De tolerantia injuriarum, et quis verus patiens perhibetur.

The Call to Stop Complaining

Christ rebukes the disciple's murmuring, urging remembrance of His own sufferings and those of the saints, and calling for patient endurance of even the smallest trials.

What is all this talk, my son? Stop complaining. Consider my suffering and the sufferings of the other saints. "You have not yet resisted to the point of blood."^✦¹ What you suffer is small compared to those who have endured so many things, been so fiercely tempted, so heavily afflicted, so thoroughly tested, and so deeply refined. So it's necessary to bring to mind the heavier trials of others, so that you may bear your very smallest ones more lightly. And even if these smallest things don't seem small to you, be careful that your own impatience isn't what makes them so. Whether your trials are small or great, make it your aim to bear them all with patience.

Preparing the Heart for Suffering

The disciple is warned against excusing impatience by judging the person who offends, and is taught that true patience does not weigh the source or severity of the injury.

The better you prepare yourself for suffering, the more wisely you act, the more you will merit, and the more lightly you will bear it in your soul — and with practice you are ready for this without hesitation. Don't say, 'I can't endure these things from such a person, and I shouldn't have to suffer things like this' — for he has inflicted a serious loss, and he reproaches me with things I had never even thought of. But I would willingly suffer at the hands of another, and I will endure whatever I see must be endured. That kind of thinking is foolish: it doesn't consider the virtue of patience, or from whom the crown will come. Instead it weighs the persons involved and the offenses committed against it.

The True Sufferer

A true sufferer receives all adversity gratefully from God's hand, regardless of its source, counting even the smallest trial as great gain in God's sight.

The one who doesn't want to suffer except as much as seems right to him, and only from the person he finds acceptable, is not a true sufferer. But the true sufferer doesn't pay attention to which person is testing him — whether it's his own prelate, or someone else of equal rank, or someone beneath him — and whether it's a good and holy man, or a perverse and unworthy one. Instead, no matter which creature is the source, and no matter how much or how often something adverse happens to him, he gratefully receives all of it from the hand of God and counts it as great gain — because nothing, however small it may be, that is suffered for God can pass without merit in God's sight.^✦²

The Crown of Patience

The disciple is urged to enter the struggle willingly, for without fighting there is no crown, and without labor no rest.

So be ready for the fight if you want to win. Without a struggle you can't receive the crown of patience; if you don't want to suffer, you refuse to be crowned.³ But if you want to be crowned, fight bravely and endure patiently. Without labor no one finds rest, and without a fight no one reaches victory.

A Prayer for Endurance

The disciple prays for grace to endure what is naturally impossible, asking that all tribulation for Christ's name be received as healing to the soul.

Make it possible for me, Lord, through your grace, what by my own nature seems impossible. You know that I can endure only a little, and that I'm quickly cast down when even a slight adversity arises. Let whatever exercise of tribulation comes to me be, for your name's sake, both dear and welcome: for to suffer and be harassed for you is truly healing to my soul.

Read the original Latin

Quid est quod loqueris o fili? Cessa conqueri, considera meam et aliorum Sanctorum passionem. Nondum usque ad sanguinem restitisti. Parum est quod tu pateris in comparatione eorum, qui tam multa passi sunt, tam fortiter tentati, tam graviter tribulati, tam multipliciter probati, et exercitati. Oportet igitur aliorum graviora ad mentem reducere, ut levius feras tua minima. Et si tibi minima non videntur, vide ne et hoc tua faciat impatientia. Sive tamen parva, sive magna sint, stude cuncta patienter ferre.

Quanto melius te ad patiendum disponis, tanto sapientius agis, et amplius promereris et feres levius animo et usu ad hoc non segniter paratus. Nec dicas: Non valeo hæc ab homine tali pati, nec hujuscemodi mihi patienda sunt: grave enim intulit damnum, et improperat mihi quæ nunquam cogitaveram; sed ab alio libenter patiar, et sicut patienda videro. Insipiens est talis cogitatio, quæ virtutem patientiæ non considerat, nec a quo coronanda erit; sed magis personas, et offensas sibi illatas perpendit.

Non est verus patiens qui non vult pati, nisi quantum sibi visum fuerit, et a quo sibi placuerit. Verus autem patiens non attendit a quo homine, utrum a Prælato suo, an ab alio æquali, an inferior, utrum a bono, et sancto viro, vel a perverso, et indigno exerceatur. Sed indifferenter ab omni creatura, quantumcumque et quotiescumque ei aliquid adversi acciderit, totum hoc gratanter de manu Dei accipit, et ingens lucrum reputat, quia nihil apud Deum, quantumlibet parvum, pro Deo tamen passum, poterit sine merito transire.

Esto igitur expeditus ad pugnam, si vis habere victoriam. Sine certamine non potes venire ad patientiæ coronam; si pati non vis, recusas coronari. Si autem coronari desideras, certa viriliter, sustine patienter. Sine labore non tenditur ad requiem, nec sine pugna pervenitur ad victoriam.

Fac mihi possibile, Domine, per gratiam, quod mihi impossibile videtur per naturam. Tu scis quod modicum possum pati, et quod cito dejicior, levi exsurgente adversitate. Efficiatur mihi quælibet exercitatio tribulationis, pro nomine tuo amabilis, et acceptabilis: nam pati et vexari pro te valde salubre est animæ meæ.

Scripture echoes

↩Heb.12.4 — You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against sin.
↩Phil.1.21;Rom.8.28 — For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Rom.8.28 — And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good — for those who are called according to his purpose.

Notes

1 ↩Allusion to Hebrews 12:4 (Vulgate: Nondum usque ad sanguinem restitisti adversus peccatum repugnantes). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
2 ↩The phrase 'sine merito transire' (lit. 'pass without merit') carries the theological claim that no suffering endured for God goes unrewarded, however insignificant it may seem.
3 ↩Corona (crown) echoes the New Testament crown-of-life motif (James 1:12, 2 Tim 4:8, Rev 2:10); final scripture resolution deferred to tx-08.