On a facebook group, my friend Errol Vincent Amey offered the following comments about post-baptismal sins:
It's rather difficult to put an exact number on how many times one can do penance for serious post-baptismal sins and still find forgiveness, but there surely is a limit that God is liable to grant. Perhaps this even depends on the individual. I'm reminded of something I read from Origen not too long ago:
“And
what he does with our words he will also do with our deeds. For necessarily
there are some deeds for which we will be justified, and others for which we
will be condemned. For I am not so perfect that I have all the deeds for which
I should stand forth as a just man, nor am I such a sinner that I do all such
things that would condemn me on every side. That there are some of the one kind
of deeds and some of the other kind is manifest from what is said: ‘The sins of
some men are manifest, preceding them to judgment, but the sins of others
follow; and similarly the good deeds are manifest and what they have otherwise
cannot be hidden’ [1 Timothy 5:24-25]. . . . To the degree that the fear of God
inspires me the more to receive approval for everything that I have done, so
much the more do I need to watch myself. Though I cannot keep myself from all
sins, would that I might at least keep away from the most serious ones.”
(Origen,
ca. 240, 'Homilies on Ezekiel' 2:3:2, in 'Ancient Christian Writers' 62:49)
"We
ask and beseech that we who are made holy in baptism should have the ability to
persist in the way we have begun. And we request this every day. Our need is of
daily sanctification, so that we who daily fail should have our sins purged by
continual hallowing. . . .
"And
our labor of prayer and petition is ceaseless, lest we should be excluded from
the heavenly realm"
(Cyprian,
ca. 252, 'On the Lord's Prayer' 12-13, in 'Popular Patristics' 29:73-74)
