БРАТЬЯ

He is your brother, he has the same nature as you; you live under the authority of one Lord, and often partake of the same meal, I mean spiritual and terrible, and you say: I have nothing in common with him, and without mercy you run away from him, do not you want to shake hands with the fallen? The law commanded the Jews not to leave fallen livestock without help, even those belonging to their enemies. And you, seeing your brother, ulcerated by the devil and fallen not to the ground, but into the depths of sin, do not pull him out of there with your instructions, do not give him any suggestions on your part, do not care about others, if possible, take with you to help, in order to deliver your own member from the jaws of the beast and return it to the dignity that belongs to it, so that you yourself, when you happen to fall in the snare of the evil demon, could have people ready to help you and free from the hands of the devil. Thus, Paul, wanting to arouse the Galatians to care for their members, says: “let each one take heed to himself, lest he be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). As if he were saying this: if you pass by your brother without compassion and mercy, then perhaps when you yourself fall, another will pass by you in the same way. If you do not want to be left without attention when you fall, then do not neglect the fallen, but show them all love, and consider the opportunity to save your brother as the greatest good. There can be nothing so much virtue as in this matter. After all, if you only think that the one whom you neglect and leave without attention was awarded such honor by your Lord that He did not even refuse to shed His blood for him, just as Paul says: “By your knowledge the weak brother for whom Christ died will perish” (1 Cor. 8:11), then how can you not then hide yourself (in shame) in the ground? If Christ even shed His blood for him, what special thing will you do when you show him your favor, with a verbal exhortation you will raise the fallen one and raise his soul, drowned, and perhaps already drowned, from the depths of evil, help it see the light of virtue and not rush again to the darkness of sin (1)? And that brothers are at enmity against brothers also for sins, the Book of Judges testifies to this. When some of the tribe of Benjamin committed fornication with the traveler’s concubine and she, unable to bear the immense insult, died, eleven tribes began a war against one; but since the eleven tribes retreated from God and adulterously turned to idols, all eleven were defeated by one tribe - and, moreover, they were defeated by it alone many times, while they won only one victory over it - and brothers fought with brothers, because God destroyed the mediastinum of sin for their sins (see Judges 19 and Judges 20). When one tribe committed adultery with a woman, and eleven tribes committed adultery with idols, both were destroyed by God, as it is written: “You destroy everyone who turns away from You” (Ps. 73:27). Thus, brothers fought with brothers for sins. When brothers attack you, do not so much complain about them as look at yourself and carefully examine for what sins the brothers became your enemies. However, not everyone suffers attacks from their brothers for their sins. Thus, Joseph suffered attacks from his brothers, but not for sins at all (2). Let us not refuse for our brothers any apparently humiliating and difficult tasks. But even though we had to serve an ignorant and poor person, even though it involved great labor, even though we had to cross mountains and rapids for this, we must endure all this to save our brother. God cares so much about the soul that He did not spare His Son. Therefore, I beg you, from the very morning, as soon as we leave our house, we will strive for this one goal and, first of all, we will take care of saving our brother from danger. I am talking here not so much about the physical danger - it can hardly be called danger - but about the spiritual one to which the devil exposes people. A merchant crosses the sea to increase his wealth, and an artist does everything to increase his property. Likewise, we must care not only about our own salvation; otherwise we ourselves will not receive salvation. A warrior who, during a battle, tries only to save himself by flight, destroys others along with himself; on the contrary, the courageous, fighting to protect others, saves himself along with others. And since our life is also a war, and, moreover, the most severe of all wars - a time of battle and combat - then we will enter into battle as our King commanded, with the readiness to defeat, kill and shed the blood of our enemies, taking care of the salvation of all, strengthening those who stand and raising the fallen. Many of our brethren in this battle lie wounded, bleeding, and there is no one to help them; neither the people, nor the priests, nor anyone else, nor a patron, nor a friend, nor a brother cares about them, but everyone cares only about himself. Through this we humiliate the dignity of our exploits, because the greatest boldness [to God] and praise belongs to the one who is not concerned about his own benefit. That is why we are weak and conveniently defeated both by people and by the devil, because we seek only our own and do not strengthen each other, do not protect each other with the love of God, but look for other opportunities for friendship: some in kinship, others in partnership, others in acquaintance, others in neighborhood - and all other ties confirm us in friendship much more than piety, whereas this alone should bind us with ties of friendship. (7). Do you not see in military camps that soldiers, after making peace, lay down their arms, and without any cover or protection enter the enemy camp? And when they are protected by weapons, there are guards everywhere, patrols, nights without sleep and fires are constantly burning, then this is no longer peace, but war. This can be observed among us: we are wary and afraid of each other, each whispers in our neighbor’s ear, and as soon as we see that a stranger is approaching, we will remain silent and cover everything in plain sight: this is not typical of gullible people, but of overly cautious people. But, you say, we do this not to offend, but so as not to be offended. That is why I grieve that, living among brothers, in order to avoid offense, we need protection, we light so many fires and place guards and patrols. And the reason for this is frequent lies, frequent deceptions, a general lack of love and irreconcilable enmity. As a result of this, of