khazarzar-john-chrysostom-in-illud-si-esurierit-inimicus

TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ATTEND THE ASSEMBLY, AND CONCERNING THE APOSTOLIC SAYING WHICH SAYS, "IF YOUR ENEMY HUNGERS, FEED HIM," AND CONCERNING REMEMBERING WRONGS. 1. It seems we have profited nothing by the long discourse we recently extended to you concerning diligence in attending the assemblies; for again the church is bereft of her children. Therefore I am again compelled to appear burdensome and heavy, rebuking those who are present and accusing those who have stayed away—the latter, because they have not put off their negligence, and you, because you have not taken thought for the salvation of your brothers. I am compelled to appear heavy and burdensome, not on my own behalf and for my own possessions, but on your behalf and for your salvation, than which nothing is more precious to me. Let him who wishes be weighed down, and let him call me burdensome and shameless; but I will not cease continually troubling you about the same things; for nothing is better for me than this shamelessness. For perhaps, perhaps, if nothing else, at least being ashamed of this—that you are not continually pestered about the same things—you will one day take up the care of your brothers. For what profit are praises to me, when I do not see you advancing in virtue? Or what harm is the silence of the hearers to me, when I see your piety increasing? For the praise of the speaker is not the applause, but the zeal of the hearers for godliness; not the clamor at the time of hearing, but the diligence throughout all the time. The applause has gone out together with the mouth, and, diffused into the air, has perished.

But to make the hearers better carries an undecaying and immortal reward both for the speaker and for those who are persuaded. The praise of your acclamation here makes the speaker illustrious, but the reverence of your soul gives great boldness at the judgment seat of Christ to the one who taught. So then, if anyone loves those who speak, let him love not the applause but the benefit of the hearers. It is no ordinary evil to neglect brothers, but the utmost punishment and an inexorable vengeance; and this the one who buried the talent made clear. At any rate, he was accused of nothing concerning his own life; for he had not become wicked with respect to the deposit, since he gave it back whole; but nevertheless he became wicked also with respect to the working of the trust. For he did not double what was entrusted; therefore he was also punished. From this it is clear that even if we are earnest and well-disciplined, even if we have great desire for the hearing of the divine Scriptures, this is not sufficient for our salvation. For one must double the trust, and it becomes double when, along with our own salvation, we also take thought for the care of others. Since that man too said, "See, you have what is yours safe"; but this was not sufficient for him as a defense. For it was necessary, he says, to deposit what was deposited with the bankers. And observe for me how light are the Master's commands. For men make those who lend money responsible for the lord's funds and for the repayment. You deposited, he says, you exact payment; I have no account with the one who received it. But God does not do so, but commands only to deposit, and no longer makes us responsible for the repayment.

For the speaker is master of advising, not of persuading. Therefore, he says, I make you responsible only for the laying down, but no longer for the exacting. What is lighter than this? But nevertheless the servant called that master, so gentle and humane, harsh. For such are the habits of ungrateful and careless servants: they always transfer the causes of their own sins to their masters. For this reason that man, being tortured and bound, was led out into the outer darkness. So that we may not suffer this, let us lay down the teaching upon our brothers, whether they are persuaded or whether they are not persuaded. For if they are persuaded, they will benefit both themselves and us; but if they are not persuaded, they bring upon themselves an inexorable punishment, but they could not harm us even to the slightest degree. For we have done our part, having advised; and if they are not persuaded, no harm would come to us from this. For the charge is not for failing to persuade, but for failing to advise; and after the exhortation and the advice, the constant and continuous one, the account will no longer be with us, but with them, to God. Indeed, I would have wished to know clearly that you continue exhorting them, and that even if they remain in their carelessness all the time, I would never have troubled you; but now I am afraid lest perhaps through your contempt and neglect they remain uncorrected. For it is impossible for a man who continually enjoys exhortation and teaching not to become better and more earnest. And the proverb is a common one, which I am about to utter; but nevertheless this very thing establishes it. For it says, a drop of water continually falling hollows out a rock.

