became. And truly he was more powerful, having aid from above in all things, and being guarded by the right hand of God. Where then do you drive the righteous man away? Do you not know that wherever it may happen that he goes, he is of necessity in the domain of his own Master? For even if you force him to depart into the very desert, he has such a resourceful Master that He will show him to be much more manifest even there. For He often manages matters through opposites, most especially by the opposites themselves. To Him befits glory, power, honor, and adoration, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen.
On Hatred and Enmity. Homily XVIII.
If anyone has been injured by his neighbor, let him take David into his memory and let him cast him into his mind, so that, while the heart is still alive, he may be able, by the memory of this most meek and long-suffering man, to dissolve the sea of wrath. For why is your brother an enemy to you? Did he do you injury? But he has done no wrong. But are you overlooking him because he is hostile on account of money? Do not, I beseech you, do not delay in severing the ropes of wrath; for delays produce procrastinations. If you put it off today, you will blush all the more; and if you add tomorrow, the shame is greater; and if the third day, you will be all the more ashamed by having prolonged the delay. Give me, I beseech you, the willingness to say these things; cause me to hear that we have accomplished something from this continuous teaching; that someone went away and immediately threw both arms around his enemy, was poured over him, embraced him, kissed him, wept. For even if he is a beast, even if he is stone, or whatever he may be, he will be tamed by being softened by such friendliness; and you will indeed rid yourself of grievances, and by drawing him toward goodwill, you will have gained him. B And do not say to me, "I have a defiled enemy, wicked, depraved, incorrigible, and I cannot reconcile him." For whatever you may say, he is not worse than Saul, who, having been saved by David once and twice and many times, plotted against him ten thousand times, and then, having been benefited in return for these things, remained keeping his own wickedness. For what do you have to say? That he cut off land, and did wrong in a field, and crossed the boundaries of a house, and snatched slaves, and insulted, and coveted C and led to poverty? But he did not strive to take away his soul, not twice and three times and many times, nor even after being benefited so much, nor even after falling into your hands many times and being saved. But if it is even this, and thus David again takes the advantage, that, being nurtured in less perfect laws, and requiring no such thing, he reached the very summit that is in grace. And you, indeed, are often angry and bear grudges over past things; but this man, fearing even for the future, and knowing precisely that the city would be uninhabitable for him, and life unlivable if he saved the enemy, did not desist from the concern for him, but did everything while feeding the foe against himself. What in the world is it, tell me, that you are complaining about to the enemy that you do not want to be reconciled? For what did he harm you so much? Did he take away your money? But if you bear the robbery nobly, you will receive as much reward as if you had deposited it in the hands of the poor. For he who has given to the poor, and he who has not plotted against the one who has defrauded him, or even D prayed for him on account of God, have performed the same things. When, therefore, the cause of the expenditure is the same, it is evident that the crown also is one. But did he plot against your soul and attempt to kill you? The matter is reckoned as martyrdom for you if you count the plotter and the one who has brought the enmity to such a point among your benefactors, and continue praying for him, and entreating God to be propitious. And let us not see this, that God prevented David from being slaughtered while pursued by Saul, but that he put on a double, and triple, and quadruple crown of martyrdom because of his plotting. For he who, for God's sake, saved the enemy, who once and twice and many times threw the spear against his own head, and became master to kill him, then spared him, and this while knowing that after this sparing he would again set upon him; it is evident that he was slaughtered ten thousand times in his intent, and being slaughtered ten thousand times for the sake of God, he has many crowns of martyrdom. And what Paul was saying, this he also reckoned, and died daily for the sake of God. For being able to kill the one plotting, he did not want to for the sake of God, but chose rather to be in danger every day than, by committing a just slaughter, to be rid of so many deaths. But if one ought neither to avenge nor to hate even the one plotting against his very life, much more so the one acting unjustly toward you in any other of the things that are external. Do you want to learn that it is possible, if we wish, to reconcile every person who is hostilely disposed toward us, even if he is wicked and depraved and incorrigible? What is more savage than a lion? Yet humans tame this, and art forces nature, and he who is the most savage and most kingly of all wild beasts becomes more tame and gentle than any sheep, and walks through the marketplace frightening no one with his tameness. What apology then shall we have, what excuse, when taming wild beasts, saying that we are unable to soften men, nor to have them be pleasantly disposed toward us? Although indeed, for the beast, tameness is against nature, but for the human, wildness is against nature. When, therefore, we overcome nature, what apology shall we have, saying that we are unable to correct a disposition? But if he is also suffering from incurable diseases, to you the labor is greater, and to that extent your reward is also [greater] for remaining and healing the one suffering incurably. But what has been sinned so much by the enemy that you draw back from reconciling with him? Did he speak ill of you, and call you an adulterer and a fornicator? And what of this? If he speaks the truth, be corrected; but if false, laugh at it. If you are cognizant of the things said, be self-controlled; if you are not cognizant, be contemptuous; or rather, do not...
