Quod deus non est auctor malorum

Homily That God Is Not the Author of Evils. Many are the modes of teaching which have been indicated to us by the prophet David, through the Spirit that works in him. For sometimes the prophet, recounting his own experiences and how he bore the events that befell him nobly, leaves us through his own example a most vivid lesson in patience, as when he says: "Lord, why have those who afflict me multiplied?" Sometimes he commends the goodness of God and the swiftness of his assistance, which he provides to those who truly seek him, saying: "When I called upon him, the God of my righteousness heard me," speaking words equivalent to those of the prophet who said: "While you are still speaking, he will say, 'Behold, I am here.'" That is: I had not yet finished calling, and the hearing of God anticipated the end of the invocation. Again, offering supplications and prayers to God, he teaches us in what manner it is fitting for those who are in sins to propitiate God: "Lord, do not convict me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger." In the twelfth psalm, having indicated some prolongation of trial by saying: "How long, Lord, will you forget me utterly?" and throughout the whole psalm having taught us not to lose heart in afflictions, but to await the goodness of God, and to know that by some economy he delivers us to afflictions, applying the measure of torments according to the proportion of the faith present in each. Since, then, it is said: "How long, Lord, will you forget me utterly?" and "How long will you turn your face away from me?

He immediately passes to the evil of the atheists: who, when some small thing in life offends them, unable to bear the more difficult circumstances of affairs, immediately become doubtful in their minds whether there is a God who cares for things here, whether he oversees each individual, whether he distributes to each according to merit. Then, when they see themselves prolonged further in the unwanted things, they confirm in themselves the wicked doctrine, and declare in their hearts that there is no God. The fool said in his heart: There is no God. And casting this into his own mind, he then proceeds unsparingly through every sin. For if there is no one who oversees, if there is no one who repays each according to the worth of their lives, what prevents oppressing the poor, murdering orphans, killing a widow and a stranger, daring every unholy deed, being defiled by unclean and abominable passions and all bestial desires? Therefore, as a consequence of there being no God, he added: They were corrupted, and they became abominable in their practices. For it is impossible to be turned aside from the right path without having suffered forgetfulness of God in their souls. Whence have the nations been delivered over to a reprobate mind, and do what is not fitting? Is it not because they said: There is no God? Whence have they fallen into the passions of dishonor, and the females among them have exchanged natural use for that contrary to nature, and males work shamefulness with males? Is it not because they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of beasts and quadrupeds and reptiles?

A fool, then, truly bereft of mind and understanding, is he who says, "There is no God." And akin to him, and in no way inferior in folly, is he who says that God is the cause of evils. For I consider their sin to be of equal honor, because each alike denies the good: one by saying that He does not exist at all, the other by defining that He is not good. For if He is the cause of evils, He is clearly not good; so that from both sides there is a denial of God. Whence then, he says, come diseases? Whence come untimely deaths? Whence come the total destructions of cities? Shipwrecks, wars, plagues? For these, he says, are evils, and all are the works of God. So whom else have we to blame for what happens, if not God? Come then, since we have fallen into this much-discussed question, let us lead the argument back to some acknowledged starting point, and, treating the problem more diligently, let us attempt to make a clear and unconfused exposition concerning it. Now this one thing must be presupposed in our minds: that, being the creation of the good God, and sustained by Him, who orders both small and greater things concerning us, we would neither suffer anything against God's will, nor is anything we suffer harmful, or such that it is not possible to conceive something better even in thought. For deaths are from God; but death is not altogether an evil, unless one speaks of the death of a sinner, because it is the beginning of the punishments in Hades, the departure from here. And again, the evils in Hades have not God as their cause, but ourselves.

