John Chrysostom, on Jas 4:9

“Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.”

“The person who repents after sinning is worthy of blessings, not of mourning, as he returns to the company of the righteous. First, confess your sins that you may be justified, for if someone is not ashamed of his sin he is miserable, not so much because he fell from grace but because he has remained in his fallen state. And if it is a wicked thing not to repent after sinning, what punishment will someone deserve who sins as a matter of course? If a person overcome with the need to repent is unclean, what forgiveness will there be for someone who suffers because he remains in his sins?”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.