The Devil Standing at the Right Hand

They demonstrate and demand something when someone is in prosperity, whom they perhaps love. But when there occurs in someone a certain perversion of things pertaining to him, and they care for the external things, then those people become distant. For there are three kinds of friendship. There is friendship according to the self, when it does not pursue anything other than beauty or virtue. But if it is because of something, namely wealth, this friendship of theirs will cease when they are gone, and so will the friendship. And this friendship is said to be a second kind, being for the sake of the useful. And a third kind of friendship is the pleasant. Many wish to be friends with monks, not so that they may be monks, but so that they may say, 'Those who live alone love me.' And others wish to be friends with the rich, expecting nothing from them, but sometimes even bestowing things upon them.

One is able to call the neighbor a friend by analogy, or the friend a neighbor. And so, those near by through proximity, and according to kinship, 'my brothers.' And yet, should this be taken regarding bodily matters?—But if you say it spiritually—if they are also friends and kinsmen according to the spirit—observe: when someone diminishes himself and is no longer such, those whom he previously had as friends become strangers to him, because he has diminished himself, so that I may not say that he has become worthless; for the following is no longer reported as concerning the worthless or by the worthless. Having wholly troubled the heart, he is not cast out; for another is the one who destroys this. It has been said, indeed, in Isaiah: 'those who have lost their heart' (Isaiah 35:10). And the heart is lost when the intellect becomes outside of the harmonious state. And it is troubled if it has some confusion. And to be troubled comes from receiving thoughts and impulses that are not fitting. 'From the opposite they approached and stood.' Not as companions, not as friends, not for the purpose of being united to me, but 'from the opposite,' in order that, being present, they might oppose. Such an observation I also had in Zechariah and in the 118th Psalm. It is said concerning Judah that: 'let the devil stand at his right hand.' And concerning 'Joshua the high priest, the great...'

Regarding Josedech: 'the devil stood at his right hand to oppose him' (Psalm 109:1). And see that for both Judah and Jesus the priest, the great, the purest and holy, the devil stood at the right hand. But concerning Jesus it is said: 'to oppose him.' He stood in order that, being positioned against his right side, he might wage war against him, because he performs practical matters on the right and has such a disposition. But regarding Judah, it is not so. The right side of Judah was already seized. He gave a standing to the devil in these things. And here 'they stood opposite.' For this reason they drew near, in order that they might harm and trouble.

12 And those near to me stood from a distance. There are two kinds of friends; there are two dispositions of those near. When former enemies become pretended friends and flatterers, in order that they might oppose, they do this. And so that I may take from the Pastoral teaching the catechetical meaning, I say: two angels are with the man, and the one suggests evil things, and the other good things, and one is of righteousness, and the other of unrighteousness. If, therefore, the one of unrighteousness becomes near, the one suggesting evil, the good angel is distanced, as soon as he draws near to him, this evil one opposes; for the opposites, the good and the bad, do not coexist; for the evil acts when the good is at hand. If, moreover, this is said in the person of the Savior, he is able to say: my former friends, my sons, whom I begot and raised up, have become distant by having rejected me. But those from the Gentiles having believed and become friends, are besides near and 'opposite to me,' instead of 'against my person'; for we no longer take 'opposite' as 'positioned against,' but as being alongside, in addition.

13 And those seeking the soul were forcing their way, and seeking evils, they spoke vanities to me. No one of those loving my soul forces it, but draws near or becomes one with it. But the others...