Encouraging Penitence

In diebus, inquit, illis venit Ioannes Baptista praedicans in deserto Iudaeae, et dicens: Poenitentiam agite, appropinquavit enim regnum coelorum. Poenitentiam agite, quare non magis gaudete? gaudete magis, quia succedunt humanis divina, coelestia terrenis, temporalibus sempiterna, malis bona, secura anxiis, aerumnis beata, mansura perituris. Poenitentiam agite. Poeniteat plane, poeniteat qui divinis praetulit humana, qui servire voluit mundo, et dominationem mundi cum mundi Domino non habere. Poeniteat qui maluit perire cum diabolo, quam regnare cum Christo. Poeniteat qui virtutum libertatem fugiens, captivus voluit esse vitiorum. Poeniteat, et satis poeniteat, qui ne vitam teneret, manus tradidit morti. Appropinquavit enim regnum caelorum. Regnum coelorum est praemium iustorum, iudicium peccatorum, impiis poena. Beatus ergo Ioannes, qui poenitentia iudicium voluit praeveniri; peccatores non iudicium voluit habere, sed praemium; impios voluit regnum intrare, non poenam. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo CLXVII  Source: Migne PL 52.637

'In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the Judean desert and saying, 'Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 1 Repent, but why not rejoice? Rejoice because the divine succeeds the human, the celestial the mundane, eternity time, good evil, security anxiety, blessedness hardship, peace destruction. Repent. Repent openly. Let him repent who preferred the human to the Divine, let him repent who wished to serve the world and not to have power with the lord of the world, let him repent who prefers to destroy with the devil rather than to reign with Christ, let him repent who fleeing the freedom of the virtues wished to be a captive of the vices, let him repent and repent who clinging on to life gave a hand to death. The kingdom of heaven is near. The kingdom of heaven is the reward of the just, the judgement of sinners, the punishment of the impious. Thus did the blessed John wish that penitence arrive before judgement; he did not wish to bring sinners to judgement but rather to reward; he would have the godless enter the kingdom rather than have them punished. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 167 1 Mt 3. 1-2