Слово 20. О гневе и ярости

Do you want to know what a great evil it is to be angry? Stand near those fighting in the square. In yourself, when you are darkened and intoxicated with anger, you cannot easily see the ugliness, but when you free yourself from passion, then you will sooner see your situation. Anger boils and bubbles in the chest, the lips breathe fire, the eyes emit flames, the whole face is distorted, the arms are stretched out randomly, the legs jump funny and trample those holding them, and people are no different not only from those who are raging, but even from wild donkeys, kicking and biting others - so indecent is a person in anger. But, you say, your heart is boiling and tormented by resentment. I know too; That is why I highly respect those who overcome anger. Indeed, if we want, we can restrain ourselves from this passion. Why, in fact, when we are insulted by our bosses, do we not experience it? Because we face fear equivalent to this passion. Likewise, why do the servants, whom we endlessly insult, endure everything in silence? Because the same bonds lie on them. Thus, for the sake of people, we endure the unbearable, and we say to those who insult us: so-and-so insulted me, not you, but in relation to God we will not have such respect? Let us also say to our soul: God now insults us, commanding us to remain silent; Let us not respond with abuse, and let God not be more despicable than people. So, when someone upsets you, think about your sins against God, and also about the fact that by your humility before Him you will make the judgment more merciful when you have to give an answer for them. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). In addition, think about whether there have been cases when you, being driven to frenzy, took control of yourself, and when you were blindly carried away by passion, and compare those and other cases. When have you praised yourself? Was it when you were victorious, or when you restrained yourself? In the first case, don’t we often curse ourselves, and don’t we feel deep repentance for both words and deeds? Meanwhile, when we restrain ourselves, we have fun and rejoice like winners. Victory over anger does not lie in the fact that the victim or one who hears the insult repays the same thing - that would be an extreme defeat - but in meekly enduring the insult. Likewise, do not resist those who persuade you to remain silent, and do not say: I will not tolerate so-and-so laughing at me and leaving. No, not then will he laugh at you, but when you begin to argue with him; if he laughs even then, he will do it like crazy. But when you win, do not seek approval from the insane, but be content with the good opinion of the reasonable; or better yet: lift your gaze to God, and He will praise you; and whoever God looks upon with favor does not need to seek honor from people. Whether anyone owns a lot of money or estates, he must use them as an alien, who a little later, willy-nilly, will have to leave them. Whether someone is offended by someone, he should not be angry forever, or rather, even for a short time: “Let not the sun go down,” it is said, “on your anger” (Eph. 4:26). Indeed, this passion destroys entire houses, destroys old friendships, and causes irreparable misfortunes. So, when someone insults you, look not at the offender, but at the demon driving him, and pour out all your anger on this latter, and even pity the one who is excited by him. If lies come from the devil, then all the more vain anger comes from the same place. We cannot be angry when no one annoys us; to experience lust, even if there is no person in front of us to excite us to this, is inevitable. When someone insults you, think about the torment that he experiences, and you will not only not have anger against him, but you will also shed tears. No one is angry with those suffering from fever or fever; on the contrary, all such patients are pitied and mourned. But even if you want to take revenge, remain silent, and you will deal a mortal blow to the offender; and if you yourself respond to an insult with an insult, you will make them think that what was said about you is fair. In fact, why does a rich person laugh when they tell him that he is poor? Because he does not recognize poverty. Consequently, if we laugh at insults, we will provide the best proof that we are not aware of what they are saying about us. Has anyone insulted you? Pray to God that He will quickly have mercy on him: he is your brother, your member. But, you say, he insults me too much. Therefore, the greater your reward for this. Therefore, it is especially necessary to leave anger at the offender, because he was wounded by the devil. Do not reproach him also, and do not bring yourself down with him. Indeed, while you stand, you can save him too; If you bring yourself down through a retaliatory insult, then who will raise you up after that? Is it the wounded one? But lying down he will not be able to do this. Or you, who fell with him? But how can you, who find yourself unable to help yourself, extend your hand to another? He was wounded by the devil; Do not inflict another wound, but, on the contrary, remove the previous