Advice on Peacemaking from the Saints
A selection of challenging quotations for meditation assembled by Alexander Patico, secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship in North America
First Century
For he is our peace, who has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. ... He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ... Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather set aside wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, declares the Lord. Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink.
St. Paul
Let us praise with reverent hymns of peace the Divine Peace. ... God is the fount of all peace, who joins all things together in an unity without confusion. ... There is no need to tell how the loving-kindness of Christ comes bathed in peace. Therefore we must learn to cease from strife, whether against ourselves or against one another, or against the angels, and instead to labor together even with the angels for the accomplishment of God's Will, in accordance with the providential purpose of Jesus who works all things in all and makes peace, unutterable and foreordained from eternity, and reconciles us to Himself, and, in Himself, to the Father. Concerning these supernatural gifts enough has been said with confirmation drawn from the holy testimony of the scriptures.
Dionysius the Areopagite
Second Century
They [the Christians] love all men, and they are persecuted by all. ... They are put to death, and yet they are endowed with life. ... They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things. They are dishonored, and yet they are glorified in their dishonor. They are evil spoken of, and yet they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect. Doing good, they are punished as evil-doers; being punished, they rejoice, as if they were thereby quickened by life.
Mathetes
What, then, are these teachings in which we are reared? "I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, who makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. ... "Who [of the pagan philosophers] have so purified their own hearts as to love their enemies instead of hating them ... and to pray for those who plot against them? ... We cannot endure to see a man being put to death even justly. ... We see little difference between watching a man being put to death and killing him. So we have given up [gladiatorial] spectacles. ... What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God?
Athenagoras of Athens
"For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And that it did so come to pass, we can convince you. For from Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, only twelve in number, who, by the power of God, proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to teach to all the word of God. We who formerly used to murder one another do not only now refrain from making war upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ.
St. Justin Martyr
Third Century
The question is now whether a member of the faithful can become a soldier and whether a soldier can be admitted to the Faith ... how will a Christian do so? ... The Lord, by taking away Peter's sword, disarmed every soldier thereafter. ... We [the Christians] started yesterday and already we have filled the world and everything that belongs to you the cities, apartment houses, fortresses, towns, market places, the camps themselves, your tribes, town councils, the imperial palace, the Senate, the Forum. The only thing we have left to you are the temples. We can count your armies; there is a greater number of Christians in a single province! What kind of war would we, who willingly submit to the sword, not be ready or eager for ... if it were not for the fact that according to our doctrine it is more permissible to be killed than to kill.
Tertullian
Nothing is so characteristically Christian as being a peacemaker. ... I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness towards all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.
St. Basil the Great
It is well known that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, who brought the mass of mankind under a single sovereignty. The existence of many kingdoms would have hindered the spread of Jesus' teachings over the whole world because everywhere men would have been forced to serve in the army and go to war on behalf of their country How could this peaceful teaching, which prohibits a man from avenging himself even against his enemies, have gained sway if the whole world situation at the time of Jesus had not been made more peaceful,
Origen
God, in prohibiting killing, discountenances not only brigandage, which is contrary to human law, but also that which men regard as legal. Thus participation in war will not be legitimate to a just man; his "military service" is justice itself. ... What are the interests of our country, but the inconveniences of another state or nation? that is, to extend the boundaries which are violently taken from others, to increase the power of the state, to improve the revenues all which things are not virtues, but the overthrowing of virtues: for, in the first place, the union of human society is taken away, innocence is taken away, the abstaining from the property of another is taken away; lastly, justice itself is taken away, which is unable to bear the tearing asunder of the human race, and wherever arms have glittered, must be banished and exterminated from thence. ... How can a man be just who injures, hates, despoils and puts to death? Yet they who strive to be serviceable to their country do all these things.
Lactantius [tutor of Crispus, the son of St. Constantine the Great]
The loud trumpet, when sounded, collects the soldiers, and proclaims war. And shall not Christ, breathing a strain of peace to the ends of the earth, gather together His own soldiers, the soldiers of peace? ... He has gathered the bloodless host of peace. ... The trumpet of Christ is His Gospel. He hath blown it, and we have heard. "Let us array ourselves in the armor of peace, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and taking the shield of faith, and binding our brows with the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." So the apostle in the spirit of peace commands. These are our invulnerable weapons: armed with these, let us face the evil one. ... If you enroll as one of God's people, heaven is your country and God your lawgiver. And what are His laws? You shall not kill, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. To him that strikes you on the one cheek, turn to him the other also. ... The Church is an army that sheds no blood.
