St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

[Stone]

CHAPTER X: The third fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

The imitation of the patience of Christ is the third fruit to be gathered from the consideration of the fifth word. In the fourth word the humility of Christ, coupled with His patience, was conspicuous. In the fifth word His patience alone shines forth. Now, patience is not only one of the greatest virtues, but is positively the most necessary for us. St. Cyprian says, “Amongst all the paths of heavenly training, I know of none more profitable for this life or advantageous for the next, than that those who strive in fear and devotion to obey the commandments of God, should above all things practise the virtue of patience.” But before we speak of the necessity of patience we must distinguish the virtue from its counterfeit. True patience enables us to bear the misfortune of suffering without incurring the misfortune of sin. Such was the patience of the martyrs, who preferred to endure the tortures of the executioner rather than deny the faith of Christ, who preferred to suffer the loss of their earthly goods rather than worship false gods. The counterfeit of this virtue urges us to undergo every hardship to obey the law of concupiscence, to risk the loss of eternal happiness for the sake of a momentary pleasure. Such is the patience of the slaves of the devil, who put up with hunger and thirst, cold and heat, loss of reputation, even of heaven itself, in order to increase their riches, to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, or to gain a post of honour.

True patience has the property of increasing and preserving all other virtues. St. James is our authority for this eulogium of patience. He says, “And patience hath a perfect work: that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.”[1] On account of the difficulties we meet with in the practice of virtue, none can flourish without patience, but when other virtues are accompanied by this one, all difficulties vanish, for patience renders crooked paths straight, and rough paths smooth. And this is so true that St. Cyprian, speaking of charity, the queen of virtues, cries out, “Charity, the bond of fraternity, the foundation of peace, the power and strength of union, is greater than faith or hope. It is the virtue from which martyrs derived their constancy, and it is the one we shall practise for ever in the kingdom of heaven. But separate it from patience, and it will droop; take away from it the power of suffering and enduring, and it will wither and die.”[2] The same Saint shows the necessity of this virtue also for preserving our chastity, uprightness, and peace with our neighbour. “If the virtue of patience is strongly and firmly rooted in your hearts, your body, which is holy and the temple of the living God, will not be polluted with adultery, your uprightness will not be sullied with the stain of injustice, nor after having fed on the Body of Christ will your hand be imbrued with blood.” He means to signify by the contraries to these words, that without patience neither a chaste man will be able to preserve his purity, nor a just man be equitable, nor one who has received the Holy Eucharist be free from the danger of anger and homicide.

What St. James writes of the virtue of patience is taught in other words by the Prophet David, by our Lord, and His Apostle. In the ninth Psalm, David says, “The patience of the poor shall not perish for ever,”[3] because it has a perfect work, and consequently its fruit will never decay. Just as we are wont to say that the labours of the husbandman are profitable when they produce a good crop, and are useless when they bring forth nothing, so patience is said never to perish because its effects and rewards will remain for ever. In the text we have just quoted, the word poor is interpreted as meaning the humble man who confesses that he is poor, and can neither do nor suffer anything without the help of God. In his treatise on patience,[4] St. Austin shows that not only the poor, but even the rich, may possess true patience, provided they trust not in themselves but in God, from Whom, as really in want of all Divine gifts, they may ask and receive this favour. Our Lord seems to imply the same when He says in the Gospel, ” In your patience you shall possess your souls.”[5] For they only really possess their souls, that is, their life as their own, and of which nothing can deprive them, who endure with patience every affliction, even death itself, in order not to sin against God. And although by death they appear to lose their souls, still they do not lose them, but preserve them for ever. For the death of the just is not death, but a sleep, and may even be regarded as a sleep of short duration. But the impatient, who in order to preserve the life of the body, do not hesitate to sin by denying Christ, by worshipping idols, by yielding to their lustful desires, or by committing some other crime, appear indeed to preserve their life for a time, but in reality lose the life both of body and soul for ever. And as of the really patient it may with truth be said, “A hair of your head shall not perish,”[6] so of the impatient might we with equal truth exclaim: There is not a single member of your body that shall not be burnt in the fire of hell.

