of God is holy, which temple ye are;”89 and, “That Christ may dwell in the inner man90 by
faith in your hearts”) if it occur to our mind that a brother hath ought against us, i.e. if we
have injured him in anything (for then he has something against us whereas we have
something against him if he has injured us, and in that case it is not necessary to proceed
to reconciliation: for you will not ask pardon of one who has done you an injury, but merely
forgive him, as you desire to be forgiven by the Lord what you have committed against
Him), we are therefore to proceed to reconciliation, when it has occurred to our mind that
we have perhaps injured our brother in something; but this is to be done not with the bodily
feet, but with the emotions of the mind, so that you are to prostrate yourself with humble
disposition before your brother, to whom you have hastened in affectionate thought, in the
presence of Him to whom you are about to present your offering. For thus, even if he should
be present, you will be able to soften him by a mind free from dissimulation, and to recall
him to goodwill by asking pardon, if first you have done this before God, going to him not
with the slow movement of the body, but with the very swift impulse of love; and then
coming, i.e. recalling your attention to that which you were beginning to do, you will offer
your gift.91
28. But who acts in a way that he is neither angry with his brother without a cause, nor
says “Raca” without a cause, nor calls him a fool without a cause, all of which are most
proudly committed; or so, that, if perchance he has fallen into any of these, he asks pardon
with suppliant mind, which is the only remedy; who but just the man that is not puffed up
with the spirit of empty boasting? “Blessed” therefore “are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.” Let us look now at what follows.
89 1 Cor. iii. 17.
90 Eph. iii. 17. In interiore homine, a different construction from the Greek, which has εἰς with the accusative.
So Vulgate, in interiorem hominem.
91 “Discharge of duty to men does not absolve from duty to God.” The passage has strong bearing upon the
relation of morality and religion.
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Chapter X