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.