Repentance and Reluctance

Quid si praeter pudorem, quem potiorem putant, etiam incommoda corporis reformident, quod inlotos, quod sordulentos, quod extra laetitiam oportet deversari in asperitudine sacci et horrore cineris et oris de ieiunio vanitate? Num ergo in coccino et Tyrio pro delictis supplicare nos condecet? 'Cedo acum crinibus distinguendis et pulverem dentibus elimandis et bisulcum aliquid ferri vel aeris unguibus repastinandis! Si quid ficti nitoris, si quid coacti ruboris in labia aut genas urgeat?' Praeterea exquirito balneas laetiores hortulani maritimive secessus, adicito ad sumptum, conquirito altilium enormem saginam, defaecato senectutem quamque vini: si quis interrogarit, cur animae largiaris: 'Deliqui', dicito, 'in dominum et periclitor in aeternum perire: itaque nunc pendeo et maceror et excrucior, ut Deum reconciliem mihi, quem delinquendo laesi'! Sed enim illos qui ambitus obeunt capessendi magistratus neque pudet neque piget iucommodis animae et corporis, nec incommodis tantum verum etiam contumeliis omnibus eniti in causa votorum suorum. Quas non ignobilitates vestium adfectant, quae non atria nocturnis et crudis salutationibus occupant, ad omnem occursum maioris cuiusque personae decrescentes, nullis conviviis celebres, nullis commes sationibus congreges, sed exules a libertatis et laetitiae felicitate, itaque totum propter unius anni volaticum gau- dium! nos, quod securium virgarumve petitio sustinet, in periculo aeternitatis tolerare dubitamus et castigationem victus atque cultus offenso domino praestare cessabimus quae gentes nemine omnino laeso sibi inrogant? Hi sunt,de quibus scriptura commemorat: Vae illis, qui delicta sua velut procero fune nectunt!  Tertullianus, De Paenitentiae

What if, besides the shame of which they take most thought, they also fear the bodily discomforts, that, unwashed, that estranged from joy, they should spend time in rough sackcloth and the horror of ashes, and by fasting have empty mouths? Does it then befit us to supplicate for our sins in scarlet and Tyrian purple? Why, walk with your hair carefully arranged, and teeth polished, and some forked contraptions of iron and bronze for cleaning your nails. If it enchances brightness, if it encourages a healthy red glow, should it not be applied to lips or cheeks? Furthermore let a man seek out pleasant baths in some secluded garden or seaside place,  let it consume his coin, let him hunt for the rarest delicacy of fatted fowls, let him fall asleep over vintage wine, and if someone asks, 'Why are you treating yourself so?' let him say, 'I have sinned against the Lord and am in peril of eternally perishing, and so now I am drooping and wasting away and torturing myself that I may reconcile God to myself whom by sinning I have offended.' But even they who go about canvassing for civil office feel neither ashamed nor revolted by the discomforts of body and soul it causes, and not such discomforts only, but they suffer verbal abuse of all kinds that they may gain votes. What lowness of dress do they not affect? What houses do they not visit morning and night? They bow whenever they meet any high person, they forgo all feasts, nor shall they attend entertainments, but voluntarily they exile themselves from happiness of freedom and festivity, and all for the the fleeting joy of a single year! Do we hesitate to endure what the competitor for the rods of office sustains, when eternity is at stake, and shall we be tardy in offering to the offended Lord a self-chastisement in food and raiment which pagans impose upon themselves when they have offended no one? Such are they of whom Scripture makes mention: 'Woe to them who fashion their own sins into a long rope.'1 Tertullian, On Repentance 1 Isa 5.18