1. Perhaps some suppose, dearly beloved, that the justice of the ancient law — which those guilty of crimes judge quite harsh — has been trampled underfoot by the prejudgment of an excessive kindness, from the fact that the Lord says in the Gospel: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who slander you (Matt. 5:44). He is cruel enough, dearly beloved, who thinks that kindness does not accord with justice, since one and the same is the reasoning of Providence — to restrain the wicked by kindness, to have guarded the good by the bond of the law. In short, run to holy David, and you will find that the fountain of justice and of kindness is of one and the same virtue; who thus speaks in a part of the psalms: You are good, O Lord, and in Your goodness teach me Your ordinances (Ps.
119:68). Let no one, therefore, dearly beloved, think the description of the law to be anything other than a partnership of kindness and piety: which, while it aims at discipline, forms morals by honorable acts, and restrains with severity hearts stirred up by wicked thoughts. For that you may know that nothing has been withdrawn from the ancient right, hear the Lord saying: I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). 2. Not without cause, dearly beloved, did our Christ will that the precepts of the present and of the old Testament be one body. He knew that the one part could not stand without the aid of the other: and truly so it is. For where there is the strictness of the one who judges, there is always need of the tempering of kindness.
In short, every draught, dearly beloved, by whose aid medicine works the hope of human health, consists of bitter and of sweet ingredients. But if some physician ignorant of the art cannot temper them, while he seeks a remedy he compounds deadly poisons for the sick, which thus inflame all outward pains, if he knows not how to mix the bitter juices of herbs in equal weights. So too the law, dearly beloved, which governs Christian rights, is composed of bitter and sweet — that is, of ancient and of present institutions. For as it is unwelcome to sinners, so to the just it is composed wholly with the sweetness of words: to such a degree that to the latter it promises the heavenly kingdom, while to the former it threatens the fire of Gehenna.
In it, if any wise man knows how to keep the measure of the compound by the addition of humility and peace, he will thereafter suffer no injury from the stricter law. For as it is easy to soften any bitter draughts with the sweetness of honey, so it is not difficult to have tempered the bitterness of the ancient right by honorable acts. 3. If, therefore, any of you loves justice, let him be zealous for the commandments of both Testaments, and so serve the new laws that he does not pass over those things which were of old established. Thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, if you withdraw nothing of the ancient or the present institutions from the truth. And what wise man would deny that the work of justice is the fruit of kindness, when he hears the prophet saying:
It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I might learn Your ordinances (Ps. 119:71)? I do not doubt, dearly beloved, that there are some who think perfect justice stands under this sentence which says: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Lev. 24:20). This indeed once held sway among men of the age: but for this reason, because the author of kindness had not yet come. But what kind of justice do you think that was, which worked only the injury of death?
And assuredly there would as yet be no end to punishment, had not our Christ mixed the oil of mercy with the bloody laws — that is, had He not truly, without guile, fulfilled justice, and displayed the teaching of kindness. Instructed therefore by these lessons, dearly beloved, let us temper the bitterness of the ancient law by zeal for love; lest he seem to have exceeded the measure of perfect justice who returns injury in requital for injury. 4. Behold, the Evangelist says: Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). Perhaps to some it seems absurd to repay an insult with love. It is not impossible to love an enemy, if you consider the advantage of your own part. Love your enemies. Let no one under this title of a thing given suppose himself to bestow some benefit on his enemy.
He who loves an enemy loves himself. For he spared himself who restrained the right hand of a marauder by the prey of a great gift; and he covered his own body who met an armed foe with prayers, in some fashion striving to preserve reverence for a fighting man. For it is agreed to be part of victory to have redeemed a battle by an offered weight of gold. Love your enemies. This is to love enemies: not to answer hatreds, to bear patiently an insult received, to forgive an injury whether done by hand or stirred up by the goads of words. For thus the Lord says: Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left also (Matt. 5:39).
That offering I know is unwelcome to some who know not how to avoid quarrels and to restrain by moderation the impending penalties of punishments. 5. But it is boundless how much one's own patience avails him, if the other alone rages. For as he stirs up redoubled blows upon himself who fights back, so he makes gain of a greater quarrel who has held back his hands while the other strikes. Do good to those who hate you (Matt. 5:44). The first degree is that which we have named, that you love your enemy; the second truly is that you do good to your enemy: for there the affection is taught, here the work of mercy is required. For it is one thing to love an enemy, another to have come to the aid of a wretched man.
