Whoever loves Jesus Christ loves suffering.

 

Caritas patiens est.

Charity is long-suffering.

 The earth is a place of merit, from which it follows that it is a place of suffering. Our homeland, where God has reserved for us the rest of eternal joy, is paradise. In this world we are going to be a short time, and, despite being little, there are many sufferings that we go through. The man, born of woman, short of days and full of restlessness2. You have to suffer; we all have to suffer; everyone, be they righteous or sinners, must bear the cross. Whoever wears it patiently is saved, and whoever wears it impatiently is condemned. The same miseries, says Saint Augustine, lead some to heaven and others to hell. In the crucible of suffering, adds the holy Doctor himself, the chaff is burned and the grain is obtained in the Church of God; Who in tribulations humbles himself and resigns himself to the will of God, is a grain of paradise; and whoever becomes proud and irritated, abandoning God, is straw to hell.

On the day in which the cause of our salvation is discussed, if we want to reach the sentence of salvation, it is necessary that our life be in conformity with that of Jesus Christ: For those whom he knew beforehand, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son [1] For this the eternal Word proposed to come into the world, to teach us with his example to carry patiently the crosses that the Lord will send us: Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his footsteps [2]. To encourage us to suffer, Jesus Christ wanted to suffer. Oh, and what was the life of Jesus Christ? Life of shame and hardships. The prophet called our despised Redeemer, abandoned by men, the man of sorrows [3], the despised man, treated as the last of all, the man of sorrows; yes, because the life of Jesus Christ was saturated with work and pain.

Well, just as God treated his beloved Son, so will he treat whoever loves him and adopts him as a son: Whom he loves, the Lord correct him, and scourge every child he recognizes as his [4]. Hence, he once said to Saint Teresa: "Believe, daughter, that whom my Father loves the most, gives greater work." That is why the Saint, when she looked more worked, said that she would not exchange her jobs for all the treasures of the world. Appearing after her death to one of her nuns, she revealed to her that she enjoyed a great prize in heaven, not so much for good works as for the sufferings that she suffered in life with pleasure for the love of God, and that, if for some reason she had wanted to return to the world, this would only be to be able to suffer something for God. Whoever suffers by loving God, doubles the profit for paradise. Saint Vincent de Paul used to say that failure to grieve in this land must be regarded as a great misfortune; and he added that a congregation or person who does not suffer and is applauded from all over the world, is already on the edge of the precipice. For this reason, the day that Saint Francis of Assisi went without some work for Christ, he feared that God had left him out of his hand. Saint John Chrysostom writes that when the Lord grants someone a favor to suffer for Him, he gives him greater grace than if he granted him the power to raise the dead, because, in working miracles, man becomes a debtor to God; more in suffering, God is the one who becomes man's debtor; And he added that whoever goes through some work for Christ, even if he received no other favor than to suffer for God, whom he loves, that would be the greatest correspondence, and that the grace that Saint Paul had of being thrown into jail for Christ he had in more than having been caught up to the third heaven.

The constancy must have a perfect work [5]; that is to say, that there is nothing that pleases God more than to contemplate a soul that with patience and equality of mind carries as many crosses as I send it; that this makes love equal the lover with the beloved. "All the flames of the Redeemer," said Saint Francis de Sales, "are like mouths that teach us how we must suffer labors for Him. To suffer constantly for Christ, that is the science of the saints and the means of quickly sanctifying ourselves." Whoever loves Jesus Christ wants to be treated as He was treated, poor, despised and humiliated. Saint John saw the blessed ones dressed in white robes and palms in their hands [6] The palm is an emblem of martyrdom, although not all the saints suffered martyrdom. How, then, do they all carry those palms? Saint Gregory answers that all the saints were martyrs, or at the hands of the executioner or worked by patience; Fortunately, adds the Saint, that without iron we can be martyrs, provided that our soul exercises patience. "

In this lies the merit of the soul that loves Jesus Christ, in loving suffering. «This is what the Lord told me another day: Do you think, daughter, that there is merit in enjoying? It is only in acting and in suffering and in loving ... Believe, daughter, that whom my Father loves the most, he gives greater work, and to these love responds. How can I show you more than wanting for you what I wanted for myself? Look at these sores, your pains will never come here. » "Well, to believe that (God) admits gifted people without jobs to his close friendship, is nonsense." And St. Teresa adds, to our consolation: "And even if there are more tribulations and persecutions, as long as they pass without offending the Lord, but taking pleasure in suffering it for Him, everything is for greater gain."