arrow. If we treat each other this way, then soon we will all be healthy: and if we begin to arm ourselves against each other, then the devil is not needed for our destruction. Are you the first to suffer evil? But it is not misfortune to suffer evil, but to do evil. And don’t say: there is no harm in it if I offend so-and-so. Because this is a great evil in itself, because it seems completely insignificant; what seems completely insignificant can easily remain neglected, and what remains neglected multiplies, and as it multiplies, it becomes incurable. So, do not think that you are not doing anything bad by reproaching your brother. How then can you call him brother? And if he is not a brother, then how can you say: “Our Father”? After all, “our” refers to many people. Anyone who has bestial and inhuman feelings cannot call the Humane-loving God Father, since he does not retain the signs of that goodness that is in the Heavenly Father, but turns himself into an animal-like appearance and is deprived of Divine nobility. When someone rides like a bull, kicks like a donkey, remembers evil like a camel, eats like a bear, plunders like a wolf, strikes like a scorpion, is cunning like a fox, lusts after women like a misogynist horse, how can such a person raise the voice befitting a son and call God his Father? What should you call such a person? A beast? But animals suffer from one of these vices, and this one connects everything and becomes more meaningless than even the meaningless ones themselves. In fact, animals, being fierce by nature, are often made meek by human art; this one, being a man and transforming the ferocity inherent in animals by nature into an unnatural meekness, what justification will he have when he turns his natural meekness into an unnatural ferocity? What is the justification for making a beast that is fierce by nature meek, and making oneself, meek by nature, fierce, taming a lion and making it tame, and making one’s own spirit fiercer than a lion? He pacifies the lion and makes him a man, but neglects himself, becoming a lion from a man; endows him with supernatural properties, but does not provide himself with what nature requires. If nothing makes one more like God than when the offended forgives the offenders, then what kind of punishment will be worthy of those who, after all this, not only do not forgive their enemies, but even pray to God for revenge on them and make requests against them. What hope of salvation can they have after this, when even at the very hour when it is necessary to appease Him, they only irritate Him, taking on the appearance of one praying for forgiveness, but in reality emitting the cries of the beast and sharpening the arrows of the evil one against themselves? In fact, if you, even at a time when you need mercy, do not abandon anger, but are filled with thoughts about it, and, moreover, knowing that you are sharpening the sword against yourself, then can you ever become philanthropic? Have you suffered an insult and want to take revenge on the one who inflicted it on you? Do him good and you have had your revenge. If you begin to take it out on him, then everyone will equally blame you and him; if you bear the insult, then you will be approved and praised, and he will be blamed. For an enemy, could there be a more bitter insult than to see that his enemy is respected and praised by everyone, while he himself is being dishonored by everyone in front of the enemy’s eyes? Anger is a beast that easily jumps out, which is why we need countless barriers and obstacles to tame and hold it. That is why God made this particular part of our body out of bones, as if out of some kind of stones, giving it a solid support, so that he would not somehow tear or crush it, and thereby cause the death of the entire creature. Wrath, as they say, is fire and a great storm; and no other part of our body would be able to withstand its force. The lion cannot tear our insides to pieces in the same way as anger, constantly lying in wait for us, destroys everything with its iron claws, because it not only harms the body, but also destroys the health of the soul itself. Therefore, when someone comes and tells you that such and such has insulted you and is constantly slandering you in front of everyone, praise the one who insulted you in front of those who came; and, no matter how shameless the latter may be, they will praise you and be imbued with respect for you, and they will despise him, considering him worse than any beast, because he, without being offended by anything, upset you, and you, even having suffered an insult, repaid him in return. In addition, you can thereby prove that everything said about you is an empty lie. If the person being insulted becomes irritated, he thereby provides proof that he is aware of what is being said about him; if he laughs, then in the eyes of those present he frees himself from all suspicion. If you want to take revenge on the offender, then this will be achieved with complete success, since God will punish him for his words, and before this punishment, your wisdom will be like a fatal blow for him. After all, nothing usually annoys those who insult us more than if we