Rooting Out Anger as the Gospel Commands

So, if we want to gain the substance of that divine reward of which it is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God,” we ought not only to banish anger from our actions but to root it out completely from our inmost soul. For it will do no good to have checked anger in words and not shown it in deeds, if God, from whom the secrets of the heart are not hidden, sees that it remains in the hidden depths of our breast. For the word of the gospel bids us destroy the roots of our faults rather than the fruits; once the incitements are all removed, the fruits will certainly not put out shoots any more. And so the mind will be able to continue in all patience and holiness, once this anger has been removed, not from the surface of acts and deeds, but from the innermost thoughts. [a]

And so, to prevent the committing of murder, anger and hatred are cut off, since without them the crime of murder cannot possibly be committed. For “whoever is angry with his brother is in danger of the judgment,” and “whoever hates his brother is a murderer”: that is, because in his heart he desires to kill him. We know that he has certainly not shed his brother’s blood among men with his own hand or with a weapon; yet because of his burst of anger he is declared a murderer by God, who renders to each man a reward or a punishment not merely for the outcome of his actions but for his purpose, desires, and wishes. So God himself says through the prophet, “But I am coming to gather them together with all nations and tongues”; and again, “Their thoughts among themselves accusing or else defending one another, on the day when God will judge the secrets of men.”