Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
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Basil the Great
AD 379
Cast off the sullenness of an angry man which you are evincing by your silence, and regain joy in your heart, peace toward your likeminded brothers and sisters, and zeal and solicitude for the preservation of the churches of the Lord. Letter , To Atarbius.
Rejoiceth in the truth. In the truth, not so much of speech and mind as of life, i.e, of righteousness. In other words, charity, when it sees its neighbours living justly and rightly and making advance, does not envy them, but rejoices and is glad, as though it were its own advance, as Anselm says from S. Gregory; for truth here is opposed to iniquity. Therefore truth here is equity, uprightness, righteousness. The Greeks understand it otherwise. Charity does not rejoice, but grieves when it sees an enemy suffering anything wrongly or unjustly; and it rejoices in the truth if it sees his own given to him.
Rejoices not in unrighteousness: i.e., does not feel pleasure over those that suffer ill: and not this only, but also, what is much greater, rejoices with the truth. She feels pleasure, says he, with them that are well spoken of, as Paul says, Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12:15
Hence, she envies not, hence she is not puffed up: since in fact she accounts the good things of others her own.
Do you see how by degrees love makes her nursling an angel? For when he is void of anger, and pure from envy, and free from every tyrannical passion, consider that even from the nature of man he is delivered from henceforth, and has arrived at the very serenity of angels.
Nevertheless, he is not content with these, but has something even more than these to say: according to his plan of stating the stronger points later. Wherefore he says, bears all things. From her long-suffering, from her goodness; whether they be burdensome, or grievous, or insults, o...
