¹ I beg you, dearest brothers, and with great humility, I admonish you: let none of you be angry with me or perhaps judge me to be inappropriate or excessive for so frequently striving to remind you of the terrifying and rightly fearsome Day of Judgment. If there is anyone who is displeased with me on this point, let him consider the danger I face and hear the Lord’s severe warning to the priest through the prophet: “If you do not warn the wicked of their wickedness, I will demand their blood from your hand”. And again: “Cry aloud, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their sins”.

² But perhaps someone may ask, “Why are such harsh things constantly preached to us?” It is because it is better to endure a little bitterness here and afterward reach eternal sweetness, than to have false joy here and later suffer endless punishment. Listen, brothers—not to me, but to the Lord speaking in the Gospel: “Blessed are those who mourn now, for they will be comforted”, and: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep”.

³ Consider this, brothers: whenever physicians of the body visit those who are ill, they cut off everything that seems pleasant to them and entirely forbid what is sweet. At times, they do not even allow the sick to drink cold water, and sometimes they force them to drink the most bitter potions or frequently cut into their wounds with the sharpest and most painful instruments. In the same way, what physical doctors do for the health of the body, spiritual doctors strive to do for the salvation of souls.

⁴ Therefore, dearest brothers, considering these things and knowing that I will have to give an account before the tribunal of the eternal Judge, both for my own salvation and for yours, I wish to administer to you remedies that, though harsh, are beneficial. In this way, I may one day merit to rejoice with you in the company of angels in everlasting security.

⁵ I do not say these things because I believe you are unwilling to receive my admonitions, but because it is necessary for me to preach frequently for both your salvation and my own. I strive to stir up your hearts to both a fear of the coming judgment and a longing for the promised reward, so that the storehouses of your holy hearts may be happily prepared—by the Lord’s help—as they have always been, to receive the spiritual harvest.

⁶ Whenever I preach something severe to you, it is not because I suspect that you are guilty of such things, but rather because, by warning against even those sins you do not commit, I may help heal you of any faults by which you might have been overtaken. For it often happens that, by fearing greater dangers, people become more careful to avoid lesser ones. Just as a person takes a dose of theriac (an antidote) to prevent poison from overpowering the body, so too is harsh preaching administered as a means of preparing antidotes for the soul.

⁷ Dearest brothers, it is certain that if we continually reflect on the blessings of our God, which were bestowed upon us without any preceding merits of our own, sin will either not dominate us, or, if it happens to creep in, it will quickly be corrected through repentance.

⁸ For who could even conceive in their mind—let alone express in words—the magnitude of the blessings our God has shown us? He created us when we did not exist; He restored us when we were lost. He accepted death, redeemed us with His precious blood, descended into hell, and snatched us from the jaws of eternal death. He promised us the rewards of heaven.

⁹ Dearest brothers, as we consider these things with grateful and humble hearts, let us strive, as much as we are able and with His help, to offer Him a return for His benefits. Let us not repay evil for good, but rather, as far as we can, let us faithfully strive with all our strength to obey His will. In this way, His commandments will bring us healing through obedience rather than condemnation through disobedience.

¹⁰ What will we do, dearest brothers, on that dreadful day of judgment, when the Lord, surrounded by the light of the heavenly hosts, will sit upon the throne of His majesty as the world trembles, and the trumpets of the angels sound? When, from the bosom of the earth and from ancient dust, the human race will be raised, and as witnesses stand by, He will summon each person’s conscience into His presence. Before the punishment of sinners and the reward of the righteous, He will begin to demand an account of each one’s life. Then, being more a just judge than a merciful one, with the severity of judgment, He will accuse the guilty who despised His mercy, saying:

¹¹ “I created you, O man, from the clay with My own hands. I breathed into you a living spirit by My divine power. I granted you My image and likeness. I placed you in the delights of paradise. Yet, scorning My life-giving command, you preferred to follow the deceiver rather than your Lord. But let us pass over these ancient things. Moved by mercy afterward, when you were cast out of paradise and, by the just consequence of your sin, were bound by the chains of death, I entered a virgin’s womb to be born, without diminishing her virginity. I was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I bore the indignities of infancy and the sufferings of human life, so that I might become like you, in order to make you like Me.

¹² I endured the slaps and spittle of mockers. I drank vinegar mixed with gall. I was scourged with whips, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, and pierced with a spear, so that you might be delivered from death. Amid these torments, I surrendered My spirit. Behold the marks of the nails by which I was fastened; behold My side, pierced by the lance. I took upon Myself your sufferings so that I might give you My glory. I accepted your death so that you might live forever. I lay in the tomb so that you might reign in heaven.

¹³ Why, then, have you lost what I endured for you? Why, ungrateful one, have you rejected the gifts of your redemption? I do not complain about My own death—return to Me your life, for which I gave My soul. Give Me back the life you have ceaselessly destroyed with the wounds of your sins. Why have you polluted with the filth of indulgence the dwelling place I consecrated in you? Why have you defiled My body—now your own—with the shame of lustful pleasures? Why have you nailed Me to a heavier cross of your sins than the one on which I once hung? For to Me, the cross of your sins, upon which I am unwillingly crucified, is far more grievous than the cross I willingly ascended to suffer your death out of compassion for you.

¹⁴ Though I was immortal, I became mortal for you. Though I was impassible, I condescended to suffer for you. Yet you despised God in man, salvation in weakness, the way in return, mercy in judgment, life in the cross, and healing in My suffering.”

¹⁵ Therefore, in order to escape that terrifying rebuke, whenever any sins, great or small, creep into our lives, let us hasten without any delay to the remedy of repentance. By doing so, we may be freed from such dreadful condemnation and be found worthy to attain eternal mercy through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.