Mercy And Sin

Septem ego in me video misericordias Domini, quas et vos ipsi, credo, facile invenietis in vobis. Prima est, quod a multis peccatis adhuc in saeculo positum custodivit me; prima quidem, inquam, non inter omnes quas mihi impendit, sed prima inter has septem. Quis enim non videat quod sicut in multa cecidi, sic et in alia cecidissem peccata, nisi Omnipotentis pietas me conservasset? Fateor et fatebor, nisi quia Dominus adjuvit me, paulo minus cecidisset in omne peccatum anima mea. Et haec quanta dignatio pietatis, quod ingratum et parvipendentem sic gratia conservabat, quod in multis contrarium et contemnentem nihilominus ab aliis benignissime protegebat? At secunda miseratio tua super me, Domine, quonam poterit explicari sermone, quam benigna, quam liberalis, quamque gratuita fuerit? Ego peccabam, et tu dissimulabas; non continebam a sceleribus, et tu a verberibus abstinebas. Prolongabam ego multo tempore iniquitatem meam; et tu, Domine, pietatem tuam. Sed quid prodesset exspectatio, nisi sequeretur poenitudo? Cumulus esset damnationis, dicente Domino: Haec fecisti, et tacui. Tertia proinde miseratio fuit, quod visitavit cor meum et immutavit, ut amara fierent quae male dulcia prius erant: et qui laetabar cum male facerem, et exsultabam in rebus pessimis, inciperem demum recogitare ei annos meos in amaritudine animae meae. Et nunc, Domine, commovisti terram cordis mei, et conturbasti eam; sana contritiones ejus, quia commota est. Multi enim poenitentia ducti sunt, sed infructuosa; quoniam ipsa quoque eorum poenitentia reprobata est, sicut et prior culpa. Itaque et haec miseratio quarta fuit, quod poenitentem misericorditer suscepisti, ut in eorum numero invenirer, de quibus Psalmista: Beati, inquit, quorum remissae sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata Sequitur misericordia quinta, per quam mihi continendi deinceps, et emendatius vivendi praestitisti virtutem, ne recidivum paterer, et esset novissimus error pejor priore. Omnino enim manifeste tuae est, Domine Deus, et non humanae virtutis, susceptum semel peccati jugum a cervicibus suis excutere; quoniam omnis qui facit peccatum, servus est peccati, nec est jam liberari nisi in manu forti. Jam vero postquam in his quinque miserationibus a malo liberaveris, ut fiat quod scriptum est: Declina a malo, et fac bonum: in duabus aliis bona largiris. Hae autem duae sunt: gratia promerendi, qua videlicet manus bonae conversationis indulges; et spes obtinendi, qua donas homini indigno et peccatori de tua toties experta bonitate usque ad coelestia speranda praesumere. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, Dominica VI Post Pentecosten, Sermo II, De Septem Misericordiis Source: Migne PL 183.340c-341c

I see the seven mercies of the Lord in myself, which even you, I think, might easily find in yourself. The first is that He has protected me from many sins, though placed in the world. The first, I speak of, not the first of all those which rest on me, but the first among the seven. Who does not see that as in many things I have fallen, so into others things I may have fallen if the piety of the Almighty have not protected me? I confess and shall confess, that unless the Lord had helped me, it is certain that my soul would have fallen into every sin. And how great is the value of piety when grace preserves even the thankless and careless, because though in many things I was contrary and worthy of condemnation, nevertheless from yet others He protected me? And your second mercy over me, O Lord, is it possible to explain in a word, how kind, how generous, how charitable you were? I was sinning, and you ignored it, I did not restrain myself from wrongs, and you withheld your blows from me. I lingered for a long time in my wickedness, and you, O Lord, persisted in your piety. But how would have hope been of any good at all, if penitence did not follow? It would have culminated in damnation, with the Lord saying, 'You did this, and I was silent...' 1 Now His third mercy was that He visited my heart and changed it, so that things that were wickedly sweet to it before became bitter to it, and likewise with those things that delighted it when it did evil, even when it exulted in the vilest things. And at last I began to think on it, my years, in the bitterness of my soul. And then, O Lord, you moved the earth of my heart and you troubled it, healing its wounds in its distress. Much penance was performed but fruitlessly, because the penace was as defective as the earlier faults. Thus there was even a fourth mercy, that you nevertheless mercifully received my penances, so that in a number of them I found what the Psalmist spoke of when he said: 'Blessed those whose sins are forgiven, and those whose sins are hidden.' 2 The fifth mercy followed, through which I finally become continent, and you emended my life with the addition of virtue, lest I fall again, and the last error be worse than the first. Certainly it is manifestly your power, Lord God, and no human power, that with the yoke of sin lifted from the neck, it is then cut off, because all who commit sin are the slaves of sin, 3 and there is no liberation but by a strong hand. Then, however, after we had been freed from evil by these five mercies, that it might be as was written: 'Decline from evil, and do good,' 4 two other goods you bestow, and these are the two, grace by merit which your hand grants to the one who lives well, and hope of gaining more, which you give to the unworthy man, and to the sinner, that because of all your acknowledged benevolence he presumes to hope for heaven. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Season, The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, from Sermon 2, On the Seven Mercies 1 Ps 99.21 2 Ps 31.1 3 Jn 8.34 4 Ps 33.15