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| Chapter XIV. How virtuous and useful was that which Elisha did. This is compared with that oft-recounted act of the Greeks. John gave up his life for virtue's sake, and Susanna for the same reason exposed herself to the danger of death.
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Chapter XIV.
How virtuous and useful was that which Elisha did.
This is compared with that oft-recounted act of the Greeks. John
gave up his life for virtue’s sake, and Susanna for the same
reason exposed herself to the danger of death.
86. What did Elisha
follow but virtue, when he brought the army of Syria who had come to
take him as captive into Samaria, after having covered their eyes with
blindness? Then he said: “O Lord, open their eyes
that they may see.”691
And they
saw. But when the king of Israel wished to slay those that had
entered and asked the prophet to give him leave to do so, he answered
that they whose captivity was not brought about by strength of hand or
weapons of war must not be slain, but that rather he should help them
by supplying food. Then they were refreshed with plenty of
food. And after that those Syrian robbers thought they must never
again return to the land of Israel.
87. How much nobler was this than that which
the Greeks once did!692
| 692 Cic. de
Off. III. 11, § 49. | For when two
nations strove one with the other to gain glory and supreme power, and
one of them had the opportunity to burn the ships of the other
secretly, they thought it a shameful thing to do so, and preferred to
gain a less advantage honourably than a greater one in shameful
wise. They, indeed, could not act thus without disgrace to
themselves, and entrap by this plot those who had banded together for
the sake of ending the Persian war. Though they could deny it in
word, yet they could never but blush at the thought of it.
Elisha, however, wished to save, not destroy, those who were deceived
indeed, though not by some foul act, and had been struck blind by the
power of the Lord. For it was seemly to spare an enemy, and to
grant his life to an adversary when indeed he could have taken it, had
he not spared it.
88. It is plain, then, that whatever is
seemly is always useful. For
holy Judith by seemly disregard for her own safety put an end to the
dangers of the siege, and by her own virtue won what was useful to all
in common. And Elisha gained more renown by pardoning than he
would have done by slaying, and preserved those enemies whom he had
taken for greater usefulness.
89. And what else did John have in mind but
what is virtuous, so that he could not endure a wicked union even in
the king’s case, saying: “It is not lawful for thee
to have her to wife.”693
He could
have been silent, had he not thought it unseemly for himself not to
speak the truth for fear of death, or to make the prophetic office
yield to the king, or to indulge in flattery. He knew well that
he would die as he was against the king, but he preferred virtue to
safety. Yet what is more expedient than the suffering which
brought glory to the saint.
90. Holy Susanna, too, when threatened with
the fear of false witness, seeing herself hard pressed on one side by
danger, on the other by disgrace, preferred to avoid disgrace by a
virtuous death rather than to endure and live a shameful life in the
desire to save herself.694
So while she
fixed her mind on virtue, she also preserved her life. But if she
had preferred what seemed to her to be useful to preserve life, she
would never have gained such great renown, nay, perhaps—and that
would have been not only useless but even dangerous—she might
even not have escaped the penalty for her crime. We note,
therefore, that whatsoever is shameful cannot be useful, nor, again,
can that which is virtuous be useless. For usefulness is ever the
double of virtue, and virtue of usefulness.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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