laugh at the insults inflicted on us. When you respond to an insult with an insult, you will suffer defeat, being driven not by a person, but, what is much more shameful, by low passion, anger; if you remain silent, you will win and easily erect a trophy; thousands of people will glorify you and condemn the lies of slander. Whoever responds to an insult appears to be responding out of a feeling of irritation, and whoever is irritated makes one suspect that he is aware of what is being said to him; meanwhile, if you laugh, then with your laughter you will destroy the sentence against yourself, and you will cause much more annoyance to the one who insulted you, who is not so happy that he is not insulted as he is annoyed that he cannot offend you. If, therefore, you deprive him of what he most desires, you will deprive him of everything, completely destroy him and show him worthy of contempt. Truly, victory over enemies does not make kings glorious in the same way as victory over rage and anger. There weapons and warriors accomplish the work, but here only your victory; there others share the victory with you, but here you alone erect the trophy. So, when someone insults you, bear the insult courageously, because he insulted himself, not you. If someone strikes you in the right hand, do not resist, because he himself suffers defeat, striking you with his hand, and himself with anger, and acquiring a bad reputation among everyone. If this seems difficult to you, then think about who you would call suffering evil if some madman tore all your clothes - you, the victim, or the one who did it? Obviously this is the last one. If here, when your clothes are torn, the one who does this suffers a more serious evil than the one who suffered, then when the heart is torn (which anger does), do you not admit that the one who is angry suffers a much greater evil than you, who do not endure anything decisively? If we should not repay evil for evil, then much less repay evil for good, just as we should repay evil when no evil was shown to us in advance. But such and such, you say, a scoundrel, upset me and caused me a lot of offense. Do you want to take revenge on him? Don't repay him, leave him without revenge, thank him. This will truly be revenge, which will bring harm to him and benefit you, because from such revenge joy is born. In fact, when we have such a soul that we do not take revenge on anyone, but only do good to everyone, then, tell me, where can the sting of sadness penetrate into it? Whoever is so glad to endure evil that he pays the one who caused it even with good deeds, how can he be sad? Really, tell me, what evil have you suffered? Got sick? But there is nothing strange in this, because our body is mortal and subject to suffering. Or extreme lack of money? But money can be gained and lost, and remains here. Or intrigues and slander? But it is not we who suffer harm from them, but those who were their perpetrators: “The soul,” it is said, “that sins, it will die” (Ezek. 18:20); It is not the one who suffers evil who sins, but the one who does evil. So, beloved, let us strive for nothing more than to be free from anger and to reconcile with ourselves those who are hostile to us, knowing that neither prayer, nor almsgiving, nor fasting, nor partaking of the Sacraments, nor anything else like that, will be able to protect us on the day of Judgment if we remember evil. Therefore, the one who calls this sin the gravest of all sins will not sin. God hates and abhors nothing more than a person who bears a grudge and harbors anger. And how can you want God to be meek and merciful to you, when you yourself remain cruel and merciless to your fellow servant? But your fellow servant insulted you? And you often insult God; but what is the equality between a fellow slave and a master? Moreover, he insulted you, perhaps in a fit of passion, being offended and irritated; Meanwhile, you offend God without suffering any harm or offense from Him, but, on the contrary, receiving benefits from Him every day. What kind of excuse or forgiveness will we have? So, think that if God wants to judge our actions against Him with all severity, we will not live even one day. “If You,” it is said, “Lord, will notice iniquities, - Lord! who can stand” ( Ps. 129:3 )? Your glory is forever and ever. Amen. Ἐκλογαί άπό διαφόρων λόγων . Under this name are known collections of conversations compiled by various persons after the death of Chrysostom on certain topics, from those related to the topics and especially liked by the compilers of the works of the saint. The passages are given partly in a literal presentation, partly in a free retelling and are borrowed both from the original works of Chrysostom, and from works only attributed to Chrysostom, which have not only survived to this day, but have also been lost. These Eclogues (selections) were widespread and were used by both private individuals and kings. Known, for example, is the luxurious collection of Eclogues, owned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaniatus (1078–1081), registered among the codices of the Koalene Library under No. LXXIX. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: