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Chapter 53GradH.1.53

De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae

The Groan of Love: When Prayer Seems Impossible

The author wrestles with the tension between despair and prayer, urging the one who loves Christ to groan and weep rather than cease praying, and pointing to Martha's faith that believed the Lord could have prevented death.

For such a person, the apostle John now says, I don't mean that anyone should pray. But surely you don't mean, O Apostle, that anyone should despair? No — let the one who loves him groan. Don't presume to stop praying, and don't stop weeping. What do I mean? Is there perhaps any refuge of hope left, where prayer finds no place? Listen to the one who believes, who hopes, yet does not pray: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' Great is the faith that believes the Lord could have prevented death by his own presence, if he had been there.

Martha's Faith and Its Hidden Doubt

The author probes the paradox of Martha's faith: she professes belief in Christ's power yet stops short of asking Him to raise Lazarus, revealing a gap between what faith receives and what prayer dares to request.

But now — what? Far be it from you to doubt that the One you believed could keep your brother alive has the power to raise him now that he is dead. And besides, she says, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.✦1 Then, when asked where they had laid him, he replies: Come and see.✦ Why? O Martha, you give us great signs of your faith — but how is it that with such faith you still doubt?2 'Come,' you say, 'and see.'✦ Why, if you don't despair, don't you follow through — and instead say, 'Raise him!'?3 But if you do despair, why weary the Master for nothing?

Faith Beyond Prayer: The Lord Who Draws Near

The author reflects on how faith sometimes receives what prayer does not dare to ask, noting Martha's hesitation at the stench of death and comparing it to the risen Lord who made as though He would go farther even as He desired to remain.

Could it be that faith sometimes receives what prayer doesn't dare to ask for? After all, you keep anyone who draws near the corpse away, and you say, 'Lord, he already stinks — he's been dead four days.'✦4 Do you say this out of despair, or out of holding back?5 In just this way, after his resurrection the Lord made as though he would go farther, even though he preferred to remain with his disciples.✦6

The Humble Silence That Trusts Mercy

The holy women explain that they pray better by not praying openly, trusting Christ's knowledge of their desire, and the author closes with Peter's tears after his denial — unaccompanied by prayer yet not without pardon.

O holy women, friends of Christ, if you love your brothers, why do you not plead for His mercy, when you cannot doubt His power or distrust His goodness? They answer: "So we pray better as though we were not praying; so we trust more effectively as though we were full of doubt. We show our faith, we offer our devotion: He knows — He who has no need for anything to be said — what we desire. We know indeed that He can do all things; but this miracle is so great, so new, so unheard of — even though it is within His power — that it far exceeds all the merits of our humility. It is enough for us to have given opportunity to His power, occasion to His goodness — preferring to wait patiently for what He wills, rather than to seek shamelessly for what perhaps He does not will. In short, what our merits lack, reverence will perhaps supply." After Peter's grave fall, I see indeed the tears, but I do not hear the prayer; and yet I do not doubt his pardon.✦

Read the original Latin

Pro tali iam, inquit Ioannes apostolus, non dico ut quis oret. Sed numquid dicis, o Apostole, ut quis desperet? Immo gemat qui illum amat. Non praesumat orate, nec desistat plorare. Quid est quod dico? An forte ullum remanet spei refugium, ubi oratio non invenit locum? Audi credentem, sperantem, nec tamen orantem: Domine, inquit, si fuisses hic, frater meus non fuisset mortuus. Magna fides, qua credit sua praesentia Dominum mortem prohibere potuisse, si adfuisset.

Modo autem quid? Absit ut quem credidit vivum potuisse servare, mortuum dubitet posse resuscitare: Sed et nunc, inquit, scio, quia quaecumque poposceris a Deo, dabit tibi Deus. Deinde quaerenti ubi posuissent eum, respondet: Veni et vide. Quamobrem? O Martha, magna nobis fidei tuae insignia tribuis; sed quomodo cum tanta fide diffidis? Veni, inquis, et vide. Cur, si non desperas, non sequeris, et dicis: "Et resuscita"? Si autem desperas, cur magistrum sine causa fatigas?

