ACC ~ Romans 12 v20

HEAP BURNING COALS UPON HIS HEAD. ORIGEN: The Lord himself commanded the same thing in the Gospels. For insofar as we do good to our enemies and do not repay evil for evil, we store up wrath for them on the day of judgment, as I have just said. … Jeremiah [Isaiah] says: “You have coals of fire; sit on them for they will help you.” Perhaps here also these coals of fire which are heaped on the head of an enemy are heaped for his benefit. For it may be that a savage and barbarous mind, if it feels our good will, our kindness, our love and our godliness, may be struck by it and repent, and he will swear that as his conscience torments him for the wrong which he has done, it is as if a fire were enveloping him. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CONTAINING VIOLENCE. DIODORE: Paul is not suggesting that we do anything wicked; on the contrary, he is wisely and cleverly checking and containing the violence of the one who is angry. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

DO GOOD. AMBROSIASTER: Paul teaches us not just to let God take revenge but also to give good things to our enemies, so that we may demonstrate that we do not have these enemies because of anything we have done. Rather, we are trying to get them to desist from evil by doing them service. If by their ungodliness they continue in their evil ways, our service to them will lead to punishment for them. … Thus the Lord not only forbids us to repay our enemies in kind but also exhorts us to seek friendship by acts of kindness, both because that serves to mature us and because it is a means of winning others to eternal life. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

SWEPT UP IN VENGEANCE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul said this in order to humble the wrongdoer by fear and to make the person wronged more ready to act, through hope of receiving some reward. For the one who has been wronged, when he is feeble, is not so much taken with his own goods as with the vengeance which he wants to wreak on the person who has hurt him. There is nothing so sweet as to see an enemy chastised. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 22.

PROVOKING THE ABUSER TO REPENTANCE. AUGUSTINE: This may seem to many people to contradict what the Lord teaches, that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us,or the apostle’s own statements [in verses 14 and 17] above. For how can it be love to feed and nourish someone just in order to heap coals of fire on his head, assuming that “coals of fire” means some serious punishment? Therefore we must understand that this means that we should provoke whoever does us harm to repentance by doing him a good turn. For the coals of fire serve to burn, i.e., to bring anguish to his spirit, which is like the head of the soul, in which all malice is burnt out when one is changed for the better through repentance. These coals of fire are mentioned in the Psalms: “What should be given to you or what appointed to you, for your deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior with devouring burning coals.” AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 71.

JEROME: He who avenges himself is not worthy of the vengeance of the Lord. AGAINST RUFINUS 3.2.

SOFTENED BY CHARITY. JEROME: We are not to revile and condemn our enemy, as the world does, but rather we are to correct him and lead him to repentance so that, being won over by our good deeds, he may be softened by the fire of charity and may cease to be an enemy. AGAINST THE PELAGIANS 1.30.

JEROME: If someone does you a wrong and in return you do him good you will be heaping coals of fire on his head. In other words, you are curing him of his vices and burning out his malice, in order to bring him to repentance. HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 41.

IF THE ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: In this passage Paul teaches that we ought to imitate God, who causes his sun to rise on the good and the evil, for by feeding our enemy and giving him something to drink we provoke him to peace or even to reconciliation. But if he persists in his wickedness, he will bring down fire on his head. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

DO NOT SHOW MERCY SO AS TO ALLOW SOMETHING WORSE TO OCCUR. PELAGIUS: Do not deny your enemy what God denies no one, even if he is a godless blasphemer.When he realizes that coals have been heaped upon him through your undeserved mercy, he may shake them off, that is, repent, and may love you whom at one time he hated. Otherwise it is not mercy but cruelty, if you show mercy so that something worse might befall him, for whom you are called to intercede to the Lord. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

DEAD COALS MADE ALIVE. LUCULENTIUS: Some people give their enemies food and drink in order to inflict coals of fire, that is, punishments, on them. But whoever does that does not love his enemy as himself. It is not for that reason that we are supposed to give our enemy food and drink but rather to convert him to us. For as he detested us before, he will now start to love us. The person who loves his enemy in this way will heap coals of fire on his head, that is, the love which comes from charity. Coals in themselves are dead, but when they meet someone who is alive they are set on fire. COMMENTARY 5.

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