That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked—”just because you have returned; and will rejoice more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent—”if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father’s “hired servants“—”if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd—”if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, “I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Yours.” Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy. — Chapter 8