479 that we should prepare him to be kindly affected towards ourselves. For I hear many saying, “I have no hostility; I am not annoyed; neither have I any thing to do with him.”1829 But this is not what God commands, that thou shouldest have nothing to do with him; but that thou shouldest have much to do with him. For this reason he is thy “brother.”1830 For this reason He said not, “Forgive thy brother what thou hast against him. But what then? “Go thy way. First be reconciled to him;” and should he have “any thing against thee,” yet desist not, before thou hast reunited the member in friendly concord.” But thou, who in order that thou mayest obtain a useful servant, tellest out the gold, and discoursest with many merchants, and often undertakest long journeys, tell me, art thou not up and doing to the utmost, in order that thou mayest convert an enemy into a friend? And how then wilt thou be able to call upon God, whilst thou art thus neglecting His laws? Assuredly, the possession of a servant will be of no great profit to us; but the making an enemy a friend, will render God propitious and favourable toward us; and will easily set us free from our sins; and gain us praise with men, as well as great security in our life; for nothing can be more unsafe than he who has even only a single enemy. For our earthly reputation is injured, whilst such a man is saying a thousand evil things of us to every body. Our minds are also in a state of fermentation, and our conscience disturbed; and we are exposed to a continual tempest of anxious thoughts. 19. Now since we are conscious of the truth of all this, let us set ourselves free from chastisement and vengeance; and let us shew our reverence for the present feast, by doing all that has been said; and those same favours which we think to obtain from the Emperor on account of the feast, let us ourselves enable others to enjoy. For I hear, indeed, many saying, that the Emperor, out of his reverence for the Holy Passover, will be reconciled to the city and will pardon all its offences. How absurd then is it, that when we have to depend for our safety upon others, we bring forward the feast, and its claims; but that when we are commanded to be reconciled one with another, we treat this same feast with disdain, and think nothing of it. No one, truly, so pollutes this holy feast, as he does, who, whilst he is keeping it, cherishes malignity. Or rather, I might say, that such a person cannot possibly keep it, though he should remain without food ten days successively. For where there is enmity and strife, there can be neither fast nor festival. Thou wouldest not dare to touch the holy Sacrifice with unwashed hands,1831 however pressing the necessity might be. Ap- 1829 Literally anything common with him, οὐδš žχω τι κοινὸν πρὸς αὐτὸν: see end of Hom. I. 1830 i.e., is called so in this passage. 1831 If such rules are found fault with because they do not necessarily involve holy living, it should be re- membered that where strictly kept, they are grounds for such an appeal as this; and why not, in better men, for holy recollections? They are not truly parallel to those censured by our Lord, which did not relate to the treatment of holy things, and here they are treated quite as subservient to duties of a higher order. The word here rendered “necessity” may be “compulsion.” 710 Homily XX