And yet what is softer than water? What is harder than stone? But nevertheless persistence conquered nature. And if persistence conquers nature, much more could it prevail over free choice. Christianity is not a game, beloved, nor a trivial matter. We say these things continually, and we do nothing more. 2. How do you think I am pained, when I remember that at the festivals the multitudes of the assemblies imitate the long expanses of the sea, but now not even the smallest fraction of that multitude is gathered here? Where now are those who troubled us at the feasts? I seek for them, and for their sake I lament, considering how great a multitude of the saved is perishing, how great a loss of brothers I endure, how the matters of salvation are reduced to a few, and the greater part of the body of the Church resembles a dead and motionless body. And what is that to us, he says? It is to you most of all—you who do not care for them, who do not exhort and counsel, who do not impose necessity, and drag them by force, and lead them away from their great negligence. For that one must be useful not only to oneself but also to many, Christ showed when he called us salt and leaven and light; and these things are useful and profitable to others. For the lamp does not shine for itself, but for those sitting in darkness; and you are a lamp, not so that you alone may enjoy the light, but so that you may lead back that one who has gone astray.

For what benefit is a lamp when it does not shine for the one sitting in darkness? And what benefit is a Christian when he gains no one and leads no one back to virtue? Again, salt does not tighten itself only, but it also contracts the putrefying parts of bodies, and it does not allow them to perish by dissolving away. So then you also, since God has made you spiritual salt, tighten and contract the putrefying members—that is, the careless and vulgar among the brethren—and, having freed them from carelessness as from some putrefaction, unite them to the rest of the body of the Church. For this reason he also called you leaven; for leaven does not leaven itself, but the rest of the dough, great and indescribable, though it is small and brief. So then you also: even if you are few in number, become many and powerful in faith and in zeal according to God. Just as leaven is not weak because of its smallness, but prevails because of the heat inherent in it and the power of its quality, so then you also will be able to lead back many more to the same zeal as yours, if you wish. But if they put forward the summer—for I hear them saying these things too, that "The heat is intense now, the burning unbearable; we cannot endure being cramped and pressed in the crowd, dripping with sweat from every side and burdened by the heat and the crowding"—I am ashamed on their behalf, believe me; for such excuses are womanish, or rather not even sufficient for forgiveness for those whose bodies are softer and whose nature is weaker. Nevertheless, even if it is shameful to reply to such a defense, it is nonetheless necessary.

For if those men make such excuses and are not ashamed, much more should we not be ashamed when we speak against these things. What then should I say to those who put these things forward? I wish to remind them of the three children in the furnace and in the flame, who, seeing the fire running around them on every side, and poured around their mouth and eyes and their very breath, did not cease singing that sacred and mystical hymn to God with creation, but standing then in the midst of the pyre, they sent up the praise more eagerly than those who spend their time in a meadow, to the common Master of all; and along with these three children, of the lions in Babylon for them, and of Daniel and the pit; and not of this one only, but I think it right to remind them again also of another pit and prophet, and of the mire choking Jeremiah up to the neck. And rising up from the pits, I wish to lead these who put forward the heat into the prison, and to show Paul there and Silas bound to the wood, full of welts and wounds, their whole body crushed by the multitude of blows, hymning God in the middle of the night, and performing that sacred all-night vigil.

For how is it not absurd that those saints, while in a furnace, and fire, and a pit, and wild beasts, and mire, and prison, and the stocks, and scourges, and guardhouses, and unbearable terrors, never once blamed any of these things, but with great intensity and boiling eagerness continually occupied themselves with prayers and sacred hymns; while we, who have endured not a small or great suffering from those things enumerated—on account of heat, and a brief warmth, and sweat—neglect our own salvation, and leaving the assemblies wander about outside, being corrupted by gatherings that have nothing sound in them? So great is the dew of the divine oracles, and do you put forward heat as an excuse? The water, he says—Christ says—that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life; and again, He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, from his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Having springs, tell me, and spiritual rivers, have you feared perceptible heat? But in the marketplace, tell me, where there is such great noise and crowding and much burning heat, how is it that you do not put forward suffocation and warmth as an excuse? For you surely cannot say this, that there one can enjoy a cooler nature of the air, but here all the suffocation has been gathered together for us; rather, quite the opposite: here, both from the underlying slab and from the rest of the house's construction (for it has risen to an unspeakable height), the air is lighter and cooler; but there the sun is great everywhere, and the crowding is great, and smoke and dust, and many other things far greater than these that intensify the unpleasantness.