For the beginning and root of sin is what is in our power and free will. For those who, by abstaining from evil, could have had no trouble, but were lured into sin through pleasure, what plausible account could we give that they themselves are not the cause of their own painful experiences? Evil, then, is of two kinds: one relative to our perception, the other relative to its own nature. Now, evil by nature depends on us: injustice, licentiousness, folly, cowardice, envy, murder, sorcery, villainy, and all such kindred afflictions, which defile the soul created in the image of the Creator and naturally darken its beauty. Again, we call evil what is painful and distressing to our perception: bodily disease, bodily wounds, lack of necessities, disrepute, loss of money, bereavement of loved ones—each of which is brought upon us by the wise and good Master for our benefit. For he takes away wealth from those who use it badly, destroying their instrument for injustice; he brings disease upon those for whom it is more advantageous to be fettered in their limbs than to have unhindered impulses toward sin; deaths are inflicted when the limits of life are fulfilled, which the just judgment of God established from the beginning concerning each, foreseeing from afar what is beneficial for each of us; and famines, droughts, and floods are common afflictions of cities and nations, chastening the excess of evil. Just as the physician is a benefactor, even if he causes pains and distress to the body (for he fights against the disease, not the patient).

Thus God is good, administering the salvation of the whole through partial punishments. But you do not blame the physician, who cuts some things, cauterizes others, and entirely removes others from the body; rather, you pay him fees and call him savior, because he checks the disease in a small part before the affliction spreads to the whole body. Yet when you see a city collapsed upon its inhabitants, or a ship with all its crew dissolved in the sea, you do not hesitate to move your tongue in blasphemy against the true physician and savior. And yet you ought to understand that, when men are suffering and their ailments are curable, the benefits of treatment are taken up; but when the affliction proves stronger than the therapy, the removal of the useless part becomes necessary, so that the disease, advancing through continuity, may not reach the vital parts. Just as, then, the physician is not the cause of the cutting or the cautery, but the disease, so also the destructions of cities, having their origin from the excess of sins committed, absolve God of all blame. But if God is not the cause of evils,

God," he says, "how is it said, 'I who fashioned light and made darkness, making peace and creating evils'? And again: 'Evil came from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem,' and 'There is no evil in a city which the Lord did not make.' And in the great ode of Moses: 'See, see, that I am, and there is no God but me; I will kill and I will make to live; I will strike, and I will heal.' But none of these things, for one who understands the sense of Scripture, contains an accusation against God as the cause and maker of evils. For the one who said, 'I who fashion light and make darkness,' through these words presents himself as the creator of creation, not as the maker of some evil. So that you may not think that one is the cause of light and another of darkness, he said that he himself is the maker and craftsman of things that seem to be opposite in creation, so that you may not seek one creator of fire and another of water, nor one of air and another of earth, since they seem in some way to be opposed to each other in the contrariety of their qualities. This is what some, having suffered, turned to polytheism. He makes peace and creates evils. Above all, he makes peace in you, when through good teaching he pacifies your mind and reconciles the passions that rebel against the soul. He creates evils, that is, he transforms them and leads them to improvement, so that, laying aside their being evil, they may partake of the nature of the good. 'Create a pure heart in me, O God.' Not now create, but renew the one grown old from wickedness. And, 'So that he may create the two into one new man.'

To create" is not used to bring something from non-being into being, but to refashion what already exists. And, "If anyone is a new creation in Christ." And again Moses says: "Is not this the one who acquired you, made you, and created you, your father?" For clearly here, since "creation" is placed after "making," it teaches us that the name "creation" is generally assigned to improvement. So that "making peace" means making peace by creating evils—that is, by transforming them and leading them to improvement. Then, if you understand peace as freedom from wars, and call evil the painful consequences that follow for those who wage war—foreign campaigns, toils, sleepless nights, anxieties, sweats, wounds, slaughters, captures of cities, enslavements, deportations, the pitiful spectacles of captives, and in short all the sorrows that accompany wars—we say that these come about by the just judgment of God, who inflicts punishments through wars upon those worthy of chastisement. Or would you have wished that Sodom not be burned after those abominable acts? Or that Jerusalem not be destroyed, nor the temple laid waste, after the Jews' dreadful insolence against the Lord? How else could these things justly have happened, if not through the hands of the Romans, to whom the enemies of their own lives, the Jews, handed over our Lord? So it is possible that the evils of war are sometimes justly brought upon those who deserve them. And the saying, "I will kill, and I will make alive," accept it, if you wish, according to the obvious meaning. For fear builds up the simpler ones: "I will strike, and I will heal." And this is useful even when understood at face value.