An forte fides aliquando recipit, quod oratio non praesumit? Denique appropinquantem cadaveri prohibes, et dicis: Domine iam foetet: quatriduanus enim est. Desperando dicis hoc, an dissimulando? Sic quippe ipse Dominus post resurrectionem finxit se longius ire, cum mallet cum discipulis remanere.

O sanctae mulieres Christi familiares, si fratres vestrum amatis, cur eius misericordiam non flagitatis, de cuius potentia dubitare, pietate diffidere non potestis? Respondent: "Sic melius tamquam non orantes oramus, sic efficacius quasi diffidentes confidimus. Exhibemus fidem, perhibemus affectum: scit ipse, cui non est opus ut aliquid dicatur, quid desideremus. Scimus quidem quod omnia potest; sed hoc tam grande miraculum, tam novum, tam inauditum, etsi eius subest potentiae, multum tamen excedit universa merita humilitatis nostrae. Sufficit nobis potentiae locum, pietati dedisse occasionem, malentes patienter exspectare quid velit, quam impudenter quaerere quod forsitan nolit. Denique quod nostris meritis deest, verecundia fortasse supplebit". Petri quoque post gravem lapsum lacrimam quidem video, sed precem non audio; nec tamen de indulgentia dubito.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.11.21-John.11.42 — Then Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' John.11.22 — But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. John.11.23 — Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." John.11.24 — Martha said to him, 'I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.' John.11.25 — Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live." John.11.26 — and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? John.11.27 — She said to him, 'Yes, Lord. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.' John.11.28 — After she had said this, she went away and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." John.11.29 — As soon as she heard, she rose quickly and went to him. John.11.30 — Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. John.11.31 — So the Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, and they followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there. John.11.32 — When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." John.11.33 — When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled himself. John.11.34 — And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' John.11.35 — Jesus wept. John.11.36 — So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" John.11.37 — But some of them said, 'Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have done something so that this man also would not have died?' John.11.38 — Jesus, then, deeply moved again within himself, comes to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. John.11.39 — Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by now there is a foul smell, for it has been four days." John.11.40 — Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" John.11.41 — So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me.' John.11.42 — I knew that you always hear me, but I said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me.
  2. ↩John.11.34 — And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.'
  3. ↩John.11.39 — Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by now there is a foul smell, for it has been four days."
  4. ↩John.11.39 — Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by now there is a foul smell, for it has been four days."
  5. ↩Luke.24.28 — And they drew near to the village to which they were going, and he made as though he would go farther.
  6. ↩Luke.22.62 — And he went out and wept bitterly.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The speaker addresses Martha (or the reader in her voice), drawing on the Lazarus narrative (John 11). The shift from indirect statement to direct quotation (inquit) is rendered as natural contemporary dialogue.
  2. 2 ↩cum tanta fide diffidis: the cum here is concessive ('with such great faith, you still distrust'), rendered to capture the tension between Martha's confessed faith and her practical doubt
  3. 3 ↩The logic is compressed: if you truly don't despair (i.e., you have faith), why don't you act on it? The et before dicis links the failure of action to the spoken word.
  4. 4 ↩The speaker addresses Martha's words at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:39), probing the tension between her professed faith and her doubt that Jesus could act on a four-day-old corpse.
  5. 5 ↩The disjunctive 'an' poses two alternative motives for Martha's statement: despair (desperando) or dissimulation / reluctance to ask boldly (dissimulando). The ablative gerunds express means or manner.
  6. 6 ↩Alludes to Luke 24:28, where Jesus 'made as though he would go further' on the road to Emmaus. The concessive 'cum mallet' (although he preferred) contrasts his outward action with his inward desire to stay.

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