Patience hath a perfect work - 3

When you are visited by God with any infirmity, or loss, or persecutions, humble yourself and say with the Good Thief on the Cross: We receive the due reward of our deeds. Let my consolation be that the Lord may afflict me and spare me not here below, that He may spare me in eternity.

I. When you are visited by God with any infirmity, or loss, or persecution, humble yourself, and say with the good thief: We receive the due reward of our deeds (Luke xxiii. 41). Lord, I deserve this cross because I have offended Thee. Humble yourself and be comforted, for the chastisement that you receive is a proof that God wishes to pardon the eternal punishment due to your sins. Who will grant me, says Job... that this may be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, he spare not (Job vi. 8-10). Let this be my consolation, that the Lord may afflict me and may not spare me here below in order to spare me hereafter. O God, how can he who has deserved hell complain if the Lord send him a cross! Were the pains of hell trifling, still, because they are eternal, we should gladly exchange them for all temporal sufferings, for they have an end. But in hell there are all kinds of pain—they are all intense and all everlasting. And though you should have preserved Baptismal innocence and have never deserved hell, you have at least merited a long Purgatory: and do you know what Purgatory is? St. Thomas says that the souls in Purgatory are tormented by the very same kind of fire that torments the damned. Hence St. Augustine says that the pain of that fire surpasses every torment that man can suffer in this life. Be content, then, to be chastised in this life rather than in the next; particularly since by accepting crosses with patience in this life your sufferings will be meritorious; but hereafter you will have to suffer without merit.

II. Console yourself in suffering with the hope of Paradise. St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say: "To gain Heaven all labour is small." And before him the Apostle said: The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us (Rom. viii. 18). It would be but little to suffer all the pains of this earth for the enjoyment of a single moment in Heaven: how much more, then, ought we to embrace the crosses God sends us when we know that the short sufferings of this life will merit for us eternal felicity. That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us... an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. iv. 17). We should not feel sadness but consolation of spirit when God sends us sufferings here below. They who pass to eternity with the greatest merit shall receive the greatest reward. It is on this account that the Lord sends us tribulations. Virtues, which are the fountains of merit, are practised only by acts. They who are exposed to the most frequent annoyances make the most frequent acts of patience; they who are most frequently insulted make most frequent acts of meekness. Hence St. James says: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life (James i. 12). Blessed is he who suffers afflictions with peace, for when he shall be thus proved he shall receive the crown of eternal life.