Sin And Healing

Cor mundum crea in me, Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis Hinc pauca quae Dominus dederit, in eius gratia ministrabimus vobis. Psalmus est paenitentis, amissam spem recuperare cupientis, lapsu suo iacentis, et Domini manu surgere deprecantis, tamquam qui fuerit idoneus ad se vulnerandum, et non sit ad sanandum. Sicut enim ipsam carnem nostram percutere et vulnerare cum volumus possumus, ut autem sanetur medicum quaerimus, nec ita nostra potestate sanamur ut nostra potestate sauciamur, ita et ad peccandum anima sibi ipsa sufficit, ad sanandum autem quod peccando laeserit Dei medicinalem dexteram implorat. Unde dicit in alio Psalmo: Ego dixi, Domine, miserere mei. Sana animam meam quoniam peccavi tibi. Ad hoc ait: Ego dixi, Domine, ut constitueret ante oculos voluntatem arbitriumque peccandi ex anima oriri sibique sufficere ut perdat se, Dei autem esse quaerere quod perierat et salvum facere quod se vulneraverat. Venit enim Filius hominis quaerere et salvum facere quod perierat. Huic precem fundentes dicimus: Cor mundum crea in me, Deus, et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis. Dicat anima quae peccavit, ne plus pereat desperando quae se perdidit delinquendo. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Sermo XX, De eo quod scriptum est in Psalmo L, Cor Mundum Crea In Me, Deus Source: Migne PL 38.144-5

Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew an upright spirit within me. 1 What few things the Lord shall give me, by His grace we shall serve you. This is a Psalm of penitence, of someone trying to recover lost hope, laying where he has fallen, entreating that the hand of the Lord might raise him up, like someone who was capable of injuring himself but not of healing himself. As we can strike and wound our own flesh when we wish but we seek a physician for healing since we who can harm ourselves are not able to heal ourselves, so the soul is capable of sinning but for healing when it has been wounded by sin it must implore the medicine of God. Hence it says in another Psalm, 'I said, O Lord, be merciful to me. Heal my soul because I have sinned against you.' 2 He says, 'I said, O Lord,' to set before our eyes that the will and the decision to sin arises from our own souls and we are able to ruin ourselves, but it is for God to seek what has been ruined and to heal what has wounded itself, for the Son of Man came to seek what was lost. 3 To Him we pour out the prayer, saying, 'Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew an upright spirit within me.' Let the soul which has sinned say this, lest it perish again in despair, having ruined itself by wickedness. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 20, On what is written in the Fiftieth Psalm, 'Create a clean heart in me, O God.' 1 Ps 50.12 2 Ps 41.4 3 Lk 19.10