XI
To Suffer as a Christian
The soul asks not for freedom from pain, but for the Spirit’s consolations joined to natural sufferings, that it may suffer as a Christian rather than as one abandoned to nature alone.
Grant me the grace, Lord, to join your consolations to my sufferings, so that I may suffer as a Christian. I do not ask to be free from pains, for that is the reward of the saints; but I ask that I not be left to the pains of nature without the consolations of your Spirit, for that is the curse of the Jews and the pagans.1
Neither Glory nor Desolation
The prayer refuses pure consolation without pain and pure evil without comfort, asking instead for the mixed state in which nature’s pains and the Spirit’s consolations meet as true Christianity.
I do not ask for a fullness of consolation without any suffering, for that is the life of glory. Nor do I ask to be in a fullness of evils without consolation, for that is a state of Judaism.2 But I ask, Lord, to feel at once both the pains of nature for my sins and the consolations of your Spirit through your grace, for that is the true state of Christianity.
Pains and Consolation Together
The soul begs to feel pain and consolation at once, so that this mixed grace may lead at last to consolation without any pain.
Let me not feel pains without consolation, but let me feel pains and consolation together, so that I may at last come to feel only your consolations without any pain.3
By the Grace of Your Only Son
God once left the world in natural suffering without comfort; now He softens the faithful by the Son’s grace, and will fill the saints with pure blessedness in the Son’s glory.
For, Lord, you left the world to languish in natural sufferings without consolation4 before the coming of your only Son: now you console and soften the sufferings of your faithful by the grace of your only Son; and you fill your saints with a wholly pure blessedness in the glory of your only Son.✦
Lead Me Through These Steps
Naming the wonderful steps of God’s work, the soul asks to be drawn from the first through the second into the third, and seals the chapter with this single requested grace.
These are the wonderful steps by which you lead your works. You have drawn me out of the first: make me pass through the second, so that I may reach the third.5 Lord, this is the grace I ask of you.
Read the original Latin
Faites-moi la grâce, Seigneur, de joindre vos consolations à mes souffrances, afin que je souffre en chrétien. Je ne demande pas d’être exempt des douleurs ; car c’est la récompense des saints : mais je demande de n’être pas abandonné aux douleurs de la nature sans les consolations de votre esprit : car c’est la malédiction des juifs et des païens. Je ne demande pas d’avoir une plénitude de consolation sans aucune souffrance : car c’est la vie de la gloire. Je ne demande pas aussi d’être dans une plénitude de maux sans consolation ; car c’est un état de judaïsme. Mais je demande, Seigneur, de ressentir tout ensemble et les douleurs de la nature pour mes péchés, et les consolations de votre esprit par votre grâce ; car c’est le véritable état du christianisme. Que je ne sente pas des douleurs sans consolation : mais que je sente des douleurs et de la consolation tout ensemble, pour arriver enfin a ne sentir plus que vos consolations sans aucune douleur. Car, Seigneur, vous avez laissé languir le monde dans les souffrances naturelles sans consolation. avant la venue de votre Fils unique : vous consolez maintenant et vous adoucissez les souffrances de vos fidèles par la grâce de votre Fils unique ; et vous comblez d’une béatitude toute pure vos saints dans la gloire de votre Fils unique.
Ce sont les admirables degrés par lesquels vous conduisez vos ouvrages. Vous m’avez tiré du premier : faites-moi passer par le second, pour arriver au troisième. Seigneur, c’est la grâce que je vous demande.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Notes
- 1 ↩esprit rendered Spirit (Holy Spirit), matching the contrast with nature and the later parallel by grace.
- 2 ↩judaïsme kept as Judaism: Pascal's theological category for affliction without the consolations of grace, not a modern ethnographic label.
- 3 ↩Source has a for intended à in pour arriver enfin a ne sentir; sense is unambiguous.
- 4 ↩Sentence is open-ended in the source and completed by s8 (avant la venue...).
- 5 ↩premier/second/troisième refer to the three states just named: natural suffering without consolation; suffering joined to the consolations of the Spirit; pure consolation without pain in glory.
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