Lastly, the Apostle confirms our opinion: “For patience is necessary for you, that doing the will of God you may receive the promise.”[7] In this text St. Paul explicitly asserts patience to be not only useful, but even necessary in order to accomplish the will of God, and by accomplishing it to feel in ourselves the effect of His promise: “To receive the crown of glory which God hath promised to them that love Him,”[8] and keep His commandments, for “If any one love Me he will keep My word,” and “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words.”[9] So we see that the whole of Scripture teaches the faithful the necessity of the virtue of patience. For this reason Christ wished in the last moments of His life to declare that inward, and most bitter, and long endured suffering of His–His thirst–to encourage us by such an example to preserve our patience in every misfortune. That the thirst of Christ was a most vehement torture we have shown in the preceding chapter, that it was a long endured suffering we can easily prove.

To begin with the Scourging at the pillar. When that took place Christ was already fatigued by His prolonged prayer and Agony and Sweat of blood in the Garden, by His many journeys to and fro during the night and the succeeding morning, from the Garden to the house of Annas, from the house of Annas to that of Caiphas, from the house of Caiphas to that of Pilate, from the house of Pilate to that of Herod, and from the house of Herod back again to Pilate. Moreover, from the time of the Last Supper our Lord had not tasted food or drink, or enjoyed a moment’s repose, but had endured many and grievous insults in the house of Caiphas, was then cruelly scourged, which of itself was sufficient to produce a terrible thirst, and when the scourging was over His thirst, far from being satiated, was increased, for there followed the crowning with thorns and the mocking Him in derision. And when He had been crowned, His thirst, far from being satiated, was increased, for there followed the carrying of the Cross; and loaded with the instrument of His death, our wearied and exhausted Lord struggled up the hill of Calvary. When He arrived there they offered Him wine mixed with gall, which He tasted but would not drink. And so this journey was over at last, but the thirst that throughout the whole way had tortured our dear Lord, was undoubtedly increased. Then followed the Crucifixion, and as the Blood flowed from His four Wounds as from four fountains, every one may conceive how enormous His thirst must have been. Finally, for three successive hours, in the midst of a fearful darkness, we must again try to imagine with what a burning thirst that sacred Body was consumed. And although those that stood by offered vinegar to His mouth, still, as it was not wine or water, but a sharp and bitter draught, and that a very small draught, as He had to suck it up in drops from a sponge, we may without hesitation assert that our Redeemer from the very commencement of His Passion even to His death, endured with the most heroic patience this awful agony. Few of us can know by experience how great this suffering is, as we can find water anywhere to slake our thirst, but those who journey many days together in a desert sometimes learn what the torture of thirst is like.

Curtius relates that Alexander the Great was once marching through a desert with his army, and that after suffering all the deprivations of the want of water, they came up to a river, and the soldiers began to drink its waters with such eagerness, that many died in the very act, and he adds that “he number of those who perished on that occasion was greater than he had lost in any battle.” Their burning thirst was so insupportable that the soldiers could not restrain themselves so far as to take breath whilst they were drinking, and consequently Alexander lost a great part of his army. There have been others who have suffered so much from thirst as to think muddy water, oil, blood, and other impure things, which no one would touch unless reduced by dire necessity, delicious. From this we may learn how great was the Passion of Christ, and how brilliantly His patience was displayed throughout. God grant that we may know this, imitate it, and by suffering together with Christ here, come to reign with Him hereafter.

