John Chrysostom, On Matthew

you have solved the argument. For if he also acted unjustly, for what reason did God permit it? What then shall we say to this? That which I never cease saying, both in church, and in the marketplace, and everywhere; which I also wish you to observe with exactness; for it is a certain rule for us, fitting for every such difficulty. What then is the rule, and what is the principle? That those who do injustice are many, but the one who is wronged is not even one. And so that the riddle may not trouble you any longer, I bring the solution quickly. For whatever we suffer unjustly from anyone, God reckons that injustice to us either for the dissolution of sins, or for the reward of wages. And that what is said may become clearer, let us bring the argument to an example. For let us suppose there is a certain servant owing much money to his master; then this servant is abused by unjust men, and some of his things are taken away. If then the master, who is able to hinder the robber and the covetous man, does not restore that money, but reckons what was taken away toward what is owed to him by the slave, has the servant been wronged? By no means. What if he gives back even more? did he not also gain more greatly? It is clear to everyone, surely. Let us reckon this, therefore, also in the case of what 57.178 we suffer. For that in return for the evils we may suffer, we either have our sins dissolved, or we receive more glorious crowns if we do not have so many sins, hear Paul saying to the man who had committed fornication: "Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved." And what is this? he says. For the argument was about those being wronged by others, not about those being corrected by their teachers. Indeed, there is no difference; for the question was, whether suffering evil is not an injury to the one who suffers. But that I may bring the argument closer to the matter in question, remember David, who, seeing Shimei then pressing upon him and leaping upon his misfortune, and washing him with countless reproaches, when his generals wished to kill him, prevented them, saying: "Let him curse, so that the Lord may see my humiliation, and repay me with good things for this curse on this day." And singing in the Psalms he said: "See my enemies, for they are multiplied, and they have hated me with an unjust hatred; and forgive all my sins." And Lazarus for this reason enjoyed rest, because he had suffered countless evils in this life. Therefore, those who have been wronged are not wronged, if they bear nobly all that they suffer, but they also gain more greatly, whether they are struck by God, or scourged by the devil. And what sin did the children have, he says, that they might dissolve it? For concerning those who have come of age and have committed many transgressions, one might reasonably say