Basil of Caesarea’s Sermon on Anger

I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness towards all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.”

– Basil of Caesarea (329-379), ‘Letter 203, To the bishops of the sea coast.’

“Therefore, ‘Cease from anger, and leave behind temper’ [Ps 37:8], that you may escape the judgment against anger, which "is revealed from heaven upon all the impiety and injustice of human beings" [Rom 1:18]. For if by prudent thought you could cut out the bitter root of temper, you would remove with it many of the passions that begin from this source. For deceit and suspicion and faithlessness and malice and treachery and rashness, and the whole swarm of such wickednesses, are offshoots of this evil.

Therefore, indeed, let us not bring to ourselves so great an evil. It is sickness of soul, darkening of thoughts, estrangement from God, ignorance of kinship, cause of conflict, fullness of misfortunes, a wicked demon coming to birth in our very souls. It is indeed as if a certain shameless inhabitant has taken possession beforehand of our inner self and closed the entrance to the Holy Spirit. For where enmity, strife, temper, quarreling, contentiousness and never-silent clamor are produced in the soul, there the Spirit of meekness does not rest. But let us listen to the advice of the blessed Paul and put away from us all anger and temper and clamor with all malice [Eph 4.31], and become kind and compassionate to each other, awaiting the blessed hope promised to the meek. For ‘blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth [Mt 5.5], in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages. Amen.”