The Worse State

Sed transeamus ad Lazarum, et quaeramus quid est quod dicit: Et Lazarus similiter recepit mala. Et id sufficiat ad meritum, abundet ad gloriam, si non fecit bona, sed recepit mala. Plane beatus est, fratres, qui se a Deo accipere bona, mala recipere fideliter credit. Beatus qui Deo semper reddit debita: certe si non potest, vel dimitti sibi debita tota humilitate deposcat, ipse Domino sic docente: Dicitie: Dimitte nobis debita nostra. Beatus qui Deo debita, et cum non intelliget se contraxisse persolvit, altius propheta instituente cum dicit: Quae non rapui tunc exsolvebam. Beatus qui se apud Deum semper ut excuset, accusat, Scriptura taliter admonente: Justus in primordio sermonis sui accusator existit. Et si justus, quare se justus accusat? quia non justificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis vivens. Homo coram homine de justitia, de innocentia, de merito forsitan glorietur; coram Deo qui se de innocentia jactat, de sua justitia gloriatur homo non est. Hinc est, quod ille Pharisaeus cum non orat, sed justitias suas computat, imputat, ructat, injustus et publicano deterior abscedit. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo CXXIII, De Divite Et Lazaro Source: Migne PL 52 537c-538b

But let us consider Lazarus and let us ponder why it is said, 'And likewise Lazarus received evil.' 1 And that it may be enough for reward and abound to glory if he did not do good, but received evil. Clearly he is blessed, brothers, who faithfully believes in receiving goods from God while he receives bad things. Blessed is he who always returns his debts to God, and certainly if he is not able to do so, let him ask in all humility that his debts be forgiven, as the Lord taught:'Forgive us our debts.' 2 Blessed is he who returns his debts to God, for even when he does not understand, he is released from that which binds him, of which the Prophet speaks of more sublimely: 'That which I could not grasp, I set free.' 3 Blessed is he who before God, that he be excused, accuses himself, as Scripture admonishes: 'The righteous man in the beginning of his speech is his own accuser.' 4 And if a man is righteous, why does he accuse himself? Because in God's sight nothing living is justified. 5 A man before men may perhaps glory in his righteousness and innocence and merit; he who boasts of his innocence and glories in his righteousness before God is no man. So it was that the Pharisee, who when not praying was calculating his righteousness and measuring it and belching it forth, was in a worse state than the publican. 6 Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 123, On The Rich Man and Lazarus 1 Lk 16.25 2 Mt 6.12 3 Ps 68.5 4 Prov 18.17 LXX 5 Ps 142.2 6 Lk 18.10-14