From this it is clear that these irrational excuses belong to laziness, to a soul that has fallen slack, and to one deprived of the flame of the Spirit. 3. I say these things now, not so much addressing those men as addressing you who do not draw them in, who do not rouse them from their laziness, and who do not drag them to this table of salvation. Even servants, when they are about to fulfill a common service, call their fellow servants; but you, when you are about to come to this spiritual service, overlook your fellow servants being deprived of the gain. What then, someone says, if they are unwilling? Make them willing by your constant attendance; for if they see us pressing them, they will certainly be willing. But these things are a pretext and an excuse. How many fathers are there here who do not have their sons standing with them? Was it also difficult for you to draw your children along? From this it is clear that the rest also remain outside not only because of their own laziness but also because of your contempt. But even if not before, at least now stand up, and let each one enter the church with the hymn, and let father rouse and urge on son, and son the one who begot him, and men their wives, and women their husbands, and master his servant, and brother his brother, and friend his friend, to this assembly here; or rather, let us call not only our friends but also our enemies to this common treasury of good things. If your enemy sees your forethought, he will certainly put aside his hatred. Say to him:

Are you not ashamed before the Jews, and do you not blush, who keep the Sabbath with such strictness, and from evening itself abstain from all work? And if on the day of Preparation they see the sun hastening toward the west, they break contracts and cut off sales; and if someone who has bought from them before evening comes in the evening bringing the price, they do not endure to receive it, nor to accept the silver. And why do I speak of the price of goods and contracts? Even if it were possible to take a treasure, they would choose to lose the profit rather than trample on the law. Then the Jews, keeping the law even unseasonably, are so scrupulous, and hold fast to an observance that profits them nothing, but even harms them; but you, who are above the shadow, who have been deemed worthy to see the sun of righteousness, who are initiated into the citizenship of the heavens, do you not show the same zeal as they who sit by wickedness unseasonably, you who have been entrusted with the truth, but being called here for a small part of a day, do you not even endure to spend this on hearing the divine oracles? And what pardon would you obtain, tell me? What defense will you have to speak, reasonable and just? It is not possible, it is not possible, that one so negligent and slack should ever obtain pardon, even if he puts forward countless necessities of worldly affairs.

Do you not know that if you come and worship God and share in the gathering here, the affairs in your hands become easier for you? Do you have worldly cares? It is for these very things, then, that you should come here, so that by drawing God's favor upon yourself through the gathering here, you may go out with safety; so that you may have him as your ally, so that you may become invincible against the demons, helped by the hand from above. If you enjoy a father's prayers, if you share in the common prayer, if you hear the divine oracles, if you draw to yourself God's help, if you go out thus fenced with these weapons, not even the devil himself will thereafter be able to look you in the face, let alone wicked men who are eager to insult and slander. But if you go from your house to the marketplace and are found stripped of these weapons, you will be easy to overpower for all who insult you. This is why many things happen to us contrary to our expectation, both in public and in private affairs, because we have not given our first zeal to spiritual things and then to worldly things, but we have reversed the order. This is why the sequence and straightness of affairs has been overturned, and everything is full of great confusion for us. How do you think I grieve and suffer pain when I consider that, when a festival and feast arrives, even if no one is calling, the whole city runs together; but when a festival and feast has passed, even if we spend the whole day tearing ourselves apart and calling you, there is no one paying attention? For often turning these things over in my mind, I groaned bitterly and said to myself:

What need is there of exhortation or counsel, when you do everything simply out of habit, and become no more zealous from our teaching? For when during the festivals you need no exhortation from us, but when those are over you are helped nothing by our teaching, do you not show our word to be superfluous, as far as it depends on you? 4. Perhaps many of those who hear these things are pained. But those who are slack do not know it thus; for if only they would cast off their negligence, as we who care for your affairs each day. What do you gain so much from external matters, as you harm yourself? It is not possible to depart having received so much gain from another assembly or gathering, as from the time spent here; even if you mention a court of justice, or a council chamber, or the palace itself. For we do not hand over to those who enter here the administration of nations and cities, nor the command of armies, but another rule, more august even than the kingdom itself; or rather, it is not we who hand it over, but the grace of the Spirit. What, then, is the rule more august than the kingdom, which those who enter here receive? They are taught to master what is improper, to rule over evil desire, to govern anger, to renounce envy, to enslave vainglory. There is no king so august, sitting on the royal throne and wearing a diadem, as a man who has raised upright reason within himself onto the throne of rule over slavish passions, and has crowned his head with dominion over them, as with a bright diadem.

