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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
But nothing is more offensive than the savor of sin, which made the Psalmist say, "My wounds stink and are corrupt." For sin is more foul than putrefaction itself. What, for instance, is more offensive than fornication? And if this is not perceived at the time of its commission, yet, after it is committed, its offensive nature, the impurity contracted in it, and the curse, and the abomination of it is perceived. So it is with all sin. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
"My wounds stink and are corrupt" [Psalm 38:5]. Now he who has wounds is not perfectly sound. Add to this, that the wounds "stink and are corrupt." Wherefore do they "stink"? Because they are "corrupt:" now in what way this is explained in reference to human life, who doth not understand? Let a man but have his soul's sense of smelling sound, he perceives how foully sins stink. …
Ambrose of Milan
Therefore, rightly placed under iniquities, and (what is worse) his own, he says that his scars have become corrupted and decayed from the face of his foolishness; because the remedy for lifting the burden of iniquities followed slowly. However, even Job, who with a holy razor shaved the pus from his sores, was deprived of health; and Lazarus, a poor man who lay at the rich man's gate, with dogs licking his wounds, was lifted from the stench of his scars and placed in Abraham's bosom by angels. …
Thomas Aquinas
Regarding the third he says, on account of relapse: "My sores have rotted and become corrupt." A scar is left from a wound; and so also when someone has sinned and his sin has been forgiven, but there is still a proneness to sinning, it is like a scar from a wound. But sometimes God heals it through satisfaction and the exercise of good works. Jer. …
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