these things; but those who suffered so untimely a death, what sins did they lay aside through the evils they suffered? Have you not heard me saying that even if there are no sins, a repayment of rewards happens there for those who suffer evil here? What harm, then, came to the children who were killed on such a pretext, and were quickly carried away to the waveless harbor? That they often would have, he says, accomplished many and great things if they had lived. But for this reason no small reward is laid up for them beforehand, for having ended their life on such a pretext. Otherwise, He would not have allowed them to be snatched away beforehand, if the children were going to be someone great. For if He bears with such great long-suffering those who are going to live continually in wickedness, much more would He not have allowed these to be carried off thus, if He had foreseen that they would accomplish some great things. 3. And these are our arguments; not indeed all of them, but there are also others more secret than these, which He who Himself orders these things knows with exactness. Having yielded, therefore, to Him the more exact comprehension in this, let us hold to what follows, and let us be taught in the misfortunes of others to bear all things nobly. For no small tragedy then befell Bethlehem, with children being snatched from their mothers' breasts, and

ἔλυσας λόγον. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐκεῖνος ἀδίκως ἔπραττε, τίνος ἕνεκεν ὁ Θεὸς συνεχώρησε; Τί οὖν ἂν εἴποιμεν πρὸς τοῦτο; Ὅπερ ἀεὶ καὶ ἐν Ἐκκλησίᾳ, καὶ ἐν ἀγορᾷ, καὶ πανταχοῦ λέγων οὐ παύομαι· ὃ καὶ ὑμᾶς βούλομαι μετὰ ἀκριβείας διατηρεῖν· κανὼν γάρ τις ἐστὶ πρὸς ἅπασαν ἡμῖν τοιαύτην ἁρμόττων ἀπορίαν. Τίς οὖν ἐστιν ὁ κανὼν, καὶ τίς ὁ λόγος; Ὅτι οἱ μὲν ἀδικοῦντες πολλοὶ, ὁ δὲ ἀδικούμενος οὐδὲ εἷς. Καὶ ἵνα μὴ ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὑμᾶς τὸ αἴνιγμα ταράττῃ, καὶ τὴν λύσιν ἐπάγω ταχέως. Ὅπερ γὰρ ἂν πάθωμεν ἀδίκως παρ' ὁτουοῦν, ἢ εἰς ἁμαρτημάτων διάλυσιν ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῖν λογίζεται τὴν ἀδικίαν ἐκείνην, ἢ εἰς μισθῶν ἀντίδοσιν. Καὶ ἵνα σαφέστερον γένηται τὸ λεγόμενον, ἐπὶ ὑποδείγματος τὸν λόγον ἀγάγωμεν. Θῶμεν γὰρ εἶναί τινα οἰκέτην πολλὰ ὀφείλοντα τῷ δεσπότῃ χρήματα· εἶτα παρὰ ἀδίκων ἀνδρῶν ἐπηρεασθῆναι τὸν οἰκέτην τοῦτον, καὶ ἀφαιρεθῆναί τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ. Ἂν τοίνυν ὁ δεσπότης ὁ κωλῦσαι δυνάμενος τὸν ἅρπαγα καὶ πλεονέκτην, ἐκεῖνα μὲν μὴ ἀποκαταστήσῃ τὰ χρήματα, εἰς δὲ τὰ ὀφειλόμενα αὐτῷ παρὰ τοῦ δούλου λογίσηται τὰ ἀφαιρεθέντα, ἆρα μὴ ἠδίκηται ὁ οἰκέτης; Οὐδαμῶς. Τί δὲ, ἂν καὶ πλείονα ἀποδῷ; ἆρα οὐχὶ καὶ μειζόνως ἐκέρδανε; Παντί που δῆλον. Τοῦτο τοίνυν καὶ ἐφ' ὧν 57.178 ἡμεῖς πάσχομεν, λογισώμεθα. Ὅτι γὰρ ὑπὲρ ὧν ἂν πάθωμεν κακῶς, ἢ ἁμαρτήματα διαλυόμεθα, ἢ λαμπροτέρους λαμβάνομεν στεφάνους, ἂν μὴ ἁμαρτήματα τοσαῦτα ἔχωμεν, ἄκουσον τοῦ Παύλου