The Gospel says: “Be on good terms with your adversary while you are on the road with him.” Matthew 5:25

 

The Gospel says: “Be on good terms with your adversary while you are on the road with him.” Matthew 5:25  That is: “Maintain good relations with your adversary while you are still on the road with him, lest he hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison; Truly I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the last penny.”

- What does this saying of our Lord mean?

Be careful, He says, while you are on the road with your adversary, to maintain a good relationship with him, lest he hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officers, and they throw you into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the last penny of your debt.

Here the translator has a footnote explaining how St. Athanasius interprets this passage. A path, a road—that is this vain life, our temporary existence. How many years… ten, twenty, a hundred—whatever we may live. This vain and deceptive life, which deceives us, misleads us. We think we will be here forever, while we are so very temporary. We are like a drop of water, like a ray of light that passes and disappears. Such is our life here on earth. “For if the soul is separated from the body and departs from this life and this path, it can no longer do good,” says St. Athanasius, if the union of soul and body is severed. This is death. Death is not disappearance; it is simply that this union of soul and body ceases to exist. These two are separated. So when this happens and we leave this vain life and this path, we can no longer work toward the good, toward repentance. In Hades, there is no repentance. After death, you cannot change. So be careful, while you are here with your adversary—that is, with your conscience—for he is the adversary, says Christ—to maintain a good relationship. Listen to your conscience. Do not trample on it, because otherwise this conscience will hand you over to the judge, to the court, and you will go to prison, to eternal hell. And you will not be able to leave unless you pay back every last penny of your debt, and the very last coin. “A ‘kodrantis’ is called,” explains St. Athanasius, “and this is the remnant of memory”—that is, the slightest memory that remains within us. “Conscience is also called an adversary. For it examines us in the secret of our hearts and restrains us from evil.” It is our conscience that secretly examines us in our hearts and tells us, “Do not do this,” and it stops evil if we listen to it.

- And if we don’t listen to it?

In the end, it delivers us to God’s Judgment, and we will give an account; we will be held accountable for the great sins, but also for the small ones and the slightest ones.

There is no such thing as a mortal sin and a non-mortal sin, as some say—that one is grave and mortal, the other is minor. It may be minor, but if you don’t repent even for this small one, and say, “It doesn’t matter,” I’ll just do it… then even the small sin becomes mortal. Therefore, all sins are deadly, and when we repent, they cease to kill us, to be deadly. And so even the smallest sins must be eradicated. That is why repentance is necessary, confession for everything.