy that judgment must show no favoritism: “You must not show partiality,” He says, “or judge according to whether someone is least or greatest.”

He also spoke similar words through Ezekiel: “All souls,” said He, “are mine, the father’s soul and the son’s soul alike. The soul that has sinned will die.” He, then, is the one we must revere. We must hold firmly to Him. We must seek His favor with a full and worthy confession, for He has the power to send soul and body into the fire of Gehenna, as it is written, “Look, He comes with many thousands of His messengers, to carry out judgment on all, and to destroy all the wicked, and to condemn all flesh, for all the deeds the wicked have wickedly done, and for all the impious words sinners have spoken about God.”⁠e

17 Daniel also says similar things: “I saw a throne set in place, and the Ancient of Days sat on it, and His clothing was like snow, and the hair of His head was like white wool. His throne was a flame of fire, its wheels were burning fire. A river of fire flowed out before Him. Thousands upon thousands served Him, and thousands upon thousands stood before Him. He sat in judgment, and the books were opened.” And John speaks still more plainly about both the day of judgment and the end of the world, saying, “And when,” he said, “He had opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars fell to the earth, just as a fig tree shaken by a powerful wind drops its unripe figs. And the sky withdrew like a book being rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved from their places. And the kings of the earth, and all the great men, the military commanders, the rich, and the strong, and every slave, and every free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the caverns of the mountains, saying to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the sight of the Father who sits on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb, because the day of destruction comes, and who will be able to stand?’”

Also in the same Revelation John says that this too was revealed to him. “I saw,” says he, “a great throne and one dressed in white sitting on it. Heaven and earth fled from His face, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the sight of the Lord’s throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. Everyone was judged according to what was written in the book, according to their own works.” The apostle also gives us good advice and urges us, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s anger comes on the children of disobedience. Do not share in what they do.”

18 Let us, then, with all the strength of our faith, give praise to God. Let us make our full confession, since the powers of heaven rejoice over our repentance, all the angels rejoice, and Christ also rejoices, who once again, with complete and merciful gentleness, urges us, burdened with sins and overwhelmed with crimes, to stop doing evil, saying, “Turn back from your impieties, and your sins will not bring you punishment. Throw away all the impieties you have committed against me, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. And why do you surrender yourselves to death, house of Israel? For I do not desire the death of the sinner.” “I am He, I am He who erases your crimes, and I will not remember them. But remember, and let us judge together. Tell your wicked deeds first, so that you may be justified.”

While the way of mercy is open, brothers, let us plead with God and fully make amends. Let us humble ourselves so that we may be exalted. Let us accept God’s appeal so that we may escape the day of the Lord and His anger. For He says: “My son, look at the nations of humanity and see who has hoped in the Lord and been put to shame, or has continued in His commands and been abandoned, or has called on Him and been despised by Him. For the Lord is loving and merciful, and in times of trouble He forgives the sins of all who truly seek Him.”⁠f Therefore He says, “First confess your sins so that you may be justified.” First have ready that prayer full of confession.