The Return of the Penitent

Vox in viis, sive in labiis, audita est, ploratus et ululatus filiorum Israel, quoniam iniquam fecerunt viam suam, obliti sunt Domini Dei sui. Convertimini, filii revertentes, et sanabo aversiones, sive contritiones, vestras, pro quo Symmachus transtulit, conversiones.  Libenter Deus suscipit poenitentes, et occurrit filio inopia et squalore confecto, statimque induit pristinis vestibus, et reddit gloriam revertenti, ita dumtaxat ut revertatur in ploratu et ululatu. Suo enim vitio fecit iniquam viam suam, et oblitus est Domini Dei et Patris sui, ad quos prophetali sermone loquitur: Convertimini, filii revertentes. Quos idcirco filios voco, quia intellectis peccatis vestris, in ploratu atque ululatu revertimini ad parentem. Cumque vos, ait, reversi fuertis ad Dominum, sanabit omnes contritiones vestras, sive aversiones, quibus a Domino recesseratis, vel certe conversiones, Quamvis enim propria voluntate ad Dominum revertamur: tamen nisi ille nos traxerit, et cupiditatem nostram suo roboraverit praesidio, salvi esse non poterimus. Intelligamus hoc et de Judaeorum populo ad Dominum revertente: et de haereticis qui Dominum dereliquerunt. Ecce nos venimus ad te, tu enim es Dominus Deus noster. Vere mendaces erant colles, et multitudo, sive fortitudo, montium, vere in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel.   Dicat hoc poenitens, et omnem superniam derelinquens, et multitudinem sive altitudinem montium et collium, per quam superiebat contra Deum: et humilitae prostratus loquatur: Vere in Domino Deo nostro salus Israel. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Lib I

A voice in the ways, or on the lips, is heard, the weeping and crying of Israel's sons because they have made their way iniquitous, they have forgotten the Lord their God. ' Come back, O returning sons, and I will heal your hostility, or grief'. and here Symmachus translates 'backsliding' God gladly receives penitents and He runs toward the son overwhelmed by poverty and filth, and immediately He clothes with former garments and restores to glory the one who returns, insofar that he returns weeping and crying. To the one who with vice has made his way iniquitous and has forgotten the Lord his God and his Father, it is to him that the prophetic word speaks: 'Come back, O returning sons,' And I call you sons because you have understood your sins and so with weeping and crying are returning to your parent. And when you, he says, have returned to the Lord, He will heal all your grief, or hostility, by which you departed from God; or else, he will heal your backsliding. For although we return to the Lord by our own will, unless He drew us we could not be saved, for He strengthened our desire with his own assistance. Let us understand this passage both with reference to the people of the Jews returning to the Lord and of the heretics who have forsaken the Lord. Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. Truly the hills are a delusion and the multitude, or strength, of the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Let the penitent say this, he who has forsaken all haughtiness, the multitude or heights of the mountains and hills by which he was exalting himself against God, and prostrate let him say with humility, ' Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.' Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 1