The blow instills fear, while the healing urges toward love. It is also possible for you to think more loftily about what has been said. "I will kill" — sin; "and I will make to live" — righteousness. For to the extent that the outer man in us is destroyed, the inner man is renewed. Therefore, he does not kill one and give life to another; but he makes the same one live by what he kills, and heals by what he strikes, according to the Proverb which says: "You will strike him with a rod, but you will rescue his soul from death." Thus, the flesh is struck so that the soul may be healed; sin is put to death so that righteousness may live. As for the phrase, "Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem," it has its explanation from the same source. What evils? The noise of chariots and horsemen. But when you hear, "There is no evil in a city which the Lord did not make," understand the name "evil": that the word hints at the affliction brought upon sinners for the correction of their transgressions. For he says, "I afflicted you and starved you, so that I might do you good," checking the injustice before it pours forth without measure, as if a stream were held back by some strong barrier and dam. For this reason, the diseases of cities and nations, droughts of the air and famines of the land, and the harsher circumstances in each person's life, cut off the growth of evil. Thus, such evils come from God, removing the generation of true evils. For both the afflictions of the body and the external hardships have been devised to check sin. Therefore, God destroys evil; but evil does not come from God.

Since the physician also removes the disease, but does not implant disease in the body. And destructions of cities, earthquakes and floods, losses of armies, shipwrecks, and all multitudinous destructions, whether from land, or from sea, or from air, or from fire, or from whatever causes they occur, happen for the correction of those who remain, with God chastening universal wickedness with public scourges. Now properly evil is sin, which is most worthy of the appellation of evil, and depends on our own choice, it being in our power either to abstain from wickedness or to be depraved. Of the remaining things, some are set forth as contests for the display of fortitude, as to Job the loss of his children, the disappearance of all his wealth in a single moment, the blow from the ulcer; others as a remedy for sins committed, as to David the shame concerning his house, paying the penalty for his unlawful desire. And again we have observed another kind of fearful things brought on by the just judgment of God, for the purpose of making those who are prone to sin more prudent; as Dathan and Abiron were swallowed up by the earth, chasms and openings having burst open beneath them. For here they themselves did not become better by such a mode of punishment (for how could those who descended into Hades?), but they made the rest more prudent by the example. Thus also Pharaoh was drowned with his whole army. Thus were those who formerly inhabited Palestine wiped out.

Thus, even if the Apostle sometimes says, "Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," let us not suppose that Pharaoh was made some kind of evil vessel (for in that case the cause would more justly be transferred to the maker). But when you hear "vessels," understand that each of us has been made for some useful purpose. And just as in a great house there is a vessel of gold, another of silver, another of earthenware, another of wood (each person's choice providing a likeness to these materials: a gold vessel is one pure in character and guileless; a silver vessel, one inferior to that in worth; an earthenware vessel, one who thinks of earthly things and is prone to breakage; and a wooden vessel, one easily soiled by sin and becoming fuel for the eternal fire), so also a vessel of wrath is one who has received the entire activity of the devil, as a container, and because of the foul odor arising in him from corruption can no longer be brought to use, but is worthy only of annihilation and destruction. Therefore, since it was necessary for him to be broken, the wise and prudent steward of souls arranged for him to become conspicuous and notorious to all, so that at least he might be useful to others through his suffering, since he himself was incurable due to his excessive wickedness. And he hardened him, intensifying his wickedness by forbearance and delay of punishment, so that, when his evil had increased to its ultimate limit, the justice of the divine judgment upon him might be made manifest. For this reason, by always adding from smaller blows and intensifying the stripes, he did not soften his unruliness, but