course, it happens to see that many trust pagans more than Christians. What shame, of course, this deserves, how many tears, how much lamentation! What should I do? - you say, - this man is rude and obnoxious. Where is your wisdom? Where are the apostolic statutes that command us to bear one another’s burdens? If you don’t know how to treat your brother, how can you live well with a stranger? If you don’t know how to get comfortable with your own member, then how can you attract and accommodate a stranger? But what will I do? I see the extreme inconvenience of shedding tears, since, following the example of the prophet, I would have poured out abundant springs from my eyes, seeing on this field thousands of battles that are more terrible than those seen by the prophet. He, seeing the invasion of the barbarians, said: “I grieve in the depths of my heart” (Jer. 4:19), and I see that those subordinate to one military leader rebel against each other, gnaw and tear each other’s members, some for money, others for glory, others simply laugh and mock each other for no reason, inflict thousands of wounds on each other, I also see the dead, more disfigured than in war, I see that only the empty name of the brotherhood remains, and I cannot think of how to adequately mourn such a sad sight. So, be ashamed, be ashamed of this meal, which we all partake of; be ashamed of Christ, who was slain for us, and of the sacrifice here offered. Even robbers, taking part in the food, cease to be robbers for those whom they make their table companions: the meal changes their morals and makes those sheep more humble than those who at other times are fiercer than beasts. And we, by participating in this meal, partaking of this meat, are arming ourselves against each other, whereas we should be doing this against the devil, who is at enmity with us all. Because, of course, we are becoming weaker every day, and he is stronger. We do not take up arms against him together with each other, but together with him we rise up against each other and use him as a leader in these battles, whereas we should all be fighting against him alone; In return for this, we, leaving him alone, turn our arrows against the brothers. What arrows? - you ask. Arrows of tongue and mouth. After all, not only arrows and spears, but also words inflict wounds that are even much more painful than those inflicted by arrows. How can we stop this fight? - you ask. If you understand that by speaking ill of your brother, you are spewing dirt from your lips, if you imagine that you are slandering one who is one of the members of Christ, that you are eating your own flesh, that you are making that Last and impartial Judgment even more severe for yourself, that your arrow does not kill the one struck by it, but you who launched it. But did he offend in some way and do evil? Sorrow, but do not speak ill; cry, but not for the sake of your own offense, but because of the death of the offender, just as your Master cried for Judas, not because he himself was crucified, but because Judas betrayed Him. Did he insult you and reproach you? Pray to God that He will have mercy on him soon. He is your brother, he has resolved the same diseases of birth, he is your member, called to the same meal with you. But he attacks me very often, you say. This means that you have the highest and greatest reward, and in this case it is especially and right for you to put aside your anger, since he received a mortal blow, he was struck by the devil. So, do not inflict wounds on him, do not fall with him yourself: while you are standing, you can save him, but if by inflicting an insult you overthrow yourself, who will then raise you up? Will the wounded one [raise]? But he lies there and won’t be able to. Or are you, who fell with him? But how can you, unable to lend a helping hand to yourself, help someone else? So, stand courageously and, holding your shield before you, with your long-suffering, rescue your dead brother from the battle. Was he hurt by anger? But do not hurt either, but first of all, remove the arrow. If we begin to treat each other this way, then soon we will all become healthy, and if we begin to arm ourselves against each other, then, finally, there will be no need for the devil for our destruction. Any war is difficult, especially internecine war. But this struggle is more difficult and internecine, as important are the rights of Christian society, or better yet, the rights of our very kinship. A brother once killed Abel and shed related blood, but this murder is more unlawful than how much more important our kinship is and how much more terrible this death is. Cain struck the body, and you sharpened the sword against the soul. But were you the first to suffer evil? Not to endure, but to cause evil - that is what it means to be subjected to evil. Look: Cain killed, Abel killed, but who turned out to be dead? Is it the one who cries out after death and about whom it is said: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me” (Gen. 4:10), or the one who trembled and was afraid in life? Of course, Cain, who is more pitiful than any dead man. Do you see how much better it is to be insulted, even if the insult extends to murder? Understand that it is much worse to do a lie, even if someone even gets to the point of murder. Cain struck and killed his brother, but the latter was crowned and the former punished; Abel was unjustly exterminated and killed, but he, dying, accused, gained the upper hand and humbled, and the survivor was silent, covered in shame, prompted and did everything against his will. He killed his brother because he saw that he was loved, hoping to deprive him of love, but he only increased his love for him, and after his death God looked for him more, saying: “Where is Abel, your brother?” (Gen. 4:9). You did not extinguish love with envy, but you inflamed it more strongly; He did not diminish his honor by killing, but increased it. Previously, God himself subjugated your brother to you, but since you killed him, he will be your judge after death: such is my love for him. So, which of them was condemned: the punisher or the punished? Is it the one who received such a great honor from God, or the one who was given over to a new and unusual torment? You did not fear him alive, says [God], therefore fear him dead; you did not tremble, intending to bring the sword closer, therefore, having shed blood, you will be enveloped in constant fear; During his life he was your slave, and you did not tolerate him, but after death he became a formidable master for you (11). You might be interested in: