NOTE: - 54 -

... of the words and commandments of the holy Evangelist Yovhannēs concerning brotherly love: “He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). With great vehemence he applieth condemnation unto the hater of his brother. For above he said, “he that hateth his brother is in darkness even until now”; but here he setteth down the word with even greater force, saying: *he walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth.* Wherefore? *Because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.* And this degree of evil is more wicked than all evils—namely, to be led astray from the path and *know not whither he goeth.* For he hath not as a guide the love of God and of his brother, such as might lead him back again unto the royal highway; but wandering like an errant vagabond among mounds and briars, he is enticed into diverse sins and condemned unto destruction. And this our Lord spake: “When the blind leadeth the blind, he erreth, and both fall into the ditch.” Hatred is blind, and blind also is the seeing man when bereft of love for his neighbor. Now, he that taketh hatred as his guide, both are cast into the darkness; for *the darkness,* he saith, *hath blinded his eyes.* A twofold and threefold evil: first, that he walketh in darkness; second, that he knoweth not whither he goeth; and furthermore, that the darkness hath blinded his eyes—that is to say, hatred, for he calleth it darkness. And by eyes he meaneth not the bodily ones, but the spiritual, which is indeed true blindness, and maketh man like unto a mole, ever to wander beneath the earth in a darksome place (*From the Commentary on 1 John, Homily 4*). Verily, we are judged debtors unto all the laws of God, and are condemned by the unerring Heavenly Judge, whenever we sin against brotherly love and the divine laws through a turbulent spirit of hatred, and by the soul-destroying prompting of the darkness-loving Beliar; most especially when, through a malicious disposition, having sown the evil-sprouting tare of strife and contentious hatred in the hearts of the simple-minded, we corrupt, hinder, and utterly choke the good, God-graced seeds of concord and brotherly love. For the divine law and commandment of brotherly love possesseth a manifold excellence of glory and blessedness. First, in that the copious and noetic fountain of holy and unfeigned love...