Letter 52

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: The Church at Milan Date: ~387 AD Context: A doctrinal letter defending the Church's authority to forgive sins through the sacrament of penance, against the Novatianists [a rigorist sect that denied the Church could absolve those who had committed serious sins after baptism]. Ambrose, Bishop, to the faithful. There are those who say the Church has no power to forgive sins committed after baptism. They are called Novatianists [followers of Novatian, a third-century Roman priest who founded a rigorist schism], and their position, though it appears strict and holy, is in fact a denial of the gospel. Christ said to Peter: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). This is not ambiguous. The power to loose — to forgive, to reconcile — was given to the Church by the Lord himself. Those who deny this power deny the Lord who granted it. The Novatianist argument goes like this: "Sin after baptism is too grave to forgive. Baptism washes away all sin; what comes after must stand." But if God's mercy extends only to the point of baptism and no further, then we are all lost — for who among us has not sinned since the day we were baptized? The whole point of the Church is that it is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. We do not gather because we are perfect; we gather because we are broken and in need of healing. Penance is that healing — the sacrament by which the baptized who have fallen are restored. I am not soft on sin. I believe in serious penance — public confession for public sins, fasting, almsgiving, and a genuine change of life. The grace of forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap. Repentance that costs nothing changes nothing. But I will not close the door that Christ opened. If God forgave David the murderer, if he forgave Peter the denier, if he forgave Paul the persecutor — then who am I to say that anyone is beyond the reach of his mercy? Let those who have sinned come forward. The door is open. It will remain open as long as I am bishop of this church.

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