Clement of Alexandria
The world is soaked with mutual blood. When individuals commit homicide, it is a crime; it is called a virtue when it is done in the name of the state. Impunity is acquired for crimes not by reason of innocence but by the magnitude of the cruelty. ... Man is killed for the pleasure of man, and to be able to kill is a skill, is an employment, is an art. Crime is not only committed but is taught. What can be called more inhuman, what more repulsive? It is a training that one may be able to kill, and that he kills is a glory ... they adorn themselves for a voluntary death, wretched they even glory in their wicked deeds.
St. Cyprian of Carthage
Fourth Century
I am a soldier of Christ. To fight is not permissible for me.
St. Martin of Tours
Both the Emperor's commands and yours [person in authority] must be obeyed if they are not contrary to the God of heaven. If they are, they must not only not be obeyed; they must be resisted.
St. Euphemia
It is good to live in peace, for the wise person practices perpetual prayer. ... However, you should realize that as soon as you intend to live in peace, at once evil comes and weighs down your soul through accident, faintheartedness, and evil thoughts ... attacks your body through sickness, debility, weakening of the knees, and all members ... dissipates the strength of soul and body, so that one believes one is ill and no longer able to pray. But if we are vigilant, all these temptations fall away.
Amma Theodora
If force is used, I cannot meet it. I shall be able to grieve, to weep, to groan; against weapons, soldiers, Goths, my tears are my weapons, for these are a priest's defense. ... I ought not, I cannot resist in any other way, for to flee and forsake the Church is not my way, lest any one should suppose I did so from fear of some heavier punishment. You yourselves know that I am wont to show respect to our emperors, but not to yield to them, to offer myself freely to punishment, and not to fear what is prepared for me. ... Some ask whether, in case of a shipwreck, a wise man ought to take a plank away from an ignorant sailor. Although it seems better for the common good that a wise man rather than a fool should escape from shipwreck, yet I do not think that a Christian, a just and a wise man, ought to save his own life by the death of another; just as when he meets with an armed robber he cannot return his blows, lest in defending his life he should stain his love toward his neighbor. The verdict on this is plain and clear in the books of the Gospel. 'Put away your sword, for every one that takes up the sword shall perish by the sword.' What robber is more hateful than the persecutor who came to kill Christ? But Christ would not be defended from the wounds of the persecutor, for He willed to heal all by His wounds.
St. Ambrose of Milan
We, a numerous band of men as we are, have learned from His teaching and His laws that evil ought not to be requited with evil, that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with that of another. An ungrateful world is now for a long period enjoying a benefit from Christ, inasmuch as by His means the rage of savage ferocity has been softened, and has begun to withhold hostile hands from the blood of a fellow-creature.
Arnobius
Praying against one's personal enemies is a transgression of law. ... How great punishment must they deserve, who, far from themselves forgiving, do even entreat God for vengeance on their enemies, and as it were diametrically transgress this law; and this while He is doing and contriving all, to hinder our being at variance one with another? For since love is the root of all that is good, He, removing from all sides whatever mars it, brings us together, and cements us to each other. ... To conquer enemies does not render kings so illustrious, as to conquer wrath and anger. For, in the former case, the success is due to arms and soldiers; but here the trophy is simply your own, and you have no one to divide the glory of your moral wisdom. You have overcome barbarian war, overcome also Imperial wrath! ... Just as maniacs, who never enjoy tranquility, so also he who is resentful and retains an enemy will never have the enjoyment of any peace.
St. John Chrysostom
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." Who are these children? Those who show forth in their own life the characteristic of the Divine energy. ... This work He ordains also for you, namely to cast out hatred and abolish war, to exterminate envy and banish strife, to extinguish from within resentment of injuries smoldering in the heart. ... For as light follows the departure of darkness, thus also these evil things are replaced by the fruits of the Spirit: by charity, joy, peace, benignity, magnanimity, all the good things enumerated by the Apostle. How then should the dispenser of the Divine gifts not be blessed, since he imitates the gifts of God and models his own good deeds on the Divine generosity? ... But perhaps the beatitude does not only regard the good of others. I think that man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no longer wars against the law of the mind but is subjected to the higher rule and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance.
