Crucified Orator new file

gression, [which resulted] from taking a bite of the apple from the forbidden tree, he lost paradise because he lost peace, seren- ity, and joy of conscience. Therefore, when the exceptionally gifted Theodoret 19 thought about the eyes of Protoplasts of our race being opened and they saw that they were naked, he added correctly: “because they felt the reproach of conscience which tormented them.” Finally, the most eloquent among the bishops, the Golden Mouthed [John Chrysostom,] cites the reason why Adam and Eve hid themselves after the fall, having heard the Lord God strolling in the afternoon through paradise. He said: “God de- sired […] that a great panic envelop their souls, and so it hap- pened. For since they felt as if God was present, they started hiding… because the voice of conscience usually arises against man, cries out, accuses, and reveals, and outlines before their eyes, as it were, the greatness of sin…Although, having commit- ted a sin, a person hides from the eyes of all men […], he cannot, however, hide from his own accuser. For wherever we might be, we carry [sin] within ourselves; it is all about us, it harasses us, tears [us apart], and scourges […] at home, in the market, in church or at table. It assails the sleeping and the rising from sleep […]. It puts before our eyes both the greatness of the fault and the looming punishment […]. Hence, as soon as the Ancestor grasped the gist of it and reflected upon the coming of the Lord, he immediately went into hiding […]. For he saw that the fierce accuser stood next to him: namely, his conscience.” Should conscience be only called a fierce accuser, but not a cruel torturer, as well? Because it torments while accusing and it accuses as it torments. On account of accusations and torments, it fre- quently deprives us of hope for forgiveness. Cain – the first frat- ricide – experienced this for himself, when he called out to the Lord, after the murder of his brother Abel: “My punishment is too great to bear. Look, you have now banished me from the ground. I must avoid you and be a constant wanderer on the earth. Anyone 19 Theodoret († 458) was the bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria and an exegete. S TANISLAUS P APCzyńSKI e Crucified Orator 76