But I fancy that I hear some pious souls exclaim that they are eager and anxious to know by what means they can best imitate the patience of Christ, and be able to say with the Apostle, “With Christ I am nailed to the Cross,”[10] and with St. Ignatius the Martyr, “My Love is crucified.”[11] It is not so difficult as many imagine. It is not necessary for all to lie on the ground, to scourge themselves to blood, to fast daily on bread and water, to wear a coarse hair-cloth, an iron chain, or other instruments of penance for conquering the flesh, and crucifying it with its vices and concupiscences. These practices are praiseworthy and useful, provided they are not injurious to one’s health, or performed without the sanction of one’s director. But I desire to show my pious readers a means of practising the virtue of patience, and of imitating our meek and gentle Redeemer, which all may embrace, which contains nothing extraordinary, nothing new, and from the use of which no one can be suspected of seeking to gain applause for his sanctity.

In the first place, then, he who loves the virtue of patience ought cheerfully to submit to those labours and sorrows with which we are assured by faith it is the Divine will we should be afflicted, according to those words of the Apostle: “For patience is necessary for you: that doing the will of God, you may receive the promise.”[12] Now, what God wishes us to embrace is neither difficult for me to show or for my readers to learn. All the commandments of our holy mother the Church must be kept with loving obedience and patience, no matter how hard or difficult they may appear. What are these commandments of the Church? The fasts of Lent, of the Ember days, and of certain vigils. To keep these religiously as they ought to be kept, will require a great amount of patience. Now, suppose a person on a fast-day sits down to a well spread dinner-table, or in the single meal that he is allowed eats as much as he would at any two meals on an ordinary day, or anticipates the time for his collation, or eats more than he is allowed, such a person will certainly neither hunger nor thirst, nor will his patience produce fruit. But if he firmly resolves not to take food before the appointed time, unless sickness or some other necessity obliges him, and to take food that is coarse and common and suitable to a time of penance, and does not exceed what he usually takes at a single meal, but gives to the poor all that he would eat if it were not a fast day, as St. Leo advises: “Let the poor be fed by what those that fast abstain from; “and elsewhere,” Let us feel hunger for a little time, dearly beloved, and for a short while let us diminish what we want for our own comfort, in order to be of service to the poor;” and if at eventide he allows the collation to be nothing more than a collation; in such a case undoubtedly patience will be necessary to bear our hunger and thirst, and thus by fasting we shall imitate as far as we are able the patience of Christ, and shall be nailed in part at least to the Cross with Him. But some one may object, all these things are not absolutely necessary. I grant it; but they are necessary if we desire to practise the virtue of patience, or become like our suffering Redeemer. Again, our holy Mother the Church orders ecclesiastics and religious to recite or sing the canonical hours. Now, we shall require all the assistance which the virtue of patience can give us, if this sacred reading and prayer is to be performed in the manner in which it ought to be, as there are few who have not enough to do to keep themselves free from distractions during prayer. Many hurry through their prayers as quickly as possible, as though they were undertaking a very laborious duty, and wished to free themselves from the burden in the shortest possible time, and then they say their Office, not standing up or kneeling down, but sitting or walking about, just as if the fatigue of prayer would be lessened by sitting or lightened by walking. I am speaking of those who say their Office in private, not of those who sing it in choir. Again, in order not to break into their sleep, many recite during the day that part of the Office which the Church has ordered to be said during the night. I say nothing of the attention and the elevation of mind that is required whilst God is invoked in prayer, because many think of what they sing or read less than of anything else. Indeed it is surprising that many more do not see how necessary the virtue of patience is to take away the repugnance we feel to spend a long time in prayer, to rise so as to say the canonical hours at the proper time, to bear the fatigue of standing or of kneeling, to prevent our thoughts from wandering, and to keep them fixed on the one thing we are engaged in. Let my readers listen to an account of the devotion with which St. Francis of Assisi recited his Breviary, and they will then learn that the Divine Office cannot be said without the exercise of the greatest patience. In his Life of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure speaks thus: “This holy man was wont to recite the Divine Office with no less fear than devotion towards God, and although he suffered great pains in his eyes, stomach, spleen, and liver, he would neither lean against any wall or partition whilst he sang, but standing erect, without his hood, he kept his eyes fixed, and had the appearance of a person in a swoon. If he was on a journey he would keep to his regular time, and recite the Divine Office in the usual manner, no matter if a violent rain was falling. He thought himself guilty of a serious fault, if during its recital he allowed his mind to be occupied with vain thoughts, and as often as this happened he hastened to confession to make atonement for it. He recited the Psalms with such attention of mind as if he had God present before him, and whenever the Name of the Lord occurred he would smack his lips from the sweetness which the pronunciation of that Name had left behind it.” As soon as any one endeavours to recite the Divine Office in this manner, and to rise at night to recite his Matins, Lauds, and Prime, he will learn by experience that labour and patience are necessary for the due performance of this duty. There are many other things which the Church, guided by the Holy Scriptures, lays down for us as the will of God, and for the due fulfilment of these also we require the virtue of patience; such as to give to the poor from our superfluity, to pardon those that injure us, to make satisfaction to those whom we have injured, to confess our sins at least once a year, and to receive the blessed Eucharist, which requires no small preparation. All this demands patience, but by way of example I will explain a few more things at greater length.