For tell me, what is the benefit of a purple robe, and golden garments, and a crown set with precious stones, when the soul is a captive of the passions? What profit is there in outward freedom, when that which is more sovereign within us is shamefully and pitifully enslaved? For just as when a fever sinks down to the depths and burns up all that is within, there is no benefit from the outward appearance of the body, if it suffers nothing of the kind; so too, when our soul is swept away by the passions within, there is no benefit from outward rule, nor from the royal throne, when the mind, with great tyranny, is overthrown from the throne of its kingdom by the passions, and submits and trembles at their insurrections. That this may not happen, prophets and apostles run together from every side, restraining our passions, and casting out all the beastliness of the irrationality within us, and entrusting to us the rule that is far more venerable than kingship. For this reason I was saying that those who deprive themselves of this care receive the blow in matters of importance, enduring a loss such as they would from nowhere else; since they also gain profits here by coming, as much as they could gain from nowhere else; just as the argument has also demonstrated. You shall not appear before the Lord empty, the law said; that is, do not enter without sacrifices. But if one must not enter the house of God without sacrifices, much more into gatherings with brothers; for better than that is this sacrifice and offering, when you take a soul with you and enter. Do you not see the doves

those that have been trained, how do they go out and hunt others? Let us do the same. For what excuse will there be, when the irrational animals, a creature of the same kind, are able to hunt, and we who have been honored with reason and with such wisdom overlook such a hunt? I exhorted you in the previous discourse, saying: Let each of you go to the houses of your neighbors, wait for them to come out, seize them, and bring them back to the common mother; and imitate those mad for the theater, who with all eagerness having arranged with one another, thus at dawn wait for that unlawful spectacle. But no more has come to us from that exhortation. Therefore I speak again, and speaking I will not cease until I persuade. Hearing profits nothing if action is not present with it. It makes the punishment heavier for us, when hearing the same things continually we do none of the things said. And that the punishment is heavier, hear Christ saying: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse concerning their sin; and the Apostle also: For not the hearers of the law shall be justified. And he says these things to those who hear; but wishing also to instruct the speaker, that not even for him will there be any greater profit from the teaching, when he does not have a manner of life joined to the teaching, and a life consistent with the word, hear how both the Apostle and the Prophet address him. For the one says: But to the sinner God said, Why do you recount my statutes, and take up my covenant through your mouth, while you have hated discipline?

But the Apostle, addressing these very people again, those who pride themselves on their teaching, speaks somehow thus: You are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants; therefore you who teach another, do you not teach yourself? Since, then, neither I who speak can benefit the speaking, nor you who hear the hearing, without obeying what is said—but rather it condemns all the more—let us not display our zeal only as far as the hearing, but let us keep what is said in deeds. For it is a good thing to devote oneself continually to the hearing of divine oracles; but this good thing becomes useless when it does not have the benefit of obedience joined to it. So that you may not gather here in vain, with all zeal, as I have often entreated you, and entreating I shall not cease, draw our brothers to us, exhort those who are wandering, advise them not only in word but also in deed. Greater is this teaching that comes through character, through conduct. And even if you say nothing, but go out from the assembly, through your bearing, and your gaze, and your voice, and your walk, and all the rest of your composure, showing to the people left behind the profit that you received by coming out from here—this is enough for exhortation and advice. For we ought to go out from here in such a way, as if from a sacred inner shrine, as if having come down from heaven itself, having become composed, practicing philosophy, doing and saying all things with rhythm.

