Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
Read Chapter 19
Basil the Great
AD 379
The noble Job in his harsh adversity cried out in blame not misery.
That is to say, 'You're meant to be merciful not unjustly reproach me! Instead you assail me and overwhelm a man with whose sufferings you ought to show sympathy for friendship's sake.
59. The mind of godly men is used to have this peculiar to itself, that when it suffers unjust treatment at the hands of enemies, it is not so much moved to wrath as to prayer; that if the wickedness of those persons could be made to subside to a calm, they would choose rather to beseech than to be wroth; whence it is rightly said in this place, Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Observe, those by whom he sees that he is ever being treated with insults, he calls ‘friends,’ in that to godly minds the very things that seem contrary are made favourable; for any that are wicked are either converted by the sweetness of the good so as to turn back, and by this alone they are friends, viz. that they are made good, or they persevere in their wickedness, and herein also even against their will they are ‘friends,’ in that, if there be any transgressions of the good, by their persecutions they purge them away even unknowingly. Observe to...