He found him despising even the forbearance of God, and hardened by habit against the terrors brought upon him. And not even then did he deliver him to death, until he himself made himself submerged, having dared in the arrogance of his heart to attempt the path of the righteous, and thinking that the Red Sea would be passable for him as it was for the people of God. Knowing these things, then, from God, and having distinguished for yourself the kinds of evil, and knowing what is truly evil—that sin, whose end is destruction—and what seems evil because of the pain of sensation but has the power of good, such as the afflictions brought on to check sin, whose fruits are the eternal salvation of souls: cease being displeased with the divine economies. And altogether, neither consider God the cause of the existence of evil, nor imagine that evil has its own subsistence. For wickedness does not subsist, like some living thing; nor can we present its essence as having subsistence. For evil is a privation of good. An eye was created; blindness supervened upon the destruction of the eyes. So, if the eye were not of a perishable nature, blindness would have no means of entry. Thus evil does not exist in its own existence, but arises in the impairments of the soul. For it is neither unbegotten, as the argument of the impious holds, who make the evil nature equal in honor to the good nature, since both are without beginning and above generation; nor is it begotten.

For if all things are from God, how is evil from the good? For neither is the shameful from the beautiful, nor wickedness from virtue. Read the account of the creation of the world, and you will find that there everything is beautiful, and very beautiful. Therefore evil was not co-created with the beautiful. But neither was the intelligible creation, which came into being from the Creator, brought into existence mixed with wickedness. For if corporeal things did not have evil co-created in themselves, how could intelligible things, which so greatly excel in purity and sanctity, have had a common existence with evil? Yet evil exists, and its activity shows it to be widely spread throughout all of life. Whence then does it have its being, if it is neither unoriginate, they say, nor created? Let those who inquire into such things be asked in turn: Whence come diseases? Whence come the mutilations of the body? For disease is neither unbegotten nor a creation of God. But living beings were created with the constitution proper to them according to nature, and were brought forth into life complete in their limbs, and they became diseased when they were turned aside from what is natural. For health is departed from either through a bad regimen or through some cause productive of disease. Therefore God created the body, not disease; and so God made the soul, not sin; but the soul became evil when it was turned aside from what is natural.

What then was its primary good? The attendance upon God, and the union through love; having fallen from this, it was corrupted by various and manifold infirmities. But why was it at all capable of receiving evil? Because of its self-determined impulse, which is especially fitting for a rational nature. For being released from all necessity, and having received a self-chosen life from its creator, because it was made in the image of God, it conceives the good, and knows its enjoyment, and has the authority and power, by persisting in the contemplation of the beautiful and the enjoyment of the intelligible, to preserve its life according to nature; but it also has the authority to depart at some point from the beautiful. This happens to it when, having taken its fill of blessed delight, and as if weighed down by some drowsiness and having flowed away from the heights, it mingles with the flesh through the shameful enjoyments of pleasures. Once Adam was above, not in place, but in purpose, when, having just been ensouled and having looked up to heaven, becoming overjoyed at the things seen, greatly loving the benefactor, who granted the enjoyment of eternal life, and with delights

having rested him in paradise, and having given him a beginning according to that of the angels, and having made him a fellow inhabitant with the archangels, and a hearer of the divine voice; and, above all these things, being protected by God and enjoying his goods, quickly filled with all things, and, as it were, having become insolent through satiety, he preferred the pleasantness apparent to the fleshly eyes over the beauty of the intelligible, and deemed the filling of the belly more honorable than spiritual enjoyments. Immediately he was outside paradise, and outside that blessed way of life, having become evil not from necessity, but from folly. Therefore he sinned through a depraved choice, and died because of the sin; for the wages of sin are death. For to the extent that he withdrew from life, to that extent he approached death. For God is life; and deprivation of life is death. So Adam prepared death for himself through his withdrawal from God, according to what is written: "Behold, those who distance themselves from you will perish." Thus God did not create death, but we drew it upon ourselves from an evil disposition. Nor did he prevent the dissolution for the reasons previously stated, so that he might not preserve for us an eternal sickness. Just as if someone, having a clay vessel that had sprung a leak, should not consent to consign it to the fire until the defect inherent in it should be healed through remolding. But why, it is said, did we not have sinlessness in our constitution, so that sinning would not be possible for us even if we wished? Because you also do not consider your servants well-disposed when you keep them in bonds, but when you see them voluntarily fulfilling their duties for you.