And let a wife seeing her husband returning from the assembly, and a father his son, and a child his father, and a slave his master, and a friend his friend, and an enemy his enemy—let them all perceive the benefit that has come to us here; and they will perceive it, if they sense that you have become gentler, more philosophical, more devout. Consider what kind of initiation you who are initiated enjoy, with whom you send up that mystic hymn, with whom you cry out the Thrice-Holy. Teach those outside that you have danced with the seraphim, that you are initiated into the assembly above, that you have been enrolled in the choir of the angels, that you have conversed with the Master, that you have been with Christ. If we thus order ourselves, when we go out we shall need no word for those left behind; but from our own benefit they will perceive their own loss, and they will run quickly so as to enjoy the same things. For seeing the beauty of your soul shining forth through their senses, even if they are duller than all others, they will fall in love with your comeliness. For if bodily beauty gives wings to those who see it, much more could the fair form of a soul stir the beholder and urge him to equal zeal. Let us therefore adorn our inner man, and let us remember outside the things said here; for that is especially the time for remembering them; and just as an athlete displays in the contests the things he learns in the wrestling school, so too must we display in outward affairs the things we hear here.

5. Bear in mind, then, what is said here, so that when you go out and the devil lays hold of you—whether through anger, or through vainglory, or through some other passion—remembering the teaching given here, you may be able to strip off easily the snares of the evil one. Do you not see, in the wrestling schools, the trainers, who after countless contests have at length received exemption from wrestling by reason of their age, sitting outside the arena beside the very dust, and calling out to those inside who are wrestling, so as to hold a hand, so as to pull a leg, so as to take hold from behind the back, and saying many other such things—that if you do this and that, you will easily stretch out your opponent—do they not greatly help their pupils? Do you too look to your own trainer, the blessed Paul, who after countless crowns now sits outside the arena—I mean of the present life—and calls out to us as we wrestle, and cries aloud through his Epistles, whenever he sees men seized by anger and by remembrance of wrongs, and choked by the passion: If your enemy is hungry, feed him. And just as the trainer says that if you do this and that, you will prevail over your opponent, so he too adds: For in doing this, you will heap coals of fire upon his head. But in the midst of my reading of this law, there came upon me the question that seems to arise from it, and to give many a handle against Paul, which I must set before you today in your midst. What, then, is it that lurks in the minds of those who are not willing to examine all things with precision?

Paul, by trying to lead them away from anger and to persuade them to be gentle and moderate toward their neighbors, actually provoked them to savagery and stirred them to rage. For the saying, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink, is a good commandment and full of wisdom, and useful both to the one who does it and to the one who receives it; but what follows from this point on has great difficulty, and seems not to agree with the mind of the one who spoke the earlier words. And what is this? The statement that By doing this, you will heap coals of fire on his head. For through these words he has wronged both the one who acts and the one who receives: the one by setting his head alight and piling coals of fire upon it. For what good could come from being fed and given drink so great as the evil that comes from the heaping of coals? He has, then, he says, wronged the one who is well treated in this way, casting him into a greater punishment, and he has in turn harmed the one who does good in another way. For what can this man gain from the beneficence shown to enemies, when he does it in the hope of punishment? For the one who feeds and gives drink to his enemy for this reason—in order to heap coals of fire on his head—would be not humane and kind, but cruel and harsh, by means of a small beneficence

He inflicted an inexpressible punishment. For what could be harsher than for a man to feed his enemy for this very reason—so that he might heap coals of fire upon the head of the one being fed? This, then, is the objection. It remains for us to bring forward the solution, so that through these very words, which seem to catch at the letter of the law, you may see clearly all the wisdom of the lawgiver. What, then, is the solution? That great and noble man perceived well that reconciling quickly with an enemy is a heavy and difficult thing—heavy and difficult, not by its own nature, but by our negligence. But he did not merely command reconciliation; he also commanded feeding, which was much heavier than the former. For if some are enraged merely at the sight of those who have wronged them, how would they choose to feed them when hungry? And why do I say "at the sight"? If someone merely mentions them and brings their name into the conversation, it reopens the wound of our mind and makes the inflammation greater. Paul, then, perceiving all these things and wishing to make this difficult and hard task easy and light, and to persuade the man who cannot endure even to look at his enemy to become his benefactor, set before him the coals of fire, so that, urged on by the hope of vengeance, he might run to benefit the one who wronged him. And just as the fisherman wraps the hook all around with bait and offers it to the fish, so that, rushing to its accustomed food, it may be caught through it and easily held fast—

