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Chapter 5OdoC.1.5

Caput III

The Witnesses of the Saints

The examples of the saints who endured suffering are set before us by God as witnesses against our impatience, so that we may find nothing impossible on the path of uprightness.

The deeds of brave men who patiently endured many things also matter for us — so that, hearing of them, we may judge nothing impossible for us on the path of uprightness. Hence blessed Job: You set up your witnesses against me (Job 10:17).✦1 For God sets up as many witnesses against us as there are examples of those who endured, holding them up against our impatience.

Ropes and Rags: Jeremiah's Rescue

Jeremiah's rescue from the pit is interpreted typologically: God's commands are the ropes that bind us, and the righteous works of the holy Fathers are the old cloths placed beneath us to lift us from the mire.

That we ought to be set free from the pit of worldly misery — helped both by divine warnings and by the examples of those who went before — is signified by that rescue of Jeremiah: because, in order that he might be lifted from the well, ropes with old cloths were let down to him.✦2 The ropes are the Lord's commands, which bind us, as it were, while by their bidding they restrain us from evil deeds. The old cloths are the works of righteousness with which the holy Fathers clothed themselves, so that they might not appear naked before the heavenly eyes. Your priests, he says, shall be clothed with righteousness (Ps.3 131:9).

How God's Commands and the Fathers' Examples Save Us

The examples of the saints are sent down with God's commands so that the possibility of obedience is made visible; when the command to be patient in tribulation seems hard, Paul's own patient suffering and glory in weakness come to our aid.

These rags — that is, the examples of those saints — are sent down to us along with the ropes of God's commands to pull us out of the mire of this present life; and the reason is this: so that God's commands may not seem harsh to us, the very possibility of keeping those same commands is shown to be within reach through the examples of the Fathers.✦ For if what is said seems hard — Be patient in tribulation (Rom.✦ XII, 12) — Paul comes to mind, who is not only patient in suffering but even glories in it, saying: I will gladly glory (II Cor.✦ XII, 9).✦

Bound by Commands, Sustained by Examples

We are bound by God's commands as by ropes, but the old rags of the Fathers' examples are also at hand, so that what seems impossible through our weakness is made possible through their witness.

We are bound, then, by God's commands as if by ropes. But let the old rags also be at hand, so that what we fear we cannot accomplish because of our own weakness, we may trust is made possible through the examples of the Fathers.

God's Merciful Balance of Terror and Consolation

God mercifully tempers Scripture's harsh warnings with gentle consolations, mixing terror and healing so that we are neither paralyzed by despair nor swollen with overconfidence.

It is worth noting, indeed, how mercifully God tempers the words of his Scripture just described: at one time he terrifies us with harsh warnings, at another he soothes us with gentle consolations. He mixes the terror with healing applications and the applications with the terror. By terrors pointed out, he bends the hearts of sinners toward humility; and by the grief that humility brings, set forth with the soothing remedies of consolations, he lifts them up — so that while each of these is balanced around us by the wonderful art of his teaching, we may be found neither paralyzed by despairing terror nor carelessly overconfident.

Read the original Latin

Refert quoque gesta virorum fortium, qui multa patienter tolerarunt: ut his auditis nihil nobis in via rectitudinis impossibile judicemus. Unde beatus Job Instauras testes tuos contra me (Job X, 17). Tot etenim testes contra nos Deus instaurat, quot patientium exempla contra nostram impatientiam exponit. Quod autem et divinis admonitionibus, et praecedentium exemplis adjuti, de lacu mundanae miseriae liberari debeamus, illa ereptio Jeremiae designat: quia ut de puteo levaretur, funes cum pannis veteribus ad eum submissi sunt. Funes Dominica sunt praecepta, quae nos quasi vinciunt, dum suis nos jussis a malis actibus refrenant. Panni veteres opera justitiae sunt, quibus sancti Patres se vestierunt, ne nudi supernis oculis apparerent. Sacerdotes, inquit, tui induantur justitiam (Psal. CXXXI, 9).

Qui panni, id est, eorum exempla, cum funibus praeceptorum ad nos de coeno vitae praesentis eruendos mittuntur; quia, ne divina praecepta nobis dura videantur, eorumdem praeceptorum possibilitas Patrum exemplis esse facilis demonstratur. Nam si durum est quod dicitur: Estote in tribulatione patientes (Rom. XII, 12), occurrit Paulus, qui non solum patiens est, sed et gloriatur dicens: Libenter gloriabor (II Cor. XII, 9). Ligemur ergo praeceptis, quasi quibusdam funibus. Sed et panni veteres intersint, ut quod ex nostra imbecillitate nos posse non agere formidamus, esse possibilia per exempla Patrum confidamus. Notandum sane est quam misericorditer Deus praedictae suae Scripturae verba temperans, modo nos asperis incitationibus terret, modo blandis consolationibus refovet, terrorem fomentis miscet, fomenta terrori, et corda peccatorum indicatis terroribus ad humilitatem inclinet, et humilem moerorem enarratis consolationum fomentis attollat: quatenus dum utrumque circa nos mira arte magisterii temperatur, nec desperate inveniamur territi, nec incaute securi.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Job.10.17 — You renew Your witnesses against me and increase Your indignation upon me; relief forces and army are with me.
  2. ↩Jer.38.6-Jer.38.13 — Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard. They let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. Jer.38.7 — Now Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin. Jer.38.8 — Then Ebed-melech went out from the king's house and spoke to the king, saying: Jer.38.9 — My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet—they have cast him into the cistern—and he will die there from hunger, for there is no more bread in the city. Jer.38.10 — Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, "Take with you from here thirty men and lift up Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies." Jer.38.11 — So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the king's house, to the storehouse beneath, and from there he took worn-out rags and cast-off clothes, and sent them down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. Jer.38.12 — Then Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, "Please place these worn-out rags and tattered cloths under your arm pits beneath the ropes." And Jeremiah did so. Jer.38.13 — So they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
  3. ↩Jer.38.6-Jer.38.13 — Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard. They let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. Jer.38.7 — Now Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin. Jer.38.8 — Then Ebed-melech went out from the king's house and spoke to the king, saying: Jer.38.9 — My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet—they have cast him into the cistern—and he will die there from hunger, for there is no more bread in the city. Jer.38.10 — Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, "Take with you from here thirty men and lift up Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies." Jer.38.11 — So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the king's house, to the storehouse beneath, and from there he took worn-out rags and cast-off clothes, and sent them down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. Jer.38.12 — Then Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, "Please place these worn-out rags and tattered cloths under your arm pits beneath the ropes." And Jeremiah did so. Jer.38.13 — So they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
  4. ↩Rom.12.12 — Rejoice in hope; endure in affliction; persevere in prayer.
  5. ↩2Cor.12.9 — And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
  6. ↩2Cor.12.9 — And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So most gladly I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Job 10:17 in the Vulgate numbering. The clause is spoken by Job; the speaker here applies it as a testimony against human impatience.
  2. 2 ↩Allusion to Jeremiah 38:6–13 (Vulgate Jer. 38), where Jeremiah is lifted from the cistern by ropes and rags (old cloths). The image is applied typologically to rescue from worldly misery.
  3. 3 ↩Psalm 131:9 (Vulgate), quoted in truncated form; the citation continues in the next sentence.

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