And so God does not love what is compelled, but what is achieved through virtue. Virtue arises from choice, not from necessity. Choice depends on what is within our power. What is within our power is free will. Therefore, whoever blames the creator for not having made us naturally incapable of error is doing nothing other than preferring the irrational nature to the rational, and the immobile and unmotivated to the volitional and active. These things have been said, even if digressively, yet necessarily, so that you, having fallen into a deep sea of speculations, may not, in addition to the loss of what is earnestly sought, also suffer the loss of God. Let us then cease correcting the wise one. Let us cease seeking something better than what comes from him. For even if the reasons for the things administered in detail escape us, let at least this one doctrine be present in our souls: that no evil comes from the good. Following this, in accordance with the sequence of thought, comes the inquiry concerning the devil. Whence the devil, if evils are not from God? What then do we say? That the same argument which was given concerning wickedness among humans will suffice also for this inquiry. For whence is man wicked? From his own choice. Whence is the devil evil? From the same cause, he too having a life of his own choosing, and the authority lying with him either to remain with God or to be alienated from the good. Gabriel is an angel, and he stands perpetually with God. Satan is an angel, and he has completely fallen from his own order.

That one his choice preserved among the higher beings, and this one his free will of judgment cast down. For that one could have apostatized, and this one could not have fallen. But the former was saved by the insatiable love of God; the latter was shown to be abject by his withdrawal from God. This is evil: alienation from God. A small turn of the eye either places us with the sun or with the shadow of our body. For the one who looks up, it is ready to be illuminated; for the one who turns away toward the shadow, darkness is inevitable. Thus the devil is evil, having his wickedness from choice, not being a nature opposed to the good. Whence then his war against us? Because, being a vessel of all evil, he also received the disease of envy, and he begrudged us our honor. For he could not bear our painless life in paradise; but by tricks and devices he deceived man, and using his desire, which he had to become like God, for the deception, he showed the tree and promised through its eating to make him like God. For if you eat, he says, you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. He was not, therefore, made an enemy to us, but from jealousy he set himself against us in enmity. For seeing himself cast down from the angels, he could not bear to see the earthly being raised up through progress to the rank of angels. Since, then, he became an enemy, God preserved for us the opposition to him, through what he said to the beast that served him, referring the threat to him: "I will put enmity between you and between her seed.

Indeed, reconciliations with evil are harmful, since this is the law of friendship: it naturally arises through similarity between those who are joined. Hence it is rightly said, "Evil communications corrupt good manners." For just as in pestilential places the air breathed in bit by bit deposits a hidden disease in those who dwell there, so too familiarity with base things inflicts great evils upon souls, even if the harmful effect escapes immediate perception. For this reason, the enmity toward the serpent is irreconcilable. But if the instrument is worthy of such hatred, how much more ought we to hate the one who set it in motion? Yet, someone says, why was the tree in the paradise, through which the devil's plot against us was to succeed? For if it had not possessed the bait of deception, how could he have led us through disobedience to death? Because there had to be a commandment to test our obedience. For this reason, there was a plant bearing beautiful fruit, so that by abstaining from pleasure, displaying the good of self-control, we might justly be deemed worthy of the crowns of endurance. But the eating was followed not only by disobedience to the commandment, but also by the recognition of nakedness. For they ate, it says, and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. But it was necessary not to know nakedness, so that the human mind might not be distracted toward supplying what was lacking, devising garments and comfort for its nakedness, and altogether be drawn away from contemplation of God by care for the flesh. And why were garments not provided for him from the beginning?