Thus also Paul, wishing to bring the injured man into beneficence toward the one who wronged him, does not set forth the hook of philosophy bare, but as if with some bait, wrapping it around with the coals of fire, he calls the man who has been abused by the hope of punishment to beneficence toward the one who has grieved him; and once he has come, he holds him fast thereafter and does not allow him to leap away, since the very nature of the matter nails him to his enemy; and he says to him, as it were: Do you not wish to feed the one who wronged you out of reverence? At any rate, feed him because of the hope of punishment. For he knows that if he once touches beneficence toward him, it becomes for him thereafter the beginning and the road of reconciliation. For no one, no one, would endure to have as an enemy the man who is continually fed and given drink by him, even if at the outset he does this out of hope of vengeance. For time, as it advances, loosens even the tension of anger. Just as, then, the fisherman, if he set forth the lure bare, would not draw in the fish, but now, wrapping it around, he secretly inserts the hook into the mouth of the creature that approaches; so also Paul, if he had not held out the expectation of punishment, would not have persuaded the injured to touch the beneficence of those who had grieved them.

Wishing, then, to persuade them—who recoil and are vexed and grow numb even at the very sight of their enemies—to do them the greatest benefits, he set down the coals of fire, not that he might cast those men into inexorable punishment, but that by persuading the injured, in the expectation of punishment, to benefit their enemies, he might in time persuade them to let go of all their anger. 6. And so he consoled the one who was wronged; but observe also how he joins the one who did the wrong to the one who has been provoked. First, by the manner of the beneficence; for no one is so wretched and insensible that, being given drink and fed, he would not wish to become a slave and friend to the one who does these things for him; second, by the fear of punishment. For he seems indeed to be speaking to the one who feeds him, saying, For by doing this, you heap coals of fire upon his head; but most of all he lays hold of the one who has caused the grief, so that by the fear of this punishment he may not remain an enemy forever, but—

Knowing that being fed and given drink could do him the greatest harm, if he should remain continually in enmity, it will dissolve his anger. For in this way he will be able to quench the coals of fire. So that both the chastisement and the punishment, when set down, draw the wronged man to benefit the one who has grieved him, and strike fear into and rouse the one who provoked him, and push him toward reconciliation with the one who feeds and gives drink. With a double bond, then, he bound both to each other—both by that of beneficence and by that of punishment. For the difficult thing is to begin and to find an entrance for reconciliation; but once this has been opened in whatever way, all that follows will be easy and simple. For even if at the outset the wronged man feeds his enemy with the hope of punishment, yet by the very act of feeding he becomes a friend, and will be able to cast out the desire for vengeance. For once he has become a friend, he would no longer feed with such an expectation the one who has been reconciled to him. Again, the one who provoked him, seeing the wronged man choosing to feed him and give him drink, for this very reason, and through fear of the punishment laid up for him, casts out all enmity, even if he be ten thousand times iron, and harsh, and adamant, both put to shame by the kindness of the one who feeds him, and dreading the punishment laid up for him if he should remain an enemy after the food. For this reason he did not stop here in his exhortation, but when he had emptied each one's anger, then he also corrects their disposition, saying, Be not overcome by evil. For if you remain, he says, bearing malice and defending yourself, you seem to conquer your enemy, but you are conquered by evil—that is, by anger.

So if you wish to conquer, be reconciled, and do not take vengeance. For this is the splendid victory, when in the good—that is, in forbearance—you conquer evil, casting out anger and resentment. But the wronged man, inflamed as he was, would not have endured these words from the beginning. For this reason, when he had sated his wrath, then he also led him to the best cause for reconciliation, and did not allow him to remain in the wicked hope of punishment. Did you see the lawgiver's wisdom? And so that you may learn that it was because of the weakness of those who could not otherwise be joined to one another that he introduced this law, hear how Christ, legislating this very same thing, did not set the same prize; but having said, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you—which is to feed and give drink—he did not add, For in doing this you will heap coals of fire on their heads, but what? That you may become like your Father who is in the heavens. Reasonably so; for he was speaking to Peter, James, and John, and to the rest of the choir of the apostles; for this reason he set this prize. But if you say that even so the commandment is burdensome, you plead again more greatly on behalf of Paul, but you deprive yourself of all pardon. Why ever? Because this which seems to be burdensome, I show you being accomplished in the Old Testament, when there was not yet a display of such great philosophy. For this reason Paul too did not introduce the law with his own words, but using the very utterances which the one who introduced it from the beginning had set down, so that he might leave no pardon to those who do not keep it.

