Christ Looks at the Will as Well as the Deed

As was said a little earlier, we must look not only at the thing that is done but also at the character of the mind and the purpose of the doer. And so, if you weigh with careful scrutiny of heart what each man does, and consider in what frame of mind it is done or from what feeling it comes, you will see that the virtue of patience and gentleness cannot possibly be fulfilled in the opposite spirit, that is, in impatience and rage. For our Lord and Savior was teaching us the virtue of patience and gentleness thoroughly, that is, teaching us not only to profess it with our lips but to store it up in the inmost depths of the soul. And he gave us this summary of the perfection of the Gospel: “If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other also.” No doubt the right cheek is named because another right cheek cannot be found except in the face of the inner man, so to speak. By this he wants to remove every incitement to anger entirely from the deepest recesses of the soul. That is, if your outward right cheek has received a blow from the striker, the inner man too, humbly consenting, should offer its right cheek to be struck. It shares in the suffering of the outward man, and in a way submits and subjects its own body to wrong from the striker, so that the inner man may not be disturbed within itself, even silently, by the blows to the outward man. [a]

You see, then, that they are very far from the perfection of the Gospel. That perfection teaches that patience must be kept not in words but in the inward calm of the heart. It bids us keep it whatever evil happens, so that we may not only keep ourselves always free from disturbing anger, but also, by submitting to their injuries, compel those who are disturbed by their own fault to grow calm when they have had their fill of blows, and so overcome their rage by our gentleness. In this way we will also fulfill these words of the apostle: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And it is quite clear that this cannot be fulfilled by those who speak words of gentleness and humility in such a spirit and with such rage that they not only fail to lessen the fire of anger that has been kindled, but rather make it blaze up more fiercely, both in their own feelings and in those of their enraged brother. But even if these people could somehow keep calm and quiet themselves, they would still bear no fruits of righteousness, since they claim the glory of patience for themselves through their neighbor’s loss. So they are altogether removed from that apostolic love which “does not seek its own,” but the things of others. For love does not desire riches in such a way as to make a profit for itself out of a neighbor’s loss, nor does it wish to gain anything if that means stripping another.