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Truly, the angry one is no less mad than the angry ones themselves. Look how this demon, having entered, makes them mad, like those who are raging, and encourages them to do everything contrary to the evidence; They don’t see anything sensibly and don’t do anything as they should, but they do everything like people with damaged feelings, who have lost the very ability to reason. Thus, those inflamed with anger do not recognize those present, do not remember kinship, friendship, decency, dignity, and generally do not take anything into consideration, but completely carried away by anger, they rush into the abyss. What could be more pitiful than them when, defeated and enslaved by passion, they even go so far as to kill? Therefore, blessed Paul, wanting to pluck out the very root of evil, writes the following admonition: “Let all bitterness and rage and anger and crying and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (Eph. 4:31). Not only, he says, I don’t want you to get angry and become enraged, but I also don’t want you to say anything to your neighbor with a cry, meaning here the cry that comes from anger. When passion is aroused within and the heart is puffed up, then the tongue can no longer utter words quietly, but, revealing the disposition of the spirit, is prompted to speak to one’s neighbor with a cry. So, this blessed one, wanting those who listen to him to live in constant peace, says: let anger, that is, all grief, from whatever cause it may arise, and rage, and all cry be removed from you. Then, wanting to dry up the very root of evil and make it fruitless, he says: with all malice. He who lives in such a state of mind is always at home, free from earthly disturbances, not afraid of storms or shipwrecks, but, as if sailing in a time of calm or remaining in a safe harbor, he spends real life without any excitement, and, moreover, he also prepares for himself the enjoyment of endless and ineffable blessings (1). When you see an enemy or it comes to your mind how much trouble you have heard or suffered, try to forget all this; if you remember, attribute it to the devil, and remember what [the enemy] has ever said or done to you. If you dwell on this memory, you will soon stop the hostility. And if you intend to both expose the enemy and get even with him, then first suppress your passion and extinguish your anger, and then settle accounts and get even with him: then you can easily defeat him. In anger, we cannot say or listen to anything sensible, and having freed ourselves from this passion, we ourselves will not utter an offensive word, and we will not hear others say something like that - because usually we are irritated not so much by the very nature of the words, but because we were already enveloped in hostility before. So often, when the same offensive words are spoken to us either by friends jokingly and in a cheerful mood, or by small children, we not only do not feel anything unpleasant and do not get angry, but we also smile and burst into laughter: this is because we listen not with an upset spirit, not with a soul overwhelmed by anger. Therefore, in relation to your enemies, if you extinguish your anger and put aside enmity, then no word will be able to upset you (1). Imagine, if you want, that anger is a beast, and how much others try to train lions, show as much effort on yourself, and make your unbridled mind quiet and meek; After all, anger has such terrible teeth and claws that it will destroy everything if you do not tame it. Even a lion and a viper cannot torment the entrails with such cruelty as anger constantly torments with iron claws. It not only harms the body, but upsets the very health of the soul, eating, tormenting, crushing all its strength and making it incapable of anything. Anyone who has worms inside cannot breathe, because all his insides are eaten away. How can we give birth to anything noble, carrying such a serpent inside us - I mean anger, consuming our insides? How can we get rid of this ulcer? If we consume a drink that can kill internal worms and snakes. But what drink, you ask, has such power? The honest Blood of Christ, if accepted with hope. She can heal any disease. Then, attentive listening to the Divine Scriptures and alms added to this. By all these means the passions that weaken our soul can be killed. And only then will we live, and now we are no better than the dead (6). There is nothing worse than anger, beloved; There's nothing worse than misplaced irritability. Anger cannot be delayed for long; it is a violent passion. It often happens that in anger someone will say a word that requires a whole life to repay; or he will do something that will overthrow his whole life. After all, what is terrible is that in a short time, through one act, through even one word [this passion] often deprives us of eternal blessings and makes countless labors in vain. Therefore, I beg you, use all measures to curb this beast (10). The Holy Spirit does not dwell where there is anger. The angry one is subject to damnation. And it is impossible for anything to be healthy where anger comes from. Just as during a storm at sea there is great confusion and loud shouting, and then no one has time to reason, so it is in anger. If the soul wants to say or learn something wise, then first it must be in a [quiet] haven. Don’t you notice how, when we want to talk about something necessary, we choose places far from noise, where there is peace and quiet, so that we don’t have to be entertained? If external noise entertains us, then even more so does internal turmoil. And if anyone begins to pray, he prays in vain if he does it in anger and irritation; if he speaks, he will be funny; whether he becomes silent, the same thing again; if he eats, he will harm himself; whether he drinks or not, whether he sits or stands, walks or sleeps, the same thing appears to him in his dreams. And why is it that such [people] are not disorderly? The eyes are disgusting; mouth – curved; body members are tense and shaking; the tongue is unbridled and spares no one; the