Sowers of Strife and Peacemakers

Admonition 24. Sowers of strife and peacemakers are to be admonished differently. Sowers of strife are to be admonished to see whose followers they are. For of the apostate angel it is written, when weeds had been sown among the good crop, “An enemy has done this.” Of one of his members, too, it is said through Solomon, “An apostate, a worthless man, walks with a perverse mouth; he winks with his eyes, he beats with his foot, he speaks with his finger; with a perverse heart he plots mischief continually; he sows strife.” See: the man he meant to describe as a sower of strife he first called an apostate. For unless he had first fallen away inwardly, like the proud angel, his mind turned away from the face of his Maker, he would not afterward come to sow strife outwardly. He is rightly described, too, as winking with his eyes, speaking with his finger, beating with his foot. For it is the watch kept within that holds the limbs in orderly control outwardly. So the one who has lost stability of mind falls outwardly into restless movement, and by his outward restlessness shows that he rests on no root within. [a]

Let sowers of strife hear what is written: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” And let them gather from this, on the other hand, that if those who make peace are called the children of God, those who throw it into confusion are without doubt the children of Satan. Moreover, all who are cut off by discord from the green life of loving-kindness are dried up; and even if they bring forth the fruits of good works in their actions, these are in truth no fruits at all, because they do not spring from the unity of love. So let sowers of strife consider in how many ways they sin: by committing one wrong, they at the same time root every virtue out of human hearts. In one evil they work countless evils, since by sowing discord they put out love, which is truly the mother of all virtues. And since nothing is more precious to God than the virtue of loving-kindness, nothing is more welcome to the devil than the putting out of love. So those who destroy the loving-kindness of neighbors by sowing strife serve God’s enemy as his close friend; for by taking from them the very thing whose loss made him fall, they have cut off from them the road by which to rise.

But peacemakers, on the other hand, are to be admonished not to take away from the effect of so great a work by not knowing between whom they ought to make peace. For just as there is great harm if unity is lacking among the good, so there is the greatest harm if it is not lacking among the bad. If, then, the wickedness of the perverse is united in peace, their evil deeds surely gain strength; for the more they agree among themselves in wickedness, the harder they dash themselves against the good to afflict them. That is why the divine voice says to blessed Job, against the preachers of that vessel of damnation, the Antichrist, “The members of his flesh cling close to one another.” That is why, under the figure of scales, it is said of his attendants, “One is joined to another, and not even a breath of air comes between them.” For his followers, divided among themselves by no opposition of discord, are bound together all the more strongly for the slaughter of the good. So the one who brings the wicked together in peace gives strength to wickedness, since they press the good down harder when they persecute them with one mind. That is why the excellent preacher, overtaken by violent persecution from Pharisees and Sadducees, tried to divide among themselves those he saw united so violently against him, when he cried out, “Men, brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; it is about the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am being called into question.” And since the Sadducees denied the hope and the resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees believed in keeping with the commands of Holy Scripture, dissension broke the unanimity of the persecutors; and Paul escaped unhurt from the divided crowd that had savagely attacked him while it was united. [c]

So those who are busy with the desire to make peace are to be admonished that they should first pour a love of inward peace into the minds of the perverse, so that outward peace may afterward be able to do them good. This is so that, while their heart hangs on the knowledge of the first, they may by no means be swept into wickedness by gaining the second; and so that, while they see before them the peace that is heavenly, they may in no way turn the earthly kind to their own harm. But if some perverse people are such that they could not harm the good even if they wanted to, then earthly peace ought indeed to be established between them, even before they have risen to the knowledge of heavenly peace. In this way those whom the wickedness of their ungodliness sets against the loving-kindness of God may at least be softened by love of their neighbor, and, as if from a neighboring position, may pass to a better one, and so rise to what is still far from them, the peace of their Maker.