Everything which either devils or men do to afflict us is another indication of the Divine will, and another call for the exercise of our patience. When bad men and evil spirits try us, their object is to injure not to benefit us. Still God, without Whom they can do nothing, would not allow any storm to break upon us, unless He judged it to be useful. Consequently every affliction may be regarded as coming from the hand of God, and should therefore be borne with patience and cheerfulness. Holy and upright Job knew that the misfortunes with which he was stricken, and which deprived him in one day of all his riches, of all his sons, and then of his bodily health, proceeded from the hatred of the devil, yet he exclaimed: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord,”[13] because he knew that his calamities could only happen by the will of God. I do not say this because I think that when any one is persecuted either by his fellow creatures or by the devil, he should not, or ought not to do his best to recover his losses, to consult a physician if unwell, or to defend himself and his property, but I merely give this advice, not to bear any revenge against evil men, not to return evil for evil, but to bear misfortune with patience because our God wishes us to do so, and by fulfilling His will we shall receive the promise.

The last thing I wish to observe is this. We must all strive to be intimately convinced that everything which happens by chance or accident, as a great drought, too much rain, pestilence, famine, and the like, does not happen without the special Providence and will of God, and consequently we should not complain of the elements, or of God Himself, but should- regard evils of this kind as a scourge with which God punishes us for our sins, and bowing ourselves beneath His Almighty hand, bear everything in humility and patience. God will thus be appeased. He will scatter His benedictions upon us. He will chastise us as His sons with a fatherly love, and will not deprive us of the kingdom of heaven. We may learn what is the reward of patience from an example which St. Gregory adduces. In the thirty-fifth homily on the Gospels, he says that a certain man Stephen was so patient as to consider those that oppressed him his greatest friends; he returned thanks for insults; he looked upon misfortunes as gains; he counted his enemies in the number of his well-wishers and benefactors. The world considered him as a fool and madman, but he turned no deaf ear to the words of the Apostle of Christ; “If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.”[14] And St. Gregory adds that when he was dying many angels were seen assisting round his couch, who carried his soul straight to heaven, and the holy Doctor did not hesitate to rank Stephen amongst the martyrs on account of his extraordinary patience.


ENDNOTES

1. St. James i. 4.
2. Serm. “De Patientia.”
3. Psalm ix. 19.
4. Cap. xv.
5. St. Luke xxi. 19.
6. St. Luke xxi. 18.
7. Heb. x. 36.
8. St. James i. 12.
9. St. John xiv. 23, 24.
10. Gal. ii. 19.
11. “Epist. ad Rom.”
12. Heb. x. 36.
13. Job i. 21.
14. 1 Cor. iii. 18.