And what more--that you should not curse; that you should not seek again your goods when taken from you; when buffeted you should turn the other cheek; and forgive not seven times but seventy times seven.... That you should love your enemies and pray for your adversaries and persecutors? (De Patentia 15-16)
Even our enemies are to be loved. (5.546)
The Christian has departed from rage and carnal contention as if from the hurricanes of the sea. He has already begun to be tranquil and meek in the harbor of Christ. Therefore, he should allow neither anger nor discord within his breath. For he must neither return evil for evil, nor bear hatred. (5.488)
Christians do not attack their assailants in return, for it is not lawful for the innocent to kill even the guilty. (5.351)
When a Christian is arrested, he does not resist. Nor does he avenge himself against your unrighteous violence—even though our people are numerous and plentiful. (5.462)
We may not hate. And we please God more by rendering no return for wrong. Therefore, we exhort you to make satisfaction to God. Do this while you have the power, while there yet remains in you something of life.... We do not envy your comforts, nor do we conceal the divine benefits. We repay kindness for your hatred. In return for the torments and penalties that are inflicted on us, we point out to you the ways of salvation. (5.465)
The hand must not be spotted with the sword and blood--not after the Eucharist is carried in it. (5.488)
Why? Because the Eucharist is, among other things, the symbol of God's nonviolent victory over imperialistic violence. Imagine that one of the soldiers who tortured Jesus later became a Christian. Could he ever bring himself to torture another human being again? That is the sense of this saying.
Wars are scattered all over the earth with the bloody horror of camps. The whole world is wet with mutual blood. And murder--which is admitted to be a crime in the case of an individual--is called a virtue when it is committed wholesale. Impunity is claimed for the wicked deeds, not because they are guiltless--but because the cruelty is perpetrated on a grand scale! (5.277)
Labels: Early Christians, Nonviolence, Pacifism
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