One day Jesus Christ appeared to Blessed Bautista Varanis and told her that “three were the most expensive favors that He knew how to do to His lovers' souls: the first, not to sin; the second, to do good, which is of higher value; and the third, which is the most accomplished, to suffer for love of Him ». According to this, Saint Teresa of Jesus used to say that when someone does something good for the Lord, the Lord pays for it with any job. For this reason, the saints gave thanks to God in their disappointments. Saint Louis, King of France, speaking of the slavery suffered by him in Turkey, said: "I rejoice and thank God, more for the patience that he has granted me among the prisons, than if he had conquered the whole land." And Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, when, on the death of her husband, she was expelled from her States with her son, abandoned by all, entered a Franciscan church and had a Te Deum sing in it in thanksgiving because thus God favored her, allowing her to suffer for his love.

San José de Calasanz used to say that "he who does not know how to suffer for Christ does not know how to win Christ." And earlier the Apostle had said it: Because I understand that the sufferings of the present time are not in proportion to the glory that is to be manifested in order to us [7]. Extra ordinary gain would be to suffer all the hardships suffered by the holy martyrs, during our lives, in exchange for enjoying, even if only for a moment, the glory of paradise; then, how much more reason should we embrace ourselves with our cross, knowing that the labors of this short life will conquer us eternal bliss? Because that momentary, light, of our tribulation, produces us, with incalculable excess, always increasing, an eternal flow of glory [8]. Saint Agapito, a young man of a few years, when the tyrant threatened to burn his head with a burning helmet, replied: "And what greater fortune could mine be than to lose my head to see it later crowned in glory?" This made Saint Francis exclaim: "So great is the good that I hope, that sorrows turn to joy." Whoever wants the crown of heaven, must go through tribulations and work: If we constantly suffer, we will also reign with Him [9]. No award can be given without merit, or merit without patience. He is not crowned if he does not fight according to the law [10]. And whoever fights with more patience, there must be a greater crown.

It is a strong thing that, when earthly goods are ventured, their lovers seek to gather as much as they can, as long as, in the case of heavenly goods, they are content to say that a little corner in heaven is enough for them. The saints did not speak like that, but in life they were content with anything, and even stripped themselves of earthly goods, while, in the case of heavenly ones, they strove to have as many more as they could. And it is appropriate to ask: Who was safe and conducive?

And, speaking of present life, it is true that those who suffer with more patience also enjoy greater peace. Saint Philip Neri used to say that in this world there is no purgatory, but only heaven or hell; Whoever patiently endures tribulations already enjoys heaven, and whoever shuns them already suffers from an anticipated hell. Yes, because, as Saint Teresa writes, whoever embraces the crosses that God sends her, does not feel them. When Saint Francis de Sales was once besieged by tribulations, he said: «For some time now, the adversities and secret contradictions that I experience have given me such a soft and sweet tranquility, that it has no equal, and is a harbinger of the next and stable union of the soul with God, which in all truth is the only ambition and the only longing of my heart. How true it is that peace cannot be found where one lives a life in disarray, but where one lives a life of union with God and with his most holy will! A certain religious missionary from the Indies, assisting a condemned man who was on the gallows, heard him say: «Know, Father, that I was of your Order; while I faithfully observed the Rules, I lived happily; more when I began to relax, at the same point I felt pain and work in everything, in such a way that, abandoning religion, I gave free rein to vices, which, at last, brought me to the miserable state in which I see myself. I tell you this, "he added," so that my example may serve as a lesson to others. " Venerable Luis de la Puente used to say that to enjoy peace you have to take the sweet things in life as bitter, and the bitter as sweet. Yes, because the sweet, even when it pleases the senses, nevertheless leaves a bitter remorse of conscience, due to the disorderly indulgence in it, while the bitter, patiently accepted, as coming from the hand of God, he becomes soft and dear to the souls who love him.

Let us be persuaded that in this valley of tears it is not possible for someone to enjoy true peace of heart but only those who bear their sufferings and gladly embrace them to please God; Such is the inheritance and state of corruption that original sin left us. The condition of the righteous on earth is to suffer by loving, while that of the saints in heaven is to enjoy loving. One day Father Pablo Séñeri, the young man, wrote to one of his penitents, to encourage her to suffer, to write these words at the foot of the Crucifix: "This is how you love." It is not so much suffering, as the will to suffer for the love of Jesus Christ, the most certain sign to see if a soul loves him. "And what more gain," said Saint Teresa, "than to have some testimony that we make God happy?" But, alas, that the majority of men faint at the mere hearing of the name of the cross, of humiliation and of hardships.

