On Holy Virginity

³⁶ Let them hear You, and let them come to You, and let them learn of You to be meek and lowly, who seek Your Mercy and Truth, by living unto You, unto You, not unto themselves. Let him hear this, laboring and laden, who is weighed down by his burden, so as not to dare to lift up his eyes to heaven, that sinner beating his breast, and drawing near from afar. Let him hear, the centurion, not worthy that You should enter under his roof. Let him hear, Zaccheus, chief of publicans, restoring fourfold the gains of damnable sins. Let her hear, the woman in the city a sinner, by so much the more full of tears at Your feet, the more alien she had been from Your steps. Let them hear, the harlots and publicans, who enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Scribes and Pharisees. Let them hear, every kind of such ones, feastings with whom were cast in Your teeth as a charge, forsooth, as though by whole persons who sought not a physician, whereas You came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. All these, when they are converted unto You, easily grow meek, and are humbled before You, mindful of their own most unrighteous life, and of Your most indulgent mercy, in that, “where sin has abounded, grace has abounded more.”