It happens that people fall in the other extreme: those with huge sins despair in what regards their salvation and the mercy of God. They think it is already too late to repent and Satan whispers to them :`Yes, yes, you repent in vain, don`t waste your time anymore with this. `These people falling into despair and giving up on repentance don`t know what it is written in the book of prophet Ezekiel : “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die. 22 None of the offenses they have committed will be remembered against them. Because of the righteous things they have done, they will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18, 21-23)?
God doesn`t want the death of the sinner,only his salvation.To think that God`s mercy is not enough for the absolution of the huge sins is the same with saying that if you throw a handful of dirty sand, this one will become dirty. No, the sea will wash that dirty sand and that sand will disappear on its endless bottom. God`smercy is endless, is greater than the endless ocean and in this divine mercy we can easily drown all the huge sins, if we repent for them from the bottom of our hearts
Excerpt from At the gates of the great lent. Sermons at triode – Saint Luke of Crimea, Orthodox Church Publishing House, via http://doxologia.ro.
