HOMILY XVI. HOMIL. CHAP. iv. 31, 32. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, XVI. and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. If we are to attain to the kingdom of Heaven, it is not enough to abandon wickedness, but great exercise of the virtues is required also. To be delivered indeed from hell we must abstain from wickedness; but to attain to the kingdom we must cleave fast to virtue. Know ye not that even in the tribunals of the heathen, when examination is made of men's deeds, and the whole city is assembled, this is the case? Nay, there was an ancient custom amongst the heathen, to crown with a golden crown,-not the man who had done no evil to his country, for this were in itself no more than enough to save him from punishment;—but him who had achieved signal benefits. It was thus that a man was to be advanced to this distinction. But what I had especial need to say, had, I know not how, well nigh escaped me. I shall accordingly make some slight correction of what I have said, and postpone the first portion of these two divisions. For as I was saying that the departure from evil is sufficient to prevent our falling into hell, whilst I was speaking, there stole upon me a certain awful sentence, which does not merely bring down vengeance on them that dare to commit evil, but which also punishes those who omit any opportunity of doing good. What sentence then is this? When the day, the dreadful day, He T IV. 32. 34. 274 Not to do good is to do evil. EPHES. saith, was arrived, and the set time was come, the Judge, seated on the judgment seat, set the sheep on the right hand Mat. 25, and the goats on the left; and to the sheep He said, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat. So far, well. For it was meet that for such compassion they should receive this reward. That those, however, who only did not communicate of their own possessions to them that were in need, that they should be punished, not merely by the loss of blessings, but by being also sent to hell-fire, what just reason, I say, can there be in this? Now most certainly this too will have a fair shew of reason, no less than the other case: for we are hence instructed, that as they that have done good shall enjoy those good things that are in heaven, so they, who, though they have no evil indeed to be charged with, yet have omitted to do any good they might have done, will be hurried away with them that have done evil into hell-fire. Unless one might indeed say this, that the very not doing good is a part of wickedness, inasmuch as it comes of indolence, and indolence is a part of vice, nay, rather, not a part, but a source and baneful root of it. For idleness is the teacher of every vice. Let us not then foolishly ask such questions as these, What place shall he occupy, who has done neither any evil nor any good? The very not doing good, is in itself doing evil. Tell me, if thou hadst a servant, who should neither steal, nor insult, nor contradict thee, who moreover should keep from drunkenness and every other kind of vice, and yet should sit perpetually in idleness, and not doing one of those duties which a servant owes to his master, wouldest thou not chastise him, wouldest thou not put him to the rack? Doubtless, thou wilt say, I would. And yet forsooth he has done no evil. No, but this is in itself doing evil. But let us, if you please, apply this to other cases in life. Suppose then that of an husbandman. He does no damage to our property, he lays no plots against us, and he is not a thief, he only ties his hands behind him, and sits at home, he neither sows, nor cuts a single furrow, nor harnesses an ox to the yoke, nor looks after a vine, nor in fact discharges S. Paul not only forbids evil tempers, but exhorts to good ones. 275 any one of those other labours required in husbandry. Now, I HOMIL. say, should we not chastise such a man? And yet he has done XVI. no wrong to any one, we have no charge whatever to make against him. No, but by this very thing has he done wrong. He does wrong in that he does not contribute his own share to the common stock of good. And what again, tell me, if every single artisan or mechanic were only to do no harm, say to one of a different craft,-nay, to one of his own, but only were to be idle, would not our whole life at that rate be utterly at an end and perish? Will ye that I yet further protract the discourse with reference to the body? Let the hand then neither strike the head, nor cut out the tongue, nor pluck out the eye, nor do any evil of this sort, but only remain idle, and not render its due service to the body at large; would it not be more fitting that it should be cut off, than that one should carry it about in idleness, and a detriment to the whole body? And what too, if the mouth, without either devouring the hand, or biting the breast, should nevertheless fail in all its proper duties; were it not far better that it should be stopped? If therefore both in the case of servants, and of mechanics, and of the whole body, not only the commission of evil, but also the omission of what is good, is great unrighteousness, much more will this be the case in the body of Christ. And therefore the blessed Paul also, in leading us away MORAL. from sin, leads us on to virtue. For where, tell me, is the advantage of all the thorns being cut out, if the good seeds be not sown? For our labour, if it remain unfinished, will come round and end in the same mischief. And therefore Paul also, in his deep and affectionate anxiety for us, does not let his admonitions stop at eradicating and destroying evil tempers, but further urges us at once to evidence the implanting of good ones. For having said, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, he adds, And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. For all these are habits and dispositions. And our abandonment of one thing is not sufficient to settle us in the habitual practice of another, but there is need again of some fresh IV. 32. 