Thus, seeing ourselves now surrounded by so many blessings of God, we should no longer offend Him with our sins. Let us always repeat the words spoken by the wise Joseph: "How then shall I do this great evil and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9).

Why should we anger our sweetest Benefactor, who has given us such rich gifts? God created us out of nothing, and we despise Him as if He were nothing. Instead of God, we give preference to our body, which is no different from rottenness. God gave us His life, so that we too might give Him ours, crucifying our passions and not provoking His wounds with our sins, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: "They again crucify the Son of God in themselves, and mock Him" (Hebrews 6:6).

The Lord loved us as befits His Divine majesty, and we preferred to Him abominable pleasures, although they flee from us like a shadow. As Bl. Augustine: "God delivered you from many troubles. When you have gone astray, He has guided you on the right path. When you were perplexed, He taught you. When you grieved, He comforted you. When you were weak, He strengthened you. When you fell, He lifted you up. When you stood, He established you. As you went, He guided you. When you came to Him, He received you. When you slept, He guarded you. When you cried out to Him, He bowed down to listen to you." For all this, we rewarded Him with unheard-of ingratitude.

Let us repent of our impudence and ingratitude, with which we have despised the goodness of God, and from now on with trembling we will fulfill His commandments. We confess that we are worthy that the earth should swallow us up alive, that the sea should cover us with its waves, that the sun should burn us with its rays, and that at last hell should devour us and eternal torment should engulf us with burning flames.

However, as long as we live, our whole life can become a time of repentance and turning to the merciful Lord, Who is always ready to forgive us who forget our sins and grant us endless bliss in His Paradise.

What God Did for Our Salvation

Let us ponder, beloved, how much God has done to save us. First He prepared His kingdom for those who would obey His will. God did not leave happiness and blessedness only for Himself, His Son and the Holy Spirit, but prepared it for us as well, desiring to make us His children by grace and partakers of the Holy Spirit. For our salvation, I fight against the demons of the heavenly hosts, the Archangels, the Angels, whose service is that! protect people and help them escape. The Holy Scriptures also speak of this: Angels are ministering spirits, sent to serve for those who have to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14)

For our salvation, God "from non-beings" created the sensible world and made us kings in it over all His creatures, commanding them to serve us, and for us to fulfill His commandments, in order to receive pleasure in Him in the next life. In short, in order for us to be saved, God did not predestinate us to wrath, but to receive salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:9). For our salvation, the Lord yes. Law and commandments, and sent prophets who had no other purpose than to teach us the way of salvation. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the whole Trinity works for our salvation.

And as great as the work of creating the world was, so great was the work of our salvation. For both our introduction into the world and our salvation are the result of the action of God's omnipotence. And faith has as its goal nothing else than the salvation of our souls, as the Apostle Peter writes: "Attaining at last through your faith the salvation of souls" (1 Pet. 1:9).

What blind people we are, my brethren, if we do not see how much God has done for the salvation of our precious soul. And so, having now learned of the greatness of salvation, let us live the few remaining days of our lives, always bearing in mind the words of the Apostle Paul: "Behold, now is the time of acceptance, behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). After all this, is it possible never to think about what the Lord has done for our salvation? Let us gather together, awaken all our dormant good aspirations, and use the rest of our lives for the salvation of our souls. Let us say what the lawyer asked Christ: What must I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 10:25). This work is the most necessary of all the works of the world: what must I do to be saved? Everything else is harmful, useless and vain. We have already exposed our salvation to dangers many times, and let us be afraid to do so in the future. Let us thank God that in His great goodness He tolerates our negligence for His salvation. Let us pray to Him that He will help us to complete the work we have begun.

Let us ponder, my brethren, what labors, sufferings, and death Christ endured in order to save us. And in doing so, He showed us that our salvation is most precious to Him. Instead of punishing us for our sins, for our insolence, for always resisting His goodness, He suffered for us – blasphemers and apostates. And He did not regret to give us His Divinity for our salvation. In Himself He united it with human nature and accepted such sufferings that His entire Body – from head to foot – was a continuous wound, and He experienced such torments as no man has ever experienced, just as the Prophet Isaiah says: "A man of sorrows, and knowest sorrows" (Isaiah 53:3).