St. Gregory of Nyssa
Fifth Century
I have heard that there were two old men who lived together for many years, never quarreling, and that one said to the other, "Let us also pick a quarrel with each other, even as others do." His companion answered, "I don't know how to start a quarrel." The other man answered and said to him, "Look, I will place a brick between us and will say, 'This is mine,' and then you say, 'It is not yours, but mine'; and from this quarreling will begin. They placed a brick between them and one of them said, "This is mine," and his companion answered and said after him, "This is not so, for it is mine." Straightaway the other replied and said to him, "If this be so, and the brick is yours, take it and go." Thus they were unable to quarrel.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Sixth Century
Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, the keeper of sin, hatred of righteousness, ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer. You will know that you have completely freed yourself of this rot, not when you pray for the person who has offended you, not when you exchange presents with him, not when you invite him to your table, but only when, on hearing that he has fallen into bodily or spiritual misfortune, you suffer and weep for him as for yourself.
St. John Climacus
Seventh Century
"But I say to you," the Lord says, "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you." Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God. St. Maximus the Confessor
Ninth Century
You detach yourself from the cross to which you have crucified yourself alongside the Savior if you go and attack your brother.
St. Theodore Studite
Eleventh Century
Above all things: do not forget the poor, but support them to the extent of your means. Give to the orphan, protect the widow, and permit the mighty to destroy no man. Take not the life of the just or the unjust, nor permit him to be killed. Destroy no Christian soul, even though he be guilty of murder.
St. Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles
Fifteenth Century
Our head, Christ our God ... does not tolerate that the bond of love be taken from us...
St. Mark of Ephesus
Eighteenth Century
If the matter is solved with war, you will suffer much destruction. ... If they find silver in the street, they will not bend down to take it. But for an ear of wheat, they will kill each other trying to take it first. ... In the city [Constantinople], so much blood will be spilled that a three-year-old calf will swim in it. ... After the war, a man will have to run half an hour to find another human being to join him in fellowship.
St. Cosmas the Aetolian
Nineteenth Century
God is fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. And so, if we feel in our hearts coldness, which is from the devil ... then let us call upon the Lord and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him but for our neighbor as well. ... You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. ... Never condemn each other. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil.
St. Seraphim of Sarov
Twentieth Century
It is easier for a feeble straw to resist a mighty fire than for the nature of sin to resist the power of love. We must cultivate this love in our souls, that we may take our place with all the saints, for they were all-pleasing unto God through their love for their neighbor.
St. Elizabeth, the New Martyr
The bodies of fellow human beings must be treated with greater care than our own. Christian love teaches us to give our brethren not only spiritual gifts, but material gifts as well. Even our last shirt, our last piece of bread must be given to them. ... The way to God lies through love of other people and there is no other way. At the Last Judgment I shall not be asked if I was successful in my ascetic exercises or how many prostrations I made in the course of my prayers. I shall be asked, did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners: that is all I shall be asked. ... Christ's love does not know how to measure and divide, does not know how to spare itself. Our love should not be any different.
St. Maria of Paris
Should we, Christians, embark upon the way of vengeance? Let this not be! Not even if our hearts would break from the ... oppressions inflicted upon our religious feelings, our love of our native land or our temporary well-being, even if our feelings would infallibly tell us who and where our assailant is. No, let better bleeding wounds be inflicted upon us, than that we move to revenge ... against our enemies, or those whom we take to be the source of our suffering. Follow Christ! Don't betray Him! Don't fall into temptation. Do not allow your own soul to perish in the blood of vengeance. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow
Twenty-First Century
If we live as people of God, there will be room for all nations in the Balkans and in the world. If we liken ourselves to Cain who killed his brother Abel, then the entire earth will be too small even for two people. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to be always children of God and love one another. We should remember the words of St. Paul: "If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men."
Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Any Georgian who kills another person shames his nation.
Patriarch Ilya of Georgia
Today blood is being shed and people being killed in South Ossetia, and my heart deeply laments over it. Orthodox Christians are among those who have raised their hands against each other. Orthodox people, called by the Lord to live in fraternity and love, confront each other...
Patriarch Aleksy of Russia
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Winter 2009 issue of In Communion / IC 52