276 We can only escape evil tempers by cultivating good ones. EPHES. impulse, and of an effort not less than that made in our avoidance of evil dispositions, in order to our acquiring good ones. For so in the case of the body, the black man, if he gets rid of this complexion, does not straightway become white. Or rather let us not fence with an argument from physical subjects, but draw our example from those which concern moral choice. He who is not our enemy, is not necessarily our friend; but there is some intermediate state, neither of enmity nor of friendship, which is perhaps that in which the greater part of mankind are towards us. He that is not crying is not therefore necessarily laughing, but there is a state between the two. And so, I say, is the case here. He that is not bitter is not necessarily kind, neither is he that is not wrathful necessarily tender-hearted; but there is need of a counteracting effort, in order to acquire this excellence. And look how the blessed Paul, according to the rules of the best husbandry, thoroughly cleans and works the land entrusted to him by the Husbandman. He has taken away the bad seeds; he now exhorts us to retain the good plants. Be ye kind, saith he, for if, when the thorns are plucked up, the field remains fallow, it will again bear unprofitable weeds. And therefore there is need to anticipate its unoccupied and fallow state by the setting of good seeds and plants. He destroys anger, he puts in kindness; he destroys bitterness, he puts in tender-heartedness; he extirpates malice and evil-speaking, he plants forbearance in their stead. For the expression, forgiving one another, is this; be forbearing, he means, one to another. And this forgiveness is greater than that which is shewn in debts. For he indeed who forgives a debt to him that has borrowed of him, does, it is true, a noble and admirable deed, but then the kindness is confined to the body, though to himself indeed he repays a full recompense by those gifts which are spiritual and concern the soul; whereas he who forgives trespasses will be benefitting alike his own soul, and the soul of him who meets with the forbearance. For by this way of acting, he not only will be rendering himself, but the other also, more charitable. Because we do not so deeply touch the souls of those who have wronged us by revenging our XVI. To return good for evil, the way to overcome him who did the evil. 277 selves, as by pardoning them, and thus putting them to HOMIL. shame and out of countenance. For by the other course we shall be doing no good, either to ourselves, or to them, but shall be doing harm to both, in that we ourselves are seeking for retaliation, like the rulers of the Jews, and are kindling up the wrath that is in them; but if we return injustice with gentleness, we shall disarm all his anger, and shall be setting up in his breast a tribunal which will give a verdict in our favour, and will condemn him more severely than we should ourselves. For he will convict and will pass sentence upon himself, and will look for every pretext for repaying the share of long-suffering granted him with fuller measure, knowing that, if he repay it in equal measure, even thus he is at a disadvantage, in not having himself made the beginning, but received the example from He will strive accordingly to exceed in the measure, in order to eclipse, by the excess of his retribution, the disadvantage he himself sustains in having been the last to make advances towards requital; and the disadvantage again which accrues to the other from the time, if he was the first sufferer, this he will make up by excess of kindness. For men, if they are right-minded, are not so distressed at the evil, as at the good treatment they may receive at the hands of those whom they have injured. For in the first place it is a base sin, and in the next it is matter of reproach and scorn for a man who is well-treated not to return it; whilst for a man who is ill-treated, not to go about to resent it, this has the praise and applause, and the good word of all. And therefore they are more deeply touched by this conduct than any. us. So that if thou hast a wish to revenge thyself, revenge thyself in this manner. Return good for evil, that thou mayest at once both render him thy debtor, and achieve a glorious victory. Hast thou suffered evil? Do good; thus avenge thee of thine enemy. For if thou shalt go about to resent it, one and all will blame alike both thee and him. Whereas if thou shalt endure it, it will be otherwise. Thee they will applaud and admire; but him they will reproach. And what greater punishment can there be to an enemy, than to behold his enemy admired and applauded by all men? What more bitter to an enemy, than to behold himself re |