I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you,
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
I will arise and go to my father. "I will arise," says the Interlinear, "because I perceive that I have fallen prone before idolatry and vice. I will go to my father, for I have wandered far from him, and am wearing away my life in misery and want. I will rise from this wretched life. I will break away from my vices, cease from sin, amend my life. I will repent, and humbly beg of God the pardon of my sin."
"Well does he say, "I will arise,"" writes S. Jerome (Epist146), "for away from his father he could not stand upright. It is the part of sinners to lie prone, of the just to stand upright." For as Chrysologus (Serm1) says, "As long as a man is with his father, his state is happy, his service free, and his safety assured. He reverences his father with gladness. If corrected it is with gentleness. Though poor he is rich, and his possessions are secure." And again, "he determines to return, because he perceived that with a stranger his liberty was slavery, and because he believed that ...
How merciful is the Almighty, who, though so much offended, still does not disdain the name of father.
I have sinned. These are the first words of a sinner's confession to the author of nature. God knows all things; still does he expect to hear the voice of your confession. It is in vain to think of concealing your sins from the eyes of him whom nothing can escape; and there can be no danger of acknowledging to him what his infinite knowledge has already embraced. Confess then that Christ may intercede for you, the Church pray for you, the people pour forth their tears for you. Fear not that you cannot obtain pardon, for pardon is promised to you; grace, and a reconciliation with a most tender parent, are held out to you. (St. Ambrose)
Before thee By this does our Redeemer shew, that the Almighty is here to be understood by the name of father: for the all-seeing eye of God only beholds all things, from whom even the secret machinations of the heart cannot be concealed. (St. Chrysosto...
