Letter 239: The theater is to be avoided — not because pleasure is evil in itself, but because this particular pleasure actively...

To Alupius. The saying, "Be angry, and sin not" [Psalm 4:5], seems to me to be many-sided and capable of many interpretations. For it can be both definitive and advisory; as if to say: Are you angry, and why are you angry? Therefore do not be angry, lest you sin. But it can also signify this: Since anger is a sharp passion and one terrible at stealing away the soul (for it often runs ahead of reason, and is brought to birth almost involuntarily), calm it down by reasoning or by reflection, not rushing toward revenge, but ending in gentleness. And it can also disclose this: Be angry at the passion that troubles you, and most of all at pleasure, and you will not sin. For if pleasure finds you unnerved and slack, it will easily throw you down; but if it finds you sober and angry at it, it will at once depart. And since the divine oracle did not forbid being angry simply, but being angry without cause; for it is sometimes useful to be angry, whenever the anger is on behalf of the glory of God, or on behalf of those who are wronged, or on behalf of the correction of one's neighbor. For indeed even the most gentle Moses was angry at those who made the calf, and forthwith ordered them to be slain; and Phinehas at those who committed fornication, and dispatched them with a spear; and Elijah at the Jews, and subdued them with famine; Paul at Elymas, and Peter at Ananias and Sapphira; and a father is angry at his son, and a teacher at his pupil when he is correcting him; and no one would call this anger, but rather sound judgment and tender care. It can also be protective. For since, whenever we are avenging ourselves, we even take revenge beyond measure; but whenever the matter concerns the divine glory, or those who are wronged, then we feign reverence and quietness, and we are voiceless and unmoved, and differ in nothing from stones; for this reason, it says, Be angry indeed, but justly, either when the matter concerns the glory of God, or when it concerns the correction of one's neighbor, or when you must punish on behalf of those who are wronged; but do not sin, either by being complicit with those who sin and concealing them, or by misusing the aid for the purpose of avenging yourselves. For anger was implanted in us for this reason: not so that we too might sin, but so that we might restrain those who strike; nor so that it might become a passion and a disease, but so that it might be a remedy for passions. But we make the aid into a poison, by misusing it for purposes not proper to it.

Τό, «Ὀργίζεσθε, καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε», πολυσχιδὲς εἶναί μοι μὲν καὶ πολύτροπον [φαίνεται.] Δύναται γὰρ εἶναι καὶ ὁριστικόν, καὶ συμβουλευτικόν· οἷον· Ὀργίζεσθε, καὶ διὰ τί ὀργίζεσθε; Οὐκοῦν μὴ ὀργίζεσθε, ἵνα μὴ ἁμάρτητε (32). Δύναται δὲ καὶ τοῦτο μηνύειν· Ἐπειδὴ ὀξύ πάθος ἡ ὀργή καὶ δεινὸν κλέψαι ψυχήν (προετρέχει γὰρ πολλάκις τοῦ λογισμοῦ, καὶ ἀβουλήτως, σχεδὸν τίκτεται), τῷ λογισμῷ [ἢ] τῷ ἐπιλογισμῷ καταπραΰνετε (33) ταύτην, μὴ εἰς ἄμυναν ὁρμῶντες, ἀλλ' εἰς ἡμερότητα τελευτῶντες. Δύναται δὲ καὶ τοῦτ' ἐμφαίνειν, ὅτι Ὀργίζεσθε τῷ ἐνοχλοῦντι ὑμῖν πάθει, μάλιστα δὲ πάντων τῇ ἡδονῇ, καὶ οὐχ ἁμαρτήσετε. Εἰ γὰρ εὕροι ὑμᾶς ἐκνενευρισμένους, καὶ ἐκλελυμένους, ῥᾳδίως καταπαλαίσει· εἰ δὲ νήφοντας καὶ ὀργιζομένους αὐτῇ, εὐθέως οἰχήσεται. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὁ θεῖος χρησμὸς οὐ τὸ ὀργίζεσθαι ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ τὸ εἰκῇ ἀπηγόρευσεν· ἔστι γάρ ποτε καὶ χρησίμως ὀργισθῆναι, ὅταν ἡ ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δόξης γίγνηται, ἢ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδικουμένων, ἢ ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ πέλας διορθώσεως· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ πραότατος Μωσῆς ὀργίσθη τοῖς μοσχοποιήσασι, καὶ ἤδηθεν αὐτοὺς ἐκέλευσεν ἀναιρεθῆναι· καὶ ὁ Φινεὲς τοῖς πορνεύσασι, καὶ σειρομάστῃ αὐτοὺς διεχρήσατο· καὶ Ἠλίας τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις, καὶ λιμῷ αὐτοὺς ἐδάμασε· Παῦλος τῷ Ἐλύμᾳ, καὶ Πέτρος τῷ Ἁνανίᾳ καὶ τῇ Σαπφείρᾳ· καὶ πατὴρ υἱῷ καὶ δάσκαλος φοιτητῇ ὀργίζεται ῥυθμοῦντι· καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις φαίη ὀργὴν εἶναι ταύτην, ἀλλὰ φιλοσοφίαν καὶ κηδεμονίαν, δύναται καὶ προστατικὸν εἶναι. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὅταν μὲν ἑαυτοὺς ἐκδικῶμεν, καὶ ὑπὲρ τὸ μέτρον ἀμυνώμεθα· ὅταν δὲ ἡ ὑπὲρ τῆς θείας δόξης ὁ λόγος ᾖ, ἢ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδικουμένων, τότε εὐλάβειαν καὶ ἡσυχίαν πλαττόμεθα, ἄφωνοί τε ἐσμεν καὶ ἀκίνητοι, καὶ λίθων οὐδὲν διαφέρομεν· διὰ τοῦτο, φησίν, Ὀργίζεσθε μὲν δικαίως, ἢ ὅταν ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δόξης ὁ λόγος ᾖ, ἢ ὅταν ὑπὲρ τῆς πλησίον διορθώσεως, ἢ ὅταν τιμωρεῖν δεῖς τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις· μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε δέ, ἢ τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσι συνειδότες, καὶ συγκρύπτοντες, ἢ εἰς τὰ ἑαυτοὺς ἐκδικεῖν τῷ βοηθήματι καταχρώμενοι. Διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο ἐνετέθη ἡ ὀργή· οὐχ ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς ἁμαρτάνωμεν, ἀλλ' ἵνα τοὺς παίοντασ κωλύωμεν· οὐδ' ἵνα πάθος γένηται καὶ νόσημα, ἀλλ' ἵνα παθῶν φάρμακον. Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ βοήθημα δηλητήριον κατασκευάζομεν, εἰς τὰ μὴ προσήκοντα αὐτῷ καταχρώμενοι.