That these things were not meant to be natural, nor from art. For natural things are proper to irrational beings: such as wings, hair, and thicknesses of hides, capable of withstanding winters and enduring heat. In these, one differs not at all from another, since nature is of equal honor to all; but for man it was fitting, according to the proportion of his love for God, that the returns of goods should be varied. But pursuits from art would have brought about idleness, which was especially to be avoided as harmful to man. Hence the Lord, calling us back to the life in paradise, casts out care for souls, saying: Do not be anxious for your soul, what you will eat; nor for your body, what you will wear. Therefore it was not fitting for him to have coverings either from nature or from art; but other things were prepared, which, after the display of virtue, were to bloom upon man from the grace of God and to surround him with luminous garments, such as those of the angels, surpassing the variety of flowers, surpassing the brightness and splendor of the stars. For this reason, then, garments were not given to him immediately, since they were prizes of virtue laid up for man, to which he was not permitted to attain because of the malice of the devil. So the devil stands as an antagonist to us because of the fall that long ago befell us through malice, the Lord having arranged for us the contest against

him again, so that through obedience we might wrestle back and be crowned against the adversary. For if only the devil had not come into being, but had remained in the rank in which he was originally stationed by the commander! But since he became an apostate, an enemy of God, and an enemy of men who have been made in the image of God (for this reason he is a misanthrope, because he is also a God-fighter; and he hates us as possessions of the Master, and he hates us as likenesses of God); therefore, the one who wisely and providentially administers human affairs used his wickedness as a training ground for our souls, just as a physician uses the venom of a viper for the preparation of life-saving drugs. Who then was the devil? And what was his rank? And what his office? And whence is he altogether called Satan? Satan, then, because he opposes the good; for this is what the Hebrew word signifies, as we have learned in the books of Kings: "For the Lord raised up to Solomon a Satan, Hadad the king of the Syrians." And devil, because he is both the accomplice of our sin and our accuser; rejoicing in our destruction, and holding us up to scorn for our deeds. His nature is incorporeal, according to the Apostle, who said: "Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the spiritual forces of evil." His office is that of a ruler: "For against the principalities," he says, "and the powers, and the world-rulers of this darkness." And the place of his rule is the air, as the same Apostle says: "Against the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now active in the sons of disobedience.

For this reason he is also called the ruler of the world, because his rule is over the earthly realm. And thus the Lord says: "Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out." And again: "The ruler of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing." But since it has been said concerning the host of the devil that "they are spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places," it is necessary to know that Scripture customarily calls the air "heaven," as in "the birds of the heaven" and "they ascend up to the heavens," that is, they rise high into the air. For this reason also the Lord saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, that is, fallen from his own rule and brought low, so that he might be trampled by those who have placed their hope in Christ. For he gave power to his disciples to tread upon snakes and scorpions, and upon every force of the enemy. Since, then, his evil tyranny has been cast out and the earthly place has been purified through the saving passion, which brought peace to things on earth and in the heavens, the kingdom of the heavens is now proclaimed to us: John saying, "The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near," and the Lord everywhere proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and even earlier the angels crying out, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth," and those rejoicing at the entry of our Lord into Jerusalem and shouting, "Peace in the heavens, and glory in the highest.

And in general, there are countless cries of victory, representing the final overthrow of the enemy, as if no struggle or contest remains for us in the higher realms, nor any adversary turning us aside from the blessed life, but we have an untroubled succession into the future, and we enjoy the tree of life perpetually, of which we were prevented from partaking from the beginning because of the serpent's treachery. For God set the flaming sword to guard the path to the tree of life; once we have passed it without hindrance, we would enter into the enjoyment of the good things in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are the glory and the power for all eternity. Amen.