mind is crazy; clothing in an indecent form: [in everything] a great disgrace! Look at the eyes of those who are raging, drunk and frantic [with anger]: how do they differ from each other? Isn't there madness everywhere? But this always happens only for a while? It is true that a man who is furious is possessed [by anger] for a time. But what could be worse than this? And they are not ashamed to justify themselves: I didn’t realize it, they say that I said it. Why didn’t you, a rational being with reason, realize this? Why do you act like foolish animals, like a wild horse carried away by anger and rage? This is an excuse worthy of condemnation. It is advisable that you know what you said. These are words of anger, you say, not mine. What - anger? Anger has no power unless it receives it from you. It is as if someone said: these are the wounds of [my] hand, and not mine. Where does anger seem to be needed most, if not in war and during battle? But even there, if anything is done with anger, then everything will be spoiled and destroyed. Combatants especially should not be angry, and attackers especially should not be irritated. But, you say, how else can you fight? Reasonable, calm. Combat is one side standing against the other. Don't you see that wars themselves are subject to law, order and time? And anger is nothing more than insane irritation; a madman cannot do anything reasonable (10). Anger is fire, it is a strong flame that requires [combustible] substance; do not give food to the fire, and soon you will stop evil. Anger has no power on its own unless someone else supports it. Nothing can justify you. He is possessed by fury and does not know what he is doing; and if, looking at him, you fall into the same thing and do not manage to follow his example, then can you receive forgiveness? If someone, while at a feast, saw another in the hall in a drunken and ugly state, and then he himself fell into the same state, wouldn’t it be unforgivable, especially since he got drunk after that? So it is here. Let’s not think that we can say in justification: I didn’t start it; this serves to accuse us that, seeing him, we were not wise; it is the same as if someone said: I was not the first to kill. That is why you are worthy of punishment, because, having seen the example, you did not restrain yourself. If you saw a drunken man vomiting, tormenting himself, tormenting himself, bulging his eyes, filling the table with uncleanness, and everyone running away from him, and then you yourself fell into the same thing, wouldn’t you be even more disgusted? So is he who is angry. He strains the veins of the one who vomits, inflames his eyes, torments his insides, spews out words much worse than that food, says everything as if undigested and nothing useful - because anger interferes - and just as there often an excess of phlegm, irritating the stomach, completely exhausts it, so here the excess of heat, disturbing the soul, does not allow one to hide what it would be better to remain silent about, and the angry person says everything that should and what should not be done, disgracing not those who listen, but oneself. And just as we run away from those who vomit, so we run away from those who are angry. What do we do then? Let's sprinkle ashes on their vomit, quietly call the dogs so that they eat the vomit. I know that you are listening with disgust; but I want you to feel the same when you see that state, and not enjoy it. An angry person is unclean than a dog who returns to his vomit (see 2 Pet. 2:22): if he, having vomited once, had stopped, he would not have been like him; if he vomits the same thing again, then it is obvious that he devoured what he vomited. But what is worse than this? What is more unclean than lips that eat such food? Moreover, the former is a matter of nature, but the latter is not; or, better yet, both are contrary to nature. How? So: to be angry in vain (see Matt. 5:22) is not natural, but contrary to it; That’s why he doesn’t say anything like a man, but something like a beast, something like a madman. Just as bodily illness is contrary to nature, so is this. And the fact that this is contrary to nature [is evident from the fact] that if he remains in this state for a long time, he will gradually die; and by remaining for a long time in what is characteristic of nature, it will not perish. I would rather share a meal with a man who eats dirt than with one who utters such words. Don't you see how pigs eat feces? So are these. What is truly more shameful than the words spoken by angry people? They seem to be trying not to say anything sensible, nothing pure, but whatever is shameful, whatever is ugly, they try to say and do; and what’s worse, shaming themselves more, they think that they are shaming others; and that they disgrace themselves is clear from what has been said above (10). When either a maid lights a lamp or a cook lights a fire, it is strictly instilled in them not to do it in the wind, not near wooden things and not in the dark, and when night comes, we put out the fire, fearing that during our sleep, when there is no one to look after it, it will somehow flare up and burn everyone. Let us do the same with anger: let it not accompany all our thoughts, but keep it in the depths of the soul, so that the wind does not excite it from the words of the enemy, but so that it receives this excitement from us, and we know how to arouse it moderately and safely. When it is excited from the outside, it knows no limits and can burn everything; it can often get excited during our sleep and burn everything. Let us kindle it in us only so that it shines - after all, anger produces light if it is aroused when it should be - let us use this lamp against those who offend others and against the devil. Let this spark not be placed everywhere and not scattered everywhere, but it is kept with us under the ashes; Let us keep it with humble thoughts. We don’t always need it - only when we need to correct or soften something, when we need to overcome stubbornness or bring some sense into someone’s soul (10). You might be interested in: