by plainer deeds and words. Now that sheep which had got separated from the ninety and
nine,238 and then was brought back again, represents to us nothing else than the fall and
return of the faithful; for it was a sheep not of some alien flock, but belonging to the same
number as the rest, and was formerly pastured by the same shepherd, and it strayed on no
common straying, but wandered away to the mountains and in valleys, that is to say some
long journey, far distant from the right path. Did he then suffer it to stray? By no means,
but brought it back neither driving it, nor beating it, but taking it upon his shoulders. For
as the best physicians bring back those who are far gone in sickness with careful treatment
to a state of health, not only treating them according to the laws of the medical art, but
sometimes also giving them gratification: even so God conducts to virtue those who are
much depraved, not with great severity, but gently and gradually, and supporting them on
every side, so that the separation may not become greater, nor the error more prolonged.
And the same truth is implied in the parable of the prodigal son as well as in this. For he
also was no stranger, but a son, and a brother of the child who had been well pleasing to the
father, and he plunged into no ordinary vice, but went to the very extremity, so to say, of
evil, he the rich and free and well-bred son being reduced to a more miserable condition
than that of household slaves, strangers, and hirelings. Nevertheless he returned again to
his original condition, and had his former honour restored to him. But if he had despaired
of his life, and, dejected by what had befallen him, had remained in the foreign land, he
would not have obtained what he did obtain, but would have been consumed with hunger,
and so have undergone the most pitiable death: but since he repented, and did not despair,
he was restored, even after such great corruption, to the same splendour as before, and was
arrayed in the most beautiful robe, and enjoyed greater honours than his brother who had
not fallen. For “these many years,” saith he “do I serve thee, neither transgressed I thy
commandment at any time, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry
with my friends; but when this thy son is come who hath devoured thy living with harlots,
thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”239 So great is the power of repentance.
8. Having then such great examples, let us not continue in evil, nor despair of reconcili-
ation, but let us say also ourselves “I will go to my Father,” and let us draw nigh to God. For
He Himself never turns away from us, but it is we who put ourselves far off: for “I am a
God” we read “at hand and not a God afar off.”240 And again, when He was rebuking them
by the mouth of this prophet He said “Do not your sins separate between you and me?”241
238 Luke xv. 4, 5.
239 Luke xv. 29, 30.
240 Jer. xxiii. 23, where the passage is interrogatory, “Am I a God at hand and not?” etc., being a warning
addressed to those who hoped to elude the vigilance of God, so that it is not quite appropriate here.
241 Isa. lix. 2. Chrysostom by mistake attributes the quotation to Jeremiah.
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Letter I