Concerning Repentance — Source paragraphs and footnotes

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

42. The words are ordinary words, but the mystery is not ordinary. And so one must be on one’s guard, lest, deceived by any common interpretation of this saying, one should suppose that the movements of wanton dances and the madness of the stage were commended; for these are full of evil in youthful age. But the dancing is commended which David practised before the ark of God. For everything is seemly which is done for religion, so that we need be ashamed of no service which tends to the worship and honouring of Christ.

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 6 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

43. Dancing, then, which is an accompaniment of pleasures and luxury, is not spoken of, but spiritually such as that wherewith one raises the eager body, and suffers not the limbs to lie slothfully on the ground, nor to grow stiff in their accustomed tracks. Paul danced spiritually, when for us he stretched forward, and forgetting the things which were behind, and aiming at those which were before, he pressed on to the prize of Christ. And you, too, when you come to baptism, are warned to raise the hands, and to cause your feet wherewith you ascend to things eternal to be swifter. This dancing accompanies faith, and is the companion of grace.

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 7 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

44. This, then, is the mystery. “We piped to you,” singing in truth the song of the New Testament, “and ye danced not.” That is, did not raise your souls to the spiritual grace. “We wailed, and ye wept not.” That is, ye did not repent. And therefore was the Jewish people forsaken, because it did not repent, and rejected grace. Repentance came by John, grace by Christ. He, as the Lord, gives the one; the other is proclaimed, as it were, by the servant. The Church, then, keeps both that it may both attain to grace and not cast away repentance, for grace is the gift of One Who confers it; repentance is the remedy of the sinner.

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 8 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

45. Jeremiah knew that penitence was a great remedy, which he in his Lamentations took up for Jerusalem, and brings forward Jerusalem itself as repenting, when he says: “She wept sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks, nor is there one to comfort her of all who love her. The ways of Sion do mourn.” And he says further: “For these things I weep, my eyes have grown dim with weeping, because he who used to comfort me is gone far from me.” We notice that he thought this the bitterest addition to his woes, that he who used to comfort the mourner was gone far from him. How, then, can you take away the very comfort by refusing to repentance the hope of forgiveness?

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 9 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

46. But let those who repent learn how they ought to carry it out, with what zeal, with what affection, with what intention of mind, with what shaking of the inmost bowels, with what conversion of heart: “Behold,” he says, “O Lord, that I am in distress, my bowels are troubled by my weeping, my heart is turned within me.”

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 10 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

47. Here you recognize the intention of the soul, the faithfulness of the mind, the disposition of the body: “The elders of the daughters of Sion sat,” he says, “upon the ground, they put dust upon their heads, they girded themselves with haircloth, the princes hung their heads to the ground, the virgins of Jerusalem fainted with weeping, my eyes grew dim, my bowels were troubled, my glory was poured on the earth.”

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 11 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

48. So, too, did the people of Nineveh mourn, and escaped the destruction of their city. Such is the remedial power of repentance, that God seems because of it to change His intention. To escape is, then, in your own power; the Lord wills to be entreated, He wills that men should hope in Him, He wills that supplication should be made to Him. Thou art a man, and willest to be asked to forgive, and dost thou think that God will pardon thee without asking Him?

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 12 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

50. David wept, and obtained of the divine mercy the removal of the death of the people who were perishing, when of the three things proposed for his choice he selected that in which he might have the most experience of the divine mercy. Why do you blush to weep for your sins, when God commanded even the prophets to weep for the people?

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 14 · Original source

Date uncertain | Ambrose of Milan

51. And, lastly, Ezekiel was bidden to weep for Jerusalem, and he took the book,

Complete source paragraph · Concerning Repentance, Chapter VI., source paragraph 15 · Original source