But he that hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not where he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes.
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A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian
AD 255
Hast thou not read, that "he who hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes? "
A great thing, my brethren: mark it, we beseech you. He that hates his brother walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. What so blind as these who hate their brethren? For that you may know that they are blind, they have stumbled at a Mountain. I say the same things often, that they may not slip out of your memory. The Stone which was cut out of the Mountain without hands, is it not Christ, who came of the kingdom of the Jews, without the work of man? Has not that Stone broken in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, that is, all the dominations of idols and demons? Has not that Stone grown, and become a great mountain, and filled the whole earth? Do we point with the finger to this Mountain in like manner as the moon on its third day is pointed out to men? For example, when they wish people to see the new moon, they say, Lo, the moon! lo, where it is! And if there be some there who are not sharp-sighted, and say, Where? Then the fing...
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness. For, as Å’cumenius says, "He cannot be in the light of Christ, who hateth him for whom Christ died."
And knoweth not whither he goeth. "For (as says S. Cyprian, de Zelo) he goes down to hell, ignorantly and blindly, and withdrawn from the light of Christ, who says, "I am the Light of the world."" "Hatred," says the author of Imperf. Homily xiii. [on S. Matt.] "is the spirit of darkness, and wherever it settles it defiles the purity of holiness;" and adds, "The world is so full of offences, that if we wish to love our friends only, we shall not find anything to love." See Proverbs 4:19; Zephaniah 1:17; and Isaiah 59:10. For in truth nothing so blinds our reason as hatred. "There is no difference between anger and madness," says S. Chrysostom on S. John (Hom. xlvii.)
And anger is so blind as not to see its own blindness. Seneca adduces the case of Harpasto, his wife"s handmaid (Ep. li.), who did not understand that she was blind, adding...