λέγοντος πρὸς τὸν πεπορνευκότα· Παράδοτε τὸν τοιοῦτον τῷ Σατανᾷ εἰς ὄλεθρον τῆς σαρκὸς, ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα σωθῇ. Καὶ τί τοῦτο; φησί. Περὶ γὰρ τῶν ἀδικουμένων παρ' ἑτέρων ὁ λόγος ἦν, οὐ περὶ τῶν παρὰ τῶν διδασκάλων διορθουμένων. Μάλιστα μὲν οὐδὲν τὸ μέσον· τὸ γὰρ ζητούμενον ἦν, εἰ τὸ παθεῖν κακῶς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπήρεια τῷ παθόντι. Ἀλλ' ἵνα καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐγγύτερον τοῦ ζητουμένου ἀγάγω τὸν λόγον, ἀναμνήσθητι τοῦ ∆αυΐδ, ὃς τὸν Σεμεῒ τότε ὁρῶν ἐπικείμενον καὶ ἐναλλόμενον αὐτοῦ τῇ συμφορᾷ, καὶ μυρίοις αὐτὸν ὀνείδεσι πλύνοντα, βουλομένων ἀνελεῖν τῶν στρατηγῶν, διεκώλυε λέγων· Ἄφετε αὐτὸν καταρᾶσθαι, ὅπως ἴδῃ Κύριος τὴν ταπείνωσίν μου, καὶ ἀνταποδῷ μοι ἀγαθὰ ἀντὶ τῆς κατάρας ταύτης ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ταύτῃ. Καὶ ἐν τοῖς Ψαλμοῖς δὲ ᾄδων ἔλεγεν· Ἴδε τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ὅτι ἐπληθύνθησαν, καὶ μῖσος ἄδικον ἐμίσησάν με, καὶ ἄφες πάσας τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου. Καὶ ὁ Λάζαρος δὲ διὰ τοῦτο ἀπέλαυσεν ἀνέσεως, ἐπειδὴ μυρία κατὰ τὸν βίον τοῦτον ἔπαθε κακά. Οὐκ ἄρα ἠδίκηνται οἱ ἀδικηθέντες, ἐὰν γενναίως ἐνέγκωσιν ἅπερ πάσχουσιν ἅπαντα, ἀλλὰ καὶ μειζόνως κερδαίνουσιν, ἄν τε παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλήττωνται, ἄν τε παρὰ τοῦ διαβόλου μαστίζωνται. Καὶ ποίαν εἶχον ἁμαρτίαν τὰ παιδία, φησὶν, ἵνα ταύτην διαλύσωνται; περὶ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ γενομένων καὶ πολλὰ πεπλημμεληκότων εἰκότως ἄν τις ταῦτα εἴποι· οἱ δὲ ἄωρον οὕτως ὑπομείναντες τελευτὴν, ποῖα ἁμαρτήματα, δι' ὧν κακῶς ἔπαθον, ἀπέθεντο; Οὐκ ἤκουσάς μου λέγοντος, ὅτι κἂν ἁμαρτήματα μὴ ᾖ, μισθῶν ἀντίδοσις ἐκεῖ γίνεται τοῖς πάσχουσιν ἐνταῦθα κακῶς; Τί τοίνυν ἐβλάβη τὰ παιδία ἀναιρεθέντα ἐπὶ ὑποθέσει τοιαύτῃ, καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἀκύμαντον ταχέως ἀπενεχθέντα λιμένα; Ὅτι πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα πολλάκις ἔμελλον, φησὶ, ζήσαντες κατορθοῦν. Ἀλλὰ διὰ τοῦτο οὐ μικρὸν αὐτοῖς προαποτίθεται τὸν μισθὸν, τὸ ἐπὶ ὑποθέσει τοιαύτῃ καταλῦσαι τὸν βίον. Ἄλλως δὲ οὐδ' ἂν εἴασεν, εἰ μεγάλοι τινὲς ἔμελλον ἔσεσθαι οἱ παῖδες, προαναρπασθῆναι. Εἰ γὰρ τοὺς ἐν πονηρίᾳ μέλλοντας ζῇν διηνεκῶς, μετὰ μακροθυμίας φέρει τοσαύτης, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τούτους οὐκ ἂν εἴασεν οὕτως ἀπενεχθῆναι, εἰ προῄδει μεγάλα τινὰ ἀνύσοντας. γʹ. Καὶ οὗτοι μὲν οἱ παρ' ἡμῶν λόγοι· οὐ μὴν ἅπαντες οὗτοι, ἀλλ' εἰσὶ καὶ τούτων ἀποῤῥητότεροι ἕτεροι, οὓς μετὰ ἀκριβείας οἶδεν ὁ ταῦτα οἰκονομῶν αὐτός. Παραχωρήσαντες τοίνυν αὐτῷ τῆς ἀκριβεστέρας ἐν τούτῳ καταλήψεως, τῶν ἑξῆς ἡμεῖς ἐχώμεθα, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἑτέρων συμφοραῖς παιδευώμεθα πάντα φέρειν γενναίως. Καὶ γὰρ οὐ μικρὰ τότε κατέλαβε τὴν Βηθλεὲμ τραγῳδία, τῶν παίδων ἁρπαζομένων ἀπὸ τῆς θηλῆς τῶν μητέρων, καὶ