For the words, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink," are not Paul's words first, but Solomon's. For this reason he has set down these words, in order to persuade the hearer that it is among the most shameful things to regard an ancient law—one often fulfilled by the ancients—as now, when it has advanced to such great philosophy, burdensome and irksome. And who among the ancients fulfilled it? he says. Many others indeed, but especially David, with greater abundance. He not only fed his enemy and gave him drink, but also, when he was often in danger, snatched him from death, and having become master of his slaughter, he spared him once, and twice, and many times. And Saul so hated him and turned away from him after countless benefactions, after the glorious trophies, and the salvation in the matter of Goliath, that he could not even endure to mention his name, but called him by his father's name. For once, when a festival came, since he had woven some plot against him and stitched together a grievous scheme, he did not see him arriving. Where, he says, is the son of Jesse? He called him by his father's name, partly because through hatred he could not bear to remember his name, and partly because he thought to damage the righteous man's renown by the low birth of his father—miserably and wretchedly thinking so. For in the first place, even if he had grounds to accuse the father, this did no harm to David. For each person is accountable for his own deeds, and by these he can be praised or accused.

But now, having no evil deed of his own to mention, he brought forward the lowliness of his family line, expecting by this to obscure his splendor—which was itself the height of folly. For what accusation is it to be from humble and lowly stock? But that man did not know how to think such things through. So Saul called him the son of Jesse; but David, finding him asleep inside the cave, did not call him the son of Kish, but by the name of honor: "For I will not," he says, "lay my hand upon the Lord's anointed." So free was he from anger and all remembrance of wrongs. He calls "the Lord's anointed" the one who had wronged him so greatly, the one who thirsted for his blood, the one who after countless kindnesses had often attempted to destroy him. For he did not consider what that man deserved to suffer, but he considered what it was fitting for him both to do and to say to him—which is the greatest boundary of philosophy. What is this? As though having taken his enemy in a prison, held by a double bond—or rather a triple one—both by the narrowness of the place, and by the absence of those who might help, and by the compulsion of sleep, do you not exact justice or punishment from him? No, he says; for I do not now look at what this man is justly deserving to suffer, but at what it is fitting for me to do. He did not look to the ease of the slaughter, but he looked to the exactness of the philosophy that befitted him. And yet what of the circumstances then was not sufficient to rouse him to the slaughter? The enemy being delivered into his hands bound? For you surely know this, that we rush more eagerly upon matters that are full of ease, and the hope of success implants in us a greater desire for the deed, as was also the case with him then.

But the commander then advising and stirring him up? But the memory of past events? Yet nothing moved him toward the murder; rather, the very ease of the slaughter turned him away; for he considered that God had handed him over for this reason, in order to provide him with a greater occasion and opportunity for philosophy. You, then, perhaps marvel at him because he mentioned none of the past evils; but I am struck with amazement at him for another reason, far greater. What is this? That not even fear of what was to come drove him to make away with his enemy. For he knew clearly that, having escaped his hands, he would stand against him again; but he chose rather to be in danger himself by releasing the one who had wronged him, than, providing for his own safety, to make away with the enemy. What, then, could equal that great and noble soul, who, when the law commanded to gouge out an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and to defend oneself with equal measures, not only did not do this, but displayed a philosophy far greater? And yet if he had then killed Saul, even so the praise of his philosophy would have remained intact for him, not only because he defended himself, not being himself the first to lay unjust hands on him, but because, an eye for an eye, he conquered with great forbearance. For he did not raise one slaughter in return for one, but in return for

For he was about to bring upon him one death, though he had attempted to destroy him many times, not once, not twice, but often, on account of the many deaths which that man had brought upon him. Or rather, not only these things, but also his fearing the future and thus coming to his defense—this too, along with what has been said, awakens for him the complete crown of forbearance. For the one who is angry over what has been done to him and demands punishment could not attain the praises of forbearance; but no one would deprive of the crowns of clemency the one who let go all the past, though it was great and grievous, and who feared for the future and prepared safety for himself beforehand, and for this reason was compelled to rise to his defense. 7. Nevertheless David did not do this either, but found a certain new and paradoxical way of philosophy; and neither the memory of the past, nor the fear of the future, nor the urging of the commander, nor the desolation of the place, nor the ease of the slaughter, nor anything else stirred him to murder; but as if he were a benefactor and had done him great goods, so he spared the enemy who had also grieved him. What forgiveness, then, shall we have, who remember past sins and defend ourselves against those who have grieved us, when that blameless man, having suffered so much and expecting even more and harsher evils to befall him from the salvation of his enemy, is shown to spare him in such a way as to choose rather to run the risk himself and to live with fear and trembling, than justly to slay the one who was about to cause him countless troubles?

