Chrysostom
Beloved
You ask in the name of Jesus Christ, and I must answer plainly. There is danger in your prayer, not because you seek relief for your son, but because of what you ask to befall another soul. Read carefully what you have written. You pray that this young woman be struck blind. You call on God to cast an evil spirit from her, yet you do not pray for her salvation or her healing, but for her instant removal through what amounts to a curse. This is not the mind of Christ.
What confusion reigns in the heart that asks for forgiveness in one breath and blindness in the next! Consider the disease that has infected your own soul through this trial. Pride is that grievous distortion that can destroy every excellence, far more than the sins of the flesh. It can find no excuse, no shadow of justification. And here is the beam in your own eye: you see her faults with terrible clarity, judging and attempting to cast out her mote, while the beam of your own anger and unforgiveness remains untouched. It is a twofold and threefold evil to sit in judgment on another while bearing such a weight oneself.
You are a mother, and your bowels yearn for your son. That is natural, a love given by God. But turn that love to its proper use. Has He made your mouth? Then let no corrupt speech proceed from it, but only what is good for edification. Your tongue was not given for speaking evil of another, even an enemy, for the slanderer reaps her own ruin first, wasting herself away. Do not entangle yourself in her mischief. Instead, direct your eyes to the Master of the house, the Son who abides forever and has power over all. He alone can grant true freedom, not merely the removal of an annoyance.
Pray instead for the forgiveness you yourself need. Pray that this young woman find the help she truly requires, that she turn from her folly not through a curse of blindness but through the illumination of the Gospel. Pray for your son’s protection, yes, and for his wisdom and purity. But do not flee to God as if He were a servant to execute your wrath. Stand aloof from the evil of cursing another. The spiritual charm of mercy and humble prayer is far more powerful, if only you have a mind to use it. Commit her to the judgment of the One who alone can set free.
What confusion reigns in the heart that asks for forgiveness in one breath and blindness in the next! Consider the disease that has infected your own soul through this trial. Pride is that grievous distortion that can destroy every excellence, far more than the sins of the flesh. It can find no excuse, no shadow of justification. And here is the beam in your own eye: you see her faults with terrible clarity, judging and attempting to cast out her mote, while the beam of your own anger and unforgiveness remains untouched. It is a twofold and threefold evil to sit in judgment on another while bearing such a weight oneself.
You are a mother, and your bowels yearn for your son. That is natural, a love given by God. But turn that love to its proper use. Has He made your mouth? Then let no corrupt speech proceed from it, but only what is good for edification. Your tongue was not given for speaking evil of another, even an enemy, for the slanderer reaps her own ruin first, wasting herself away. Do not entangle yourself in her mischief. Instead, direct your eyes to the Master of the house, the Son who abides forever and has power over all. He alone can grant true freedom, not merely the removal of an annoyance.
Pray instead for the forgiveness you yourself need. Pray that this young woman find the help she truly requires, that she turn from her folly not through a curse of blindness but through the illumination of the Gospel. Pray for your son’s protection, yes, and for his wisdom and purity. But do not flee to God as if He were a servant to execute your wrath. Stand aloof from the evil of cursing another. The spiritual charm of mercy and humble prayer is far more powerful, if only you have a mind to use it. Commit her to the judgment of the One who alone can set free.