A only laugh and be contemptuous, but also rejoice and exult, according to the word of the Lord: "For when," he says, "they revile you and cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of man, lying, rejoice in that day and exult, because your reward is great in the heavens" (Luke 6:22–23). But if he speaks the truth, and you bear those words with equanimity, and do not in turn afflict him with insults or speak reviling, but groan bitterly and condemn your transgressions, you will gain a reward no less than the former person. For often what our friends did not accomplish by praising and gratifying, our enemies accomplished by reviling, even if they speak the truth. For the former, as is natural, by gratifying or even assenting, increase the evil of pride in us; but these, moved by hatred, reproach sins, and compel us to the correction of our vices, and so hatred becomes an occasion of the greatest utility. Let us not, therefore, say, "Such a one provoked me," or "Someone pushed me to say shameful words": we are the cause of these things in every way. For if we desire to philosophize, B not only an enemy, but not even the devil himself will be able to move us to anger; which indeed is clear from the story concerning David. For when he had said to Saul, "Behold the hem of your mantle in my hand" (1 Reg. 24:12), and had apologized for all else, the other said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" (v. 17). Oh, what a change suddenly occurred in this savage man on account of the gentleness of the words! For he who never deigned even to call him by his name, nay, even abhorred his very address, now, bringing him back into his own family, calls him 'son,' and at the very sound of the voice he was warming up. And just as a father, having heard after a long time the voice of his son returning from somewhere, is excited not only at the sight but also at the voice itself; so Saul, after the words of David had entered and removed the enmities from his mind, henceforth recognized him as just, and having laid aside one emotion, he assumed another: for with anger ejected from his mind, he received benevolence and compassion. C What therefore could be more blessed or more sublime than David? For he made a father out of a murderer, and a sheep out of a wolf; he filled the furnace of wrath with abundant dew, turned the tempest into calm, and extinguished all the fervor of fury. Let us not, therefore, consider this only, beloved, so that we may suffer no harm from enemies, but [rather] that we may inflict no evil upon them; and we shall suffer no evil, even if we bear countless hardships. Thus, neither did David, when driven into exile and harassed, being pursued by most grievous ambushes, suffer any evil; but he became more glorious and more august than his enemy himself, and thus more pleasing to all men and to God Himself. For what harm did he suffer, when he was enduring so many things from Saul? Is he not famous to this very day, both on earth and in heaven? Do not those ineffable goods and the heavenly kingdom await him? But what advantage did that miserable and unhappy man report, D who lay in wait for David so intensely? Did he not fall from the kingdom, and perish together with his son in a miserable death, and is he not furthermore accused by all? And what is more grievous than all these things, is he not now paying eternal punishments? If ever, therefore, you see your enemy, or take him to mind, do not say: "I suffered this and that, I heard this and that"; lest you incite anger and increase the inflammation more vehemently; but whatever troublesome things you have heard or suffered, give them all to oblivion; but if they come into your mind, impute them to the devil: and meanwhile consider if he ever said or did anything good for you, and you will immediately dissolve the enmity. Even if you wish to expostulate or argue with someone, with affection laid aside and anger compressed, only then examine and demand reasons: for thus you will be able to overcome easily. For when we are angry, we are able to say or hear nothing correctly; but being free from perturbation, we will never utter a harsh word ourselves, nor will we listen to others saying such things. For it is not so much the nature of what is said as the preconceived hatred in the mind that is accustomed to exasperate us. And just as when it is night, we frequently do not recognize even a present friend; but when day is made, we know even him seeing him from afar: so it is wont to happen in hatred and enmities: for as long as we are of alien minds toward one another, and we hear the voices of others, and look upon the face with a corrupted mind; but after we have laid aside anger, the face formerly hostile and sad soon appears grateful and lovable. But if an adversary should reproach some crime, of which you are conscious, and you, having heard this, should not revile him, but rather groaning bitterly, should pray to God, you have immediately laid aside every transgression. And do not think that we are consoling you lightly; we shall bring a testimony from the divine scriptures. There was a Pharisee and a publican: the latter had progressed to extreme malice, the former was studious of justice: and both went up to the temple to pray. Then the one standing said: "I thank thee, O God, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, or even as this publican" (Luke 18:11–12). The publican, however, standing afar off, did not in turn afflict him with insults, did not retort with reviling, nor did he say anything absurd, such as we say daily when we revile one another, but groaning bitterly and beating his breast, he said only this: "O God, be propitious to me a sinner" (Ibid. v. 13): and he went down justified. You have seen how suddenly? He received a taunt, and he wiped away the taunt; he recognized transgressions and laid aside transgressions; and the accusation of crime became the abolition of crime, and the enemy even becomes an involuntary benefactor. What, I ask, could be more blessed than this? What is more [conducive] to the removal of sins?