From these things, then, one can see his philosophy, that not only did he not slay, though the necessity was so great, but he did not even utter a blasphemous word against him, and that too when the one being insulted was not going to hear it. And yet we often speak ill even of friends when they are absent, but he did not do so even to an enemy who had wronged him so greatly. From these things, then, one can see his philosophy; but his love for humanity, and his other care, from what he did after these things. For having cut off the fringe of his garment and taken away the flask of water, he went off far away, and standing there he cried out, and showed these things to the man who had been saved, doing this not for display and vainglory, but wishing to persuade him through his deeds that he had suspected him as an enemy in vain and to no purpose, and therefore hastening to draw him to friendship. But nevertheless, even though he had persuaded him in this way and was able to dispose of him, he again chose rather to be cast out of his homeland and to dwell in a foreign land, and being distressed each day, to provide the necessary food for himself, than staying at home to grieve the plotter. What could be gentler than that man's soul? Truly he spoke justly: Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness. Let us also imitate this man, and let us neither speak nor do evil to our enemies, but let us also do good to them according to our ability; for we will do good to ourselves rather than to them. For if you forgive, he says, your enemies, it will be forgiven you. Forgive servile sins, that you may receive a master's forgiveness of sins.

But if he has done great wrong, the greater the forgiveness you grant, the greater the forgiveness you will receive. For this reason we were taught to say, "Forgive us, as we forgive," so that we might learn that the measure of forgiveness takes its beginning from us first. So that, the more grievous the evils the enemy works, the greater the benefit he confers. Let us therefore hasten and press on to be reconciled with those who have grieved us, whether they are angry justly or unjustly. For if you are reconciled here, you have been released from the judgment there; but if, while the enmity remains, death comes and carries you away, intervening while the hatred is still there, then it is necessary that the case be brought in there. Just as, then, many people who are in dispute with one another, if they settle matters outside court in a more friendly way with each other, free themselves from loss and fear and many dangers, the outcome of the case turning out according to the wish of both parties; but if they entrust themselves to the judge, loss of money and often punishment will come to them, and their enmity will remain unmoved; so indeed also here, if we settle matters during the present life, we shall free ourselves from all punishment; but if we depart as enemies to that fearful tribunal, we shall pay the final penalty, wholly by the vote of that judge, and both parties will undergo inexorable punishment—the one who is unjustly angry, because he is unjustly so, and the one who is justly angry, because he bore a grudge justly. For even if we have suffered wrong unjustly, we must bestow forgiveness on those who have done the wrong.

And observe how he pushes and presses those who have wronged others unjustly toward reconciliation with those who have been wronged. "If you offer your gift," he says, "before the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, go, first be reconciled to your brother." He did not say, "Gather it up, offer the sacrifice," but, "Be reconciled, and then offer." "Leave it lying there," he says, so that the necessity of the offering may compel even the unwilling man—the one who is justly angry—to come to reconciliation. See how he again urges us to go to the one who provoked us, saying, "Forgive your debtors, so that your Father may also forgive you your trespasses." For he has set no small reward, but one that greatly exceeds the magnitude of the achievement. Considering all these things, then, and reckoning the recompense that comes from this, and that it is not a matter of great toil and effort to wipe away sins, let us forgive those who have wronged us. For what others scarcely accomplish through fasting, and lamentations, and prayers, and sackcloth, and ashes, and countless confessions—I mean the wiping away of their own sins—this it is possible for us to do easily, without sackcloth and ashes and fasting, if only we wipe away anger from our mind and forgive those who have wronged us with sincerity.

May the God of peace and love banish all anger and bitterness and wrath from our soul, and grant that we, bound closely together in exact accordance with the order of the members, may with one accord, with one mouth and one soul, unceasingly send up to him the hymns of thanksgiving that are due, for to him belong the glory and the might, unto the ages of ages. Amen.