the crucified orator 720 dare [to look at] Heaven? Please, listen: Are you attempting, perhaps, by expulsing sins with your fist to call back God whom your sins put to flight from your heart? At once, I ask: Does this manner of praying accomplish or attain something? He accomplished much and attained much, for he received what he hardly dared to expect: He was restored to communion with God, he “went down to his house justified.” Justified? But why? St. Paulinus says, “The sinner with a contrite heart, who is his own accuser, will be accepted and will receive forgiveness of the sins confessed” (Letter 18).78 This is perfect justification, the remission of sins, and God’s return to the penitent heart. How great is the power of humble prayer which brings this about! Saint Mark, another Evangelist, says that our Savior cast out by His power seven demons from a woman who “was a sinner” (Lk 7:37). Who is more miserable than the one abandoned by God and inhabited upon His allowance with so many and so cruel torturers (that is to say, vices)? However, He, who had come to save sinners and not the just, not only freed this miserable, possessed woman, but in addition He exalted her to such a degree of glory and sanctity, that it is difficult to define which was a more excellent work of the Divine omnipotence and goodness: the creation of the world and all things or the conversion of Magdalene? If, however, you want to know, what obtained that grace for the greatest sinner from the Redeemer of the human race, see the Gospel of St. Luke, and [works of ] St. Augustine — the prince of Doctors — and you shall learn. Indeed, St. Luke narrates that this very infamous woman, possessed by seven demons, burst with great boldness into the home of a certain Pharisee where Christ was dining. She lowered herself to the feet of Christ. She not only moistened His feet with a great shower of tears, but even washed them. Having washed them, she doused them with a most precious liquid and, having doused them, she wiped them dry with a particular ornament of her head, namely: her light-colored hair. Being released from the internal torturers at that very instant, 78 Cf. Paulinus Nolanus, Pontius Meropius, Epistulae, CChrL 29/I, 406.
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