1079. The fact that he saw his father's nakedness means that they observed errors and perversions is established by the symbolism of nakedness as that which is evil and perverted, discussed just above, as well as earlier, in §§213, 214.
People who adopt faith separated from charity are depicted here by Ham and the notice he took of his father's nakedness, that is, of his father's errors and perversions. Those are the only things that people like this can see in another individual. But it is different for people who have the faith that comes of charity. They take notice of good qualities. Whatever evil or falsity they may see, they excuse it, and if they can, they work to correct it in the offender, as the present passage says Shem and Japheth did.
[2] Where neighborly love is absent, self-love is present, along with hatred for anyone who does not cater to oneself. That is why people who lack neighborly love see nothing in their neighbor besides that neighbor's evil. If they see anything good in the person, they either dismiss it or put a bad interpretation on it.
People governed by charity act in an entirely different way.
These differences form the distinction between the two types of people, particularly when they enter the other life. Those who lack all kindness radiate hatred from every pore. They want to examine and in fact judge everyone and crave nothing more than to find evil, constantly bent as they are on condemning, punishing, and torturing others.
Those who are guided by kindness, on the other hand, hardly even notice evil in another but pay attention instead to everything good and true in the person. When they do find anything bad or false, they put a good interpretation on it. This is a characteristic of all angels — one they acquire from the Lord, who bends everything bad toward good.
