ВРАГИ

For many, the most unbearable death of all is when their enemies spread bad rumors about them and bring suspicion upon them. Let's consider this too. Has anyone said anything bad about you, called you a fornicator and an adulterer? If this is true, correct yourself; if it's a lie, laugh at it; if you are aware of what has been said, understand it; if you don’t realize it, ignore it; It’s better [to say], not only laugh and ignore, but also rejoice and be merry, according to the word of the Lord, who commands you to do this: “When they revile you,” He says, “and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11, 12); and again: “Rejoice in that day and be glad... when... your name is called dishonored” (Luke 6:23, 22). If [the enemy] tells the truth, and you bear his words with meekness, do not take revenge on him and revile him, but bitterly groan and condemn your sins, then you will receive a reward no less than the first. I will also try to confirm this to you from Scripture, so that you will know that just as much harm as our friends do to us when they praise and caress us, just as much good does our enemies bring when they speak ill of us, although fairly, if only we want to take proper advantage of their reproaches. After all, friends often flatter us out of love; and our enemies expose our sins. Out of pride we do not see our shortcomings, but out of enmity they look at us more attentively and with their slander put us in the need to improve; and so their enmity becomes for us a source of greatest benefit, because, admonished by them, we not only recognize our sins, but also lag behind them. In fact, if the enemy reproached you for a sin that you are aware of, and when you heard this, you did not answer him with an insult, but bitterly rebelled and prayed to God, thereby you have already laid aside all sin. What could be better? (1). When you pray for the enemy, you benefit him with words, and God benefits him with very great and wonderful deeds, illuminating him with the sun and sending rains every year at a certain time. And with all this, I accept your equality with God, which is only possible for a person. So, do not hate a person who does you harm, when through him you acquire such benefits and achieve such great honor. Do not curse the one who offends you, otherwise you will suffer an insult, and you will lose the fruit - you will suffer harm, but you will not receive a reward. And this is extremely crazy - having endured the most difficult, you cannot endure the easiest. But how is this possible, you say? You see that God became a man for you, that He humbled Himself so much and suffered so much for you, and do you still ask and wonder how you can forgive the insults of your equals? Don’t you hear what He says on the Cross: “Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)? Do you not hear what Paul says: He who has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God makes intercession for us (Rom. 8:34)? Don’t you see that even after His crucifixion and Ascension into heaven, He sent apostles to the Jews who killed Him, who brought them countless benefits and together suffered from them countless evils? But are you quite offended? What did you suffer that would be similar to the suffering of your Master, Who, after the countless benefits He had shown, was bound, suffered strangulation, scourging, spitting from slaves and, finally, suffered death - and the most blasphemous death of all deaths? If you are much offended, then that is why you yourself must do even more good, in order to receive a most brilliant crown for yourself and to save your brother from an extremely cruel illness. When patients who are in madness inflict blows and insults on their doctors, the latter at that time especially regret them and try to cure them, knowing that their insolence comes from excessive illness. In the same way, have the same disposition of spirit towards those who plot against you, and act in the same way with those who offend you, because they are completely sick and do everything completely involuntarily. So, free your enemy from his heavy pride, make him give up his anger and deliver him from the fierce demon - rage. Seeing people who are going crazy, we shed tears, and we don’t think about going crazy like them. Let us do the same with those who are angry, because they too are like those possessed by demons or even more unfortunate than them, because although they are possessed, they have not yet lost their minds. That is why their rage is unforgivable (6). You might be interested in: