DAILY CONTEMPLATION

August 28, 2025 ~ Mesore 22, 1741

“O Lord, lead me forth in Your justice because of my enemies” (Ps 5:8).
“In Your justice,” not in that which seems so to men.
For to return evil for evil seems justice: but it is not His justice,
of whom it is said, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Mt 5:45).
For even when God punishes sinners, He does not inflict His evil on them,
but leaves them to their own evil.
“Behold,” the Psalmist says, “he brings forth iniquity;
yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.
He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made.
His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown” (Ps 7:14-16).
When then God punishes, He punishes as a judge those that transgress the law,
not by bringing evil upon them from Himself,
but driving them on to that which they have chosen, to fill up the sum of their misery.
But man, when he returns evil for evil, does it with an evil will:
and on this account is himself first evil, when he would punish evil.
St. Augustine