[Jesus] was granting pardon; but while he was granting it he raised his face to her^[1] and said, Has no one stoned you? And she did not say, Why? What have I done, Lord? I am not guilty, am I? She did not say that; what she said was, No one, Lord.^[2] She accused herself. They had been unable to prove it against her and had withdrawn. But she confessed, because her Lord was aware of her guilt but was nonetheless seeking her faith and her confession. Has no one stoned you? No one, Lord. No one—that is confession of sins; and Lord—that is pardon of the punishment that she deserved. No one, Lord. I acknowledge both things. I know who you are, I know who I am. It is to you I am confessing. You see, I have heard the words, Confess^[3] to the Lord, for he is good. I know my confession, I know your mercy.

I implore, you, dearly beloved, always to call to mind and remember what we have mentioned for the salvation of your soul. Do not accept it only in passing; our sermon ought to fasten its roots in your heart, so that on judgment day it may happily bear the fruits of eternal life. If a person can retain all that we say, he should thank God and always teach others what he remembers. If he cannot remember the whole, let him remember a part of it. If one cannot retain the whole, then let each one remember three or four thoughts. If one then tells another what he heard, by informing each other you can not only remember it all but even with Christ’s help fulfill it in deed. One may say to another, I heard my bishop talking about chastity. Another may say, I remember that he preached on almsgiving. Still another says, There has remained in my mind what he said about cultivating our soul like we till our land. Another may report, I recall that my bishop said that a person who knows letters should be eager to read sacred Scripture, and one who does not should look for someone and ask him to read God’s precepts to him so that with God’s help he may fulfill what was read. Again, another may say, I heard my bishop say that just as merchants who are illiterate hire learned mercenaries so that they may acquire wealth, so Christians should seek, ask and, if necessary, pay for someone to read the sacred Scriptures to them; that just as a trader gets money by having someone else read, so Christians should obtain eternal life in this way. If you do this and admonish each other, you can both live devoutly in this world and afterwards attain to the bliss of eternal life. If you immediately forget all that you heard from the bishop as soon as you leave church, you have come to church without profit and return to your home empty and without fruit. Far be this from you, brothers; may there rather be fulfilled in you what is written: Blessed are they who keep judgment and do justice at all times. Moreover, The mercy of the Lord is from eternity and to eternity on them that fear him, and his justice to children’s children to such as keep his covenant and are mindful of his commandments, to do them.^[1] May the Lord in his goodness bring you to this mercy.

Three days after our father Theodore died, when all the brothers were in deep mourning, our father Horsiesi became ill from grief over the death of our father Theodore of happy memory. Then some of the elderly brothers, including Apa [Pgentaesi] and Apa Pachomius, strongly urged Apa Horsiesi to go and speak some words of comfort to the brothers. He consented, arose and went out weeping. He sat in the midst of the brothers, who were all gathered together weeping and grieving over our father Theodore. He began to speak to them sorrowfully and tearfully, saying, God has certainly taken from us in Apa Theodore a righteous father who encouraged us with the word of the Lord. And this great grief of ours is all the greater because it is we who have grieved him so much that he asked the Lord to take him from us quickly and we have been orphaned. Indeed, you all know his great love for us and how he always interceded with God on our behalf to save us from the hands of the devil who is envious of us. Now then, my beloved brothers, let us always remember his labors, his ascetic practices and the tears that he shed in the Lord’s presence day and night on our behalf, that this word of Scripture may not apply to us: They quickly forgot his deeds and did not keep his counsels, and that we may not come under judgment. For this I truly believe: that if we walk in accordance with the directions he gave us, he will be an ambassador for us in the presence of God and of our father Pachomius. It is, in fact, just as our Lord Jesus told his holy disciples and his holy apostles: I am going before you to prepare a place for you. He also said, We have one who intercedes for us in the presence of the Father, Jesus Christ our Lord, who loved us and gave himself as a ransom for our sins.^[1] It was not on account of ours alone but on account of those of the whole world that he suffered for us. Indeed, during all the days he was with us in the body, our righteous father Pachomius prayed to the Lord day and night for the salvation of our souls and those of the whole world.

What shall I say of Adam who, at the beginning of the human race, gave the first example of disobedience and contempt? To him was given power over all the beasts of the earth, just as everything is to be given twofold to the firstborn. But after he held God’s order^[1] in contempt he did not only lose his power but was cast out of the place he had received for his dwelling—just as the fornicator is cast out of the church and will be deprived of his glory. Everything he endured, those who hold God’s commands in contempt will suffer, and walking with pride they will experience the word of Scripture, He spoke, and the earth swallowed them.^[2]

Tell me this.^[1] Will you still dare to call Jesus an imposter and lawbreaker? Will you not instead go off and bury yourselves somewhere, when you look the facts in the face, since their truth is so obvious? If Jesus were an imposter and lawbreaker, as you say he was, you should have been held in high honor for putting him to death. Phinehas killed a man and put an end to all God’s wrath against the people.^[2] The psalmist said, Then Phinehas stood up and propitiated him, and the slaughter stopped. He rescued a great many ungodly people from the wrath of God by slaying a single lawbreaker. This should have happened all the more in your case, if indeed the man you crucified was a transgressor of the law.

You see, while Jesus did not go to the nations himself, he sent the disciples. That was the fulfillment of what the prophet said, A people I never knew has served me.^[1] Notice how profound, how clear, how explicit a prophecy this is: A people I never knew—that means one I had not presented myself to in person—has served me. How? It goes on, The moment it heard, it obeyed me;^[2] that is, it was not by seeing but by hearing that they came to believe. And it was to call and gather together the nations that the apostle Paul was sent, so fulfilling what we have just been singing, Gather us from the nations, that we may confess to your name and glory in your praise. That man Tiny,^[3] made into the Greatest, not by his own efforts but by the one he used to persecute, was sent to the nations, a sheep stealer turned shepherd, a wolf turned sheep. That least of the apostles was sent to the nations and labored much among the Gentiles, and it was by means of him that the Gentiles came to believe. His letters are the proof of this.