Even if someone were to commit the greatest of sins, God forbid, even if they are condemned and judged by the eyes of people, even if they have nothing to hold onto, still in the face of God man has no way of losing his hope!
God is rich in His mercy, and His compassion, and His long-sufferingness. It is enough for a person to repent, and to ask for forgiveness!
For this reason, in the framework of the Church, it is impossible for a person to lose their courage; their boldness (in a good sense).
The Fathers, themselves, have said that the worst thing a person can do is not to commit a sin, but rather for them to lose their hope and their courage.
Despair is worse than sin, because this comes immediately after committing the sin.
In the same way our shadow cannot be separated from us, whether we want it to be or not, after you commit a sin, hopelessness sets in; discouragement.
And the devil amplifies it, because he wants to show us that the love, the mercy, and the compassion of our God are limited.
However, God is infinite!
You know that now I am already old; I have passed the age of 60. I am 61, but you guys say that I am still very young.
I realize now that when I was younger even a person that was the same age as me, who could have been my brother, if they made a mistake I was very harsh and I would say, "Let him be punished! Let him try harder next time!"
After some years passed by, physiologically speaking, I could have been a father, I acquired more compassion and I would say, "Let him correct his ways; he is still young!"
Now that I have become like a grandfather, I forgive all things. This is old age!
Is God not then a grandfather, if He has been alive for so many years?
We, who are mere people, cannot punish another person who is our equal and we should say, "He too is a person!" ("He too makes mistakes!"
If even we understand the nature of mankind as being helpless and weak, than God, Who is All-Good, All-Merciful, and Who is rich in mercy, all the more understands this to be true!
He will grant us His love, and His forgiveness of sins! But, of course, this is not mandatory, we must first ask for it!
And he who asks for forgiveness for his sins, receives it fully from God! God is not stingy! He does not complain and hold back like us!
In the Holy Scripture it says that God does not give with measure! He does not give His love by the droplet. Instead, He floods you with the flow of His love!
He is rich in mercy and immeasurable in goodness! This is the love of God!
What we have to do is to humble ourselves and to ask for forgiveness from God, from others, from ourselves, and from those who we hurt spiritually and physically.
That is why we must always possess that good boldness! Even the Gospel constantly speaks to us about this!
"Take courage!" says Christ, "I have overcome the world."
In Jesus Christ all things give us hope and light! And without Christ our life lacks hope, it is doomed to perish, and it is full of sorrow.