that leads to sin, and there is a shame that leads to glory. Open thy conscience, therefore, fully and sincerely to my vicar, and he will open heaven to thee; for to this end are delivered to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Why blushest thou to say that in the presence of a man and sinner like thyself, which thou hast not blushed to do in my presence? For wheresoever thou art, my eyes are ever upon thee, which behold in every place the evil and the good. Away, then, with this shame, useful only when thou wouldst sin, but hurtful when thou wouldst repent. For what is to conceal sins else than to cover up wounds, and to refuse to permit the physician to examine them until they grow corrupt, because of thy foolishness? Dost thou, then, value thy honour more than thy salvation? And fearest thou to be exposed before one man like thyself, when hereafter thou wilt have to be accused and condemned before the whole world?
What, wretched one, wilt thou do in that terrible day, when I shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of the hearts; when there is nothing hidden that shall not be known, and whatever has been spoken or done in the darkness shall be published in the light before the whole world? Be not ashamed, then, to say, what thou hast not been ashamed to do.
Oh, to how many do my sacraments, which are vessels of grace and salvation, become a stumbling-stone and rock of scandal, through this vice of unseasonable shame! Overcome, therefore, this ridiculous shame, and humble thyself before the priest, whom I have deputed to thee in my stead, to be thy physician and thy counsellor. Tell him thy iniquities, that thou mayest be justified.
Man. I have said, I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and also to the man whom I venerate in thy stead: O Lord, forgive the iniquity of my sin. I am a man, and know that there dwells not in my flesh that which is good; and if I say that I have no sin, I am a liar, and deceive myself. It is my nature to go astray, to fall, to be ignorant, to be deceived; why should I deny, or attempt to hide it? Why should I wish to seem to men more holy or innocent than thou knowest me to be, who seest all that is within my heart? Rather will I candidly discover to him all my wounds, that so I may be the more easily cured by him whom I acknowledge to be the physician whom thou hast appointed for me.
