De sufferentia defectuum aliorum.
The Call to Patient Endurance
One must patiently endure what cannot be corrected in oneself or others, trusting that such trials test and refine merit, while still praying for God's aid.
The things a person can rarely, if ever, correct in himself or in others, he ought to endure patiently, until God sees fit to arrange them otherwise. Consider that this is perhaps better for your testing and your patience, without which our merits are not to be valued highly.1 Nevertheless, you ought to pray for such hindrances, so that God may deign to come to your aid, so that you may be able to bear them with kindness.2
Entrusting Others to God
When admonition fails, one should cease arguing and entrust the matter entirely to God, who can turn evil to good.
If someone won't comply after being warned once or twice, don't argue with him. Instead, entrust the whole matter to God, so that his will may be done and his honor upheld in all his servants — he who knows well how to turn evil into good.✦3
Recognizing Our Own Defects
Since we ourselves bear many faults that others must tolerate, we cannot rightly demand perfection in them while neglecting our own correction.
Try to be patient in bearing the defects of others, whatever weaknesses they may have — because you yourself also have plenty that others have to put up with.4 If you can't make yourself the kind of person you want to be, how do you expect to shape another person to suit your preferences? We gladly see others as perfect, but we never correct our own defects.
The Double Standard Exposed
We sharply demand correction and restraint from others while resisting both in ourselves, revealing how rarely we weigh our neighbor as we weigh ourselves.
We want others to be corrected sharply, and yet we ourselves don't want to be corrected, or to be denied what we ask for. We want others to be held in check by the rules, and yet we ourselves won't allow ourselves to be restrained any further at all. So it's clear, then, how rarely we weigh our neighbor as we weigh ourselves.5
The Gift of Imperfection
If all were perfect, we would lose the grace of enduring one another for God's sake.
If everyone were perfect, what would we then have to endure from others for God's sake?
Bearing One Another's Burdens
God ordains mutual burden-bearing so that no one stands alone, and all must support, comfort, and admonish one another.
God has ordered things so that we may learn to carry one another's burdens, because no one is without defect, no one is without a burden, no one is sufficient unto himself, no one is wise enough in his own eyes; but we must carry one another, comfort one another, help each other equally, and admonish one another.✦67
Adversity Reveals True Character
Trials do not create weakness but reveal the virtue or frailty already present in a person.
How much virtue each person has shown is made clearer by the occasion of adversity.8 Trials do not make a frail person; they show what sort of person he is.9
Read the original Latin
Quæ rarissime homo in se vel in aliis emendare non valet, debet patienter sustinere, donec Deus aliter ordinet. Cogita quod sic forte melius est pro tua probatione et patientia, sine qua non sunt multum ponderanda merita nostra. Debes tamen pro talibus impedimentis supplicare, ut tibi dignetur Deus subvenire, ut possis benigne portare.
Si quis semel vel bis admonitus non acquiescit, noli cum eo contendere, sed totum Deo committe, ut fiat voluntas sua, et honor in omnibus servis suis, qui scit bene, malum in bonum convertere. Stude patiens esse in tolerando aliorum defectus, et qualescumque infirmitates, quia et tu multa habes, quæ ab aliis oportet tolerari. Si non potes te talem facere qualem vis, quomodo poteris alium habere ad beneplacitum tuum? Libenter videmus alios perfectos, sed tamen proprios non emendamus defectus.
Volumus quod alii districte corrigantur, et nos ipsi corrigi nolumus, aut negari quod petimus. Alios restringi per statuta volumus, et ipsi nullatenus patimur amplius cohiberi. Sic ergo patet, quam raro proximum, sicut nos ipsos pensamus. Si omnes essent perfecti quid tunc haberemus ab aliis pro Deo pati?
Nunc autem Deus sic ordinavit, ut discamus alter alterius onera portare, quia nemo sine defectu, nemo sine onere, nemo sibi sufficiens, nemo sibi satis sapiens, sed oportet invicem portare, invicem consolari, pariter adjuvare, et ammonere. Quantas autem virtutes quisque fecerit, melius patet occasione adversitatis. Occasiones namque hominem fragilem non faciunt, sed qualis sit, ostendunt.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin quod can mean 'that' or 'because'; 'that' chosen as complementizer introducing the content of cogita. The gerundive ponderanda with sunt conveys obligation or necessity: 'are to be weighed/valued.'
- 2 ↩The two consecutive ut clauses both express purpose; the second may also be read as resultative. Both rendered as 'so that' to preserve the parallel structure.
- 3 ↩The purpose clause 'ut fiat voluntas sua' carries the force of committed surrender to God's providence, not merely a wish.
- 4 ↩The 'et' after 'aliorum defectus' links two parallel objects of toleration (defects and infirmities), rendered as a natural English coordination.
- 5 ↩pensamus — literally 'we weigh/consider'; rendered to capture the sense of measured judgment or evaluation
- 6 ↩The quoted phrase 'alter alterius onera portare' (carry one another's burdens) echoes Galatians 6:2 (Vulgate: 'Alter alterius onera portate'). Candidate allusion; final resolution deferred.
- 7 ↩Autem is continuative here, marking a transition rather than a strong contrast; rendered as a natural shift in English rather than 'moreover' or 'now'.
- 8 ↩Autem is continuative, resuming the discourse; rendered naturally without an explicit connective marker.
- 9 ↩Namque is explanatory, reinforcing the preceding idea; rendered implicitly through the sentence's assertive tone rather than with an explicit 'for indeed'.