De arte praedicatoria

If the preacher wishes to arm a man against anger, let him use these authorities: Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.¹ And Paul says: Let not the sun go down upon your anger.² And James: The anger of man does not work the justice of God.³ And Solomon: Fools show their anger at once; but he who conceals his anger is shrewd.⁴ An angry man stirs up quarrels; he who is patient calms those that have been stirred up.⁵ Anger rests in the bosom of a fool.⁶ Gregory: "Who can endure a spirit quick to anger?" And in the Psalm: Be angry, and do not sin;⁷ the poet ⁸also says:

Anger is a brief madness; govern your mind, for unless it obeys, it commands; restrain this with reins, curb this with chains.

And Claudian:

If you are led by fear, by base desires, by anger, you will endure the yoke of slavery.

Here are the authorities with which the faithful man ought to fortify himself against anger, as with spiritual weapons. See, man, how fertile in wicked offspring anger is. From anger proceeds the rancor of hatred. For what is hatred, but inveterate anger? From it are born murder, insult, detraction, injury. O man, if you grow angry, if you hate your neighbor, you contradict yourself, since in prayer you cry out to the Lord: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.⁹ With what face do you ask that your debts be forgiven, when you do not forgive the rancor of your mind toward your neighbor?

There are three kinds of anger. One is born in the mind, but is not carried through to outward anger; this is the one about which it is said: Whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgment.¹⁰ For whoever conceives anger, retaining it within, will not escape the judgment of eternal damnation. This anger is signified by the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, dead in her chamber. There is another anger that proceeds as far as general insults, which is more serious, and closer to hell, about which it is said: Whoever says to his brother, "Raca," that is, has hurled general insults at him, shall be liable to the council,¹¹ that is, will be liable to a more serious judgment. This is signified by the son of the widow. For when someone is provoked by anger beyond the mind to the act, the soul, carried outside the bounds of the mind all the way to the practice of wicked deeds, is borne along as dead. But when insult breaks out as far as specific abuses, it rages more seriously. About this it is said: Whoever says to his brother, "Fool," shall be liable to the fire of hell.¹²

For the more serious the insults are, the more he who hurls them corrupts himself with the stench of infamy. If anger arises in the mind, it should be curbed instantly, because little ones must be dashed against the rock before they grow; the little foxes must be caught before they gnaw the vineyard; and the firstborn must be killed in the morning; and the Canaanite must be cast out of the promised land; and thus let not the sun go down upon your anger.¹³

For we must feel anger only at its first stirrings, so that we do not sin through consent to it. For it is human to rise up in anger, but it is diabolical to persist in it. It is no shame to feel anger, but it is a shame to fall into fault. O man, hear what the teaching of the heavenly Master says: If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, etc.¹⁴ There you have it: that if you wish to offer your material gift at the altar, you must first be reconciled to your brother, if you hold rancor in your mind; for the offering of the outward gift profits nothing, unless the inward tranquility of the mind is offered to God. Likewise, if on the altar of faith you wish to offer the sacrifice of good work, first shut out from your mind the clouds of rancor. For if your brother sins against you, you ought to forgive him not only seven times, but seventy times seven.¹⁵ Our Head, Jesus Christ, at the moment of his Passion, prayed for his persecutors, and Stephen, the first of the martyrs, interceded for those who stoned him;¹⁶ and if we do not have this perfection, so as to return good for evil, let us at least return for evil the least possible measure of evil in retaliation.

We ought often to bring back to memory what the teaching of the Gospel parable suggests to us, where we read of the man to whom his master forgave a debt, and yet he was unwilling to forgive his own debtor, and was therefore thrust into prison, and forced to repay to the very last farthing.¹⁷ Likewise, whoever does not forgive injuries to his neighbor, the supreme exactor will demand punishment from him for each of his faults. When you hold rancor in your mind, you do not harm your enemy, but you destroy yourself in soul, and you punish yourself in mind through rancor, while you desire to work against another. What malice is this? what vengeance? where, while you wish to hold your enemy, you yourself are held? while you wish to strike your enemy, you destroy yourself? Attend diligently to that precept, understand it more carefully: Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you.¹⁸