412 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOMAnd repentance occurs in distress and sorrow. The father is good and loves
humankind, and hears the soul that calls him and sends her the light of salva-
tion. Through the spirit to the prophet he says,^17
Say to the children of my people, "If your sins extend from earth
to heaven, if they become red like scarlet and blacker than sack-
cloth, and if you return to me with all your soul and say to me,
'My father,' I will care for you as for a holy people."
Again elsewhere,^18
So the lord, the holy one of Israel, says, "If you return and sigh,
then you will be saved and will know where you were when you
trusted what is shallow."And again,^19
Jerusalem wept profusely, saying, "Pity me." He will have pity at
the sound of your lamentation. And when he saw, he cared for
you. And the lord will give you the bread of affliction and water
of oppression. From now on those who deceive will not go near
you. Your eye will spot those who would deceive you.THE REPENTANCE OF ODYSSEUS AND HELEN
So it is right to pray to god night and day, extending our hands toward him as
do people sailing in the middle of the sea. They pray to god with all their heart
and without hypocrisy. Those who pray hypocritically fool only themselves.
Yes, it is to know who is worthy of salvation that god examines our inner selves
and the bottom of our heart. No one is worthy of salvation who still loves the
place of deception. So the poet writes,^20
Odysseus sat on the island weeping and grieving and turning his
face from the words of Calypso and from her tricks, while long-
ing to see his village and smoke coming forth from it. Had he not- See 1 Clement 8:3.
- Isaiah 30:15.
- Isaiah 30:19-20.
- Homer, Odyssey 1.48-59. The quotations from Homer are not exact quotations from a spe-
cific passage but a hodgepodge summary from diverse places, altered both for sermonizing
purposes and by the process of translation.