Little, therefore, does the grace of your love profit your enemy, if you allow him whom you assert that you love to go hungry. Hear Paul saying: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink; for by doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head (Rom. 12:20). Here, as far as I see, mercy serves cruelty. Why then should that good man securely expend money upon his enemies, whom the time of a promised revenge awaits? Doubtless he knows not how to be angry who hesitates to have mercy. But it stands beyond the happiness of victory to have saved an enemy, and to have avenged an injury. There follows in this very place: Pray for those who slander you (Matt. 5:44).
Without doubt here the Lord admonished the conscience of a feigning heart. For He knew that a love composed of words, and however lavish the outlay of its bestowal, often becomes ungrateful. Thus therefore you show yourself not unwilling to have made that alms an avenger of yourself, if you commend the wounds of your enemy to the heavenly physician by suppliant prayer, and with poured-out tears implore the aid of his salvation. Love your enemies. If we are commanded to love enemies, in what state do you think that man is who pursues a brother, stirred up by no injuries, with impious assault? Of this man it seems to me the Apostle spoke: Whoever hates his brother without cause is a murderer (1 John 3:15). And truly it is just as if he had killed a man, who persecutes an innocent one with hatreds. 6.
But let us see, nevertheless, who these are whom holy John believed should be condemned on account of brotherly hatreds. I think they are those of whom the prophet says: Their heart was struck with envy. These are they who set up battles against themselves, and set fire to their own houses with their own flame, in whose closed bosom a flame is held for a conflagration. For here there is nothing which ought to be imputed to another, where there is no conflict with an opposing party, since almost all causes and all hatreds rage among persons provoked into the battle-line. If it is credible, behold, we find a guilty man who has no adversary: we have therefore one who can be punished, and we do not find one who ought to be avenged. Truly I judge that man happy, whose glorious life another has beheld with grim eyes.
For in a quite good position is the cause of him who labors under another's envy, since a man does not become envious except of his betters; nor is anyone subject to envy except him whom a better advance of life has raised to loftier things. But those I count more than wretched, whom the gains of another's felicity torment; and whom wrath, conceived from impious rivalry, disquiets with the hidden darts of the heart. Well do their own weapons punish these men; so that envy itself seems to me to have some discernment, when it strikes back the heart of its author, and continually consumes the evil-conscious breast with bloody spite. 7. First therefore envy must be chastened, which, once conceived in the mind, works griefs. Indeed, when the glory of another's felicity meets our eyes, let the zeal of rivalry rather hold us, not of spite;
according to that which the Apostle says: Be zealous for the better things (1 Cor. 12:31). He assuredly withdraws nothing from true friendships, who without envy emulates the goods of others: nor does he do injury who strives toward better things by examples. If, therefore, anyone is wise, let him imitate the fruits of justice, let him follow the acts of continence, let him lay hold of the grace of humility, and with the good let him run with an emulating love, that he may attain to better things, looking to that apostolic sentence which says: So run that you may lay hold (1 Cor. 9:24). Whoever, therefore, is moved by another's glory, let him run after the good, and labor that he may lay hold: and I acquiesce that he go before, only that he strive without spite of spirit.
This is truly to have exercised unspotted virtue: without injury to have surpassed a better man. Let us indeed give place to the proud, only that we conquer them in humility. Let not the gain of worldly warfare provoke us to rivalry. Let the pomp of riches remain for those whom the care of children admonishes — although he who exercises the cultivation of mercy makes and lays up for himself much more gain. But nothing is safer than to store up a portion of one's resources in the mouth of the poor. For thus says the Scripture, the Lord saying: He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly (2 Cor. 9:6). Whatever you keep back, you defraud from yourself. Let us therefore give much, dearly beloved, that we may gather manifold fruits of mercy. But money is without gain which is kept shut up in the purse:
but if it be assigned to business, not long afterward it answers back fourfold. Whatever you have given to the poor, without doubt you assign it to interest, to be repaid to you in time to come, when the labors of each are reckoned with multiplied honor. For the reward of his own work awaits each one, whether those whom a religious faith adorns, or those whom a generous hand commends. For thus the Evangelist says: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9). Let there be for us, therefore, dearly beloved, in the first place the care of peace, in the second of mercy. Let our hearts suggest nothing feigned to our lips; let our mouths answer nothing doubtful, looking before all to that sentence which says: What you would not have done to yourself, do not do to another (Tob. 4:16).
This is that perfect love which we have spoken of, which forms the affection of unblemished love. Thus it is, therefore, that the strictness of the ancient right has no power over you, if you obediently observe those things which the fullness of the law demands.