From the Fathers...

"On that dreadful and amazing day, Thou shalt say to us sinners, O Lord: "You men know well what I have undergone for you...what have you suffered for Me?" What shall I say to that; I who, though penitent, am evil, sinful and polluted? The martyrs will point to their wounds, their sufferings, the severed parts of their bodies, and to their endurance to the end. The ascetics will point to their asceticism, to their long fasts and vigils, to their liberality, their tears and their endurance to the end. But I, idle, sinful, transgressing as I am, what shall I be able to point to? Spare me, O merciful One! Spare me, O Thou Lover of mankind!" St. Ephraim the Syrian quoted in the Prologue, Vol. 2, 5/10, p.163