However, there is no shortage of loving souls who put all their contentment in suffering and walk as inconsolable when they lack jobs. "Just looking at Jesus crucified," said a certain edifying person, "infuses me with such love for the cross, that it makes me feel that I could not be happy without suffering; the love of Jesus Christ is enough for me for everything ». This is the advice that Jesus gives to those who want to follow him, take up the cross and follow him: Take up your cross ... and follow me [11]. But you have to take it and follow it, not by force and reluctance, but with humility, patience, and love.

What a pleasure God is given by those who humbly and patiently embrace each other with the crosses that he sends them! Saint Ignatius of Loyola used to say that there is no wood so purposefully to light and preserve the fire of God's love as the wood of the cross, that is, to love him in the midst of suffering. One day Saint Gertrudis asked the Lord what would be the thing that could offer her the most to her liking, and He replied: "My daughter, what you would like the most would be to suffer patiently whatever tribulations I present to you." That is why the great servant of God, Sr. Victoria Angelini, said that a day nailed to the cross is better than a hundred years of spiritual exercises. And Blessed Fr. Juan de Ávila added: "A thank God is better in adversity than six thousand graces of blessings in prosperity." And yet, men do not know the value of suffering for God. Blessed Angela de Foligno used to say that if we knew the merit of suffering for God, we would steal the occasions of suffering. Hence, Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, aware of the value of suffering, wanted her life to be prolonged, rather than to go later to enjoy heaven; because in heaven you cannot suffer, he said.

The loving soul of God only yearns to unite itself completely, more to achieve such a perfect union, let us hear what Saint Catherine of Genoa said: «To reach union with God, adversities are necessary, because God, through them, destroys all the disorderly movements of our soul and our senses. And, for this reason, insults, contempt, diseases, loss of relatives and friends, humiliations, temptations and other setbacks, are extremely necessary, so that, fighting and from victory to victory, we can extinguish in ourselves the perverse inclinations and not feel them more. And it is not enough for the adversities of appearing unpleasant to cease, for as long as divine love does not make them kind to us, we will not reach divine union. " From which it turns out that the soul that yearns to be all of God, as Saint John of the Cross writes, has to seek not joy, but suffering in all things: God; but to seek God in himself is not only to want to lack that and is another for God, but to be inclined to choose for Christ everything that is most unsavory, now from God, now from the world, and this is love of God »; and thus he must eagerly embrace all voluntary mortifications, and with even greater avidity and love the involuntary ones, because these are more dear to God. Solomon said: Better is the suffered than a hero [12]. Undoubtedly, it is pleasing to God who mortifies himself with fasts, haircloths and disciplines, because by mortifying himself he gives evidence of manly fortitude; But it is much more pleasant for God to relax in work and patiently suffer the crosses that He sends us. Saint Francis de Sales said: «The tribulations that come to us from the hand of God or of men, are always more precious than those that are daughters of our own will, because it is a general law that where our will has less place, the happier there is for God and profit for our souls. " Saint Teresa spoke in the same sense: «And she leaves that sorrow almost annihilated with the joy that it gives her to see that the Lord has placed in her hands something that in one day she will be able to gain more in front of His Majesty, of perpetual favors and favors, than it could be that he would win in ten years for jobs he wanted to take on for himself ”; This is the reason why Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi affirmed that there was nothing in the world, however bitter it might be, that did not suffer it happily, thinking that it comes from the divine hand. And so, it was, because, in the no small jobs that he had to undergo in a five-year period, it was enough for him to recall the will of God, to regain peace and tranquility. Ah! That, to conquer God, an inestimable treasure, everything is nothing or of no value. From Father Hipólito Durazzo is the following sentence: "Whatever it costs, God will never cost us dearly."

So, let us pray to the Lord that he finds us worthy to love him; that, if we love him perfectly, all earthly goods will become smoke and mud for us, while ignominies will turn into soft delights. Let us hear what Saint John Chrysostom says of the soul that surrenders itself completely to God: «Once the perfect love of God has been reached, one lives as alone on earth and does not stop in glories or ignominies: temptations and labors are despised and the taste and appetite for earthly things is lost. Finding no help or rest in things of the world, the soul runs without respite or rest after the loved one without any hindrance that stops it, because I have already worked, eat, watch, sleep, as soon as I do or say, it figures its ideal and worries in the search for the loved one; that his heart is in him because his treasure is in him. "

In this chapter we have talked about patience in general; in the fifteenth we will deal especially with the occasions when we will have to exercise it.

 

San Alfonso María de Ligorio, taken from "Treatise on the love of Jesus Christ."