Patience
by St Augustine
St Augustine (354-430) was born in Tagaste (now Algeria, North Africa). After a licentious life, he was converted at the age of thirty-five in Milan, where he was baptized by the Bishop, St Ambrose. He returned to Africa and was ordained priest, and bishop of Hippo. There he undertook an enormous activity of preaching and writing in defense of the faith. He is one of the greatest Doctors of the Church.
This sermon on patience is attributed to St Augustine.
God Is Patient
1 Patience is primarily a virtue of man’s soul; God bestows this great gift on man. We often say that God possesses it, that God is patient, for he, as a good Father, waits for the repentance of sinners. So, although God cannot suffer, and patience surely has its name from suffering and enduring (patiendo), we believe in a patient God and acknowledge him to be such.
How can we explain the nature and breadth of God’s patience? We say that God is impassible (that he cannot suffer or have passions), but not impatient; he is extremely patient. His patience is beyond description, yet it exists as does his jealousy, his wrath, and any characteristic of this kind.
But these qualities do not exist in God in the same manner as they exist in us. In men, these feelings are coupled with a sense of annoyance, a condition that does not exist in God. God is jealous without any ill will, angry without being emotionally upset, compassionate without grieving, sorry without having to correct any fault of his; likewise he is patient without suffering at all.
Man’s Patience
2 I shall try to explain the nature of human patience that we should attain and possess.
We possess the virtue of patience when we endure evils with equanimity, and retain the good that will lead us to sanctity. Rejecting evil and preserving goodness, it deserves the name of virtue if we struggle with serenity, in spite of the difficulties.
By their unwillingness to suffer, the impatient are not delivered from distress; instead, they bring upon themselves more pain and misery.
The patient prefer to endure wrongs rather than inflicting wrongs on the others; thus, they do not commit the sin of impatience. By bearing difficulties and not inflicting harm on the others, the patient lessen their pain and escape from the bad consequences of impatience. By accepting brief and passing evils, they do not lose the great and eternal good, for “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared,” the Apostle says, “with the glory to come that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). And he also says: “Our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure” (2 Cor 4:17).
Suffering for Unworthy Objectives Is Not Patience
3 Dearly beloved, men are often willing to suffer hardships because of their excessive love for worldly things. They see material possessions solely as a means to greater happiness; they unhappily covet them. We see them bearing, with the utmost patience, extreme dangers and difficulties to acquire false riches, for empty honors, or out of love for frivolous pastimes. They are men eager for money, glory, and lust. To fulfil their desires and keep what they have acquired, they willingly and culpably suffer the heat of the sun, icy cold rain, tidal waves, hurricanes and stormy weather, the difficulties and dangers of wars, or terrible blows and dreadful wounds. These insane acts, somehow, seem licit to them.
4 Greed, ambition, luxury, and a passionate interest in frivolous games are considered blameless, unless they become the source of some crime or dishonesty forbidden by the laws of man.
Without defrauding anyone, a man may suffer and work intensely to make money, win fame by winning a contest, score in a game, or successfully present some theatrical play. And he is in no way criticized, but praised and given glory, because of the vanity of the people. As Scripture says: “The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul” (Ps 9:24).
Strong desires make their labor and suffering tolerable. But no one voluntarily suffers torture except for what will bring pleasure. To fulfil those desires men, passionately aflame, patiently endure many hardships and much bitterness. Why are these efforts considered licit and lawful, if the cause is unworthy?
Simple Endurance Is Not Patience
5 Why do men endure many grievous ills to perpetrate criminal acts? They are not willing to suffer as much in order to imprison the lawbreakers. Highway robbers spend sleepless nights lying in wait for travelers, using their bodies and minds, under any darkened sky, to catch the harmless passerby. And some of them torture one another in their training to avoid being caught; this punishment in no way differs from the law’s punishment. They are, perhaps, not tortured as much by the judge who tries to interrogate them, as they are by their fellow criminals, and yet they will not betray their partners in crime.
In all these instances, their patience is to be marveled at rather than praised; or rather, neither marveled at nor praised, for it is not patience at all. Their endurance is to be marveled at; their patience, denied. There is nothing in them deserving praise, nothing to be imitated, but instead something that deserves an increasingly severe punishment the more they use it, for it is a tool of vice.
Patience is the attendant of wisdom, not the handmaid of passion. Patience is the friend of a good conscience, not the enemy of innocence.
True Patience Is Known through Its Cause
6 True patience is recognized only through its cause. One easily distinguishes deserving patience from its opposite. Patience is real when its cause is good, untarnished by passion. But it does not deserve the name of patience when it is maintained to accomplish a criminal act.
All who know have knowledge, but not all who suffer have the virtue of patience. Those who suffer in the right way, merit praise for their true patience; they are crowned with the reward of patience.
Temporal Suffering and Eternal Salvation
7 We see that men willingly endure sufferings to accomplish their unlawful desires or even crimes to ensure their temporal well-being. How much should we endure even greater suffering to live a holy life, so that afterwards we may live forever secure in the true happiness of heaven without fear of ever losing our reward.
The Lord says: “By your patience you will win your souls” (Lk 21:19). He does not say: “villas, possessions, luxuries,” but “your souls.” If men suffer so much to gain material goods, the means by which they will lose their souls, how much should we be willing to suffer not to be lost forever?
To mention something blameless, if we are willing to suffer so much at the hands of doctors to cure our body, allowing them to cut or cauterize our flesh, how much should we suffer for our own safety against the attacks of the enemies of our salvation? Doctors, by inflicting pain on the body, try to keep it from death; our enemies, on the other hand, by threatening us with hardships and death, are working for the eternal death of our body and soul in hell.
In his struggle to live a holy life, the thoughtful and wise man will patiently suffer in his body hardships and even death. The Apostle speaks of the redemption, the yearning of all human beings by which “we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” And he adds: “For in hope were we saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For how can a man hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:23-25).
Patience in the Body
8 At times, we may be distressed, suffering some material pain without really feeling any temptation to do something evil. We need then patience in the body to endure these attacks directed against the body. With this patience, we will possess our souls without causing distress on others. Our body may be suffering or going through a tremendous ailment; with patience we will regain lasting stability and happiness. Even through excruciating pain and death, we can obtain endless happiness and possess life forever.
Our Lord Jesus exhorted his martyrs to patience; he even promised them integrity of the body without the loss, not of a limb, let me say, but even of a single hair of their heads. “Amen, I say to you,” were his words, “not a hair of your head shall perish” (Lk 21:18).
Moreover, the Apostle says, “no one ever hated his own flesh” (Eph 5:29); thus, a sensible man is always vigilant over the integrity of his body; he must assure himself compensation in heaven for the losses of this present life, however serious they may be. He can achieve more by patience than by impatience, thinking of the inestimable gain of future incorruption.
Patience in the Soul
Patience is a virtue of the soul; the soul may practice patience with the body, as I have described, or with itself.
Without suffering any sickness or suffering in the body, one may be induced by adverse events, a treacherous action, or some insulting words to do or say something offensive or unbecoming. One practices patience in the soul when he rejects all these attacks and evil suggestions, and avoids committing sin in word or deed.
David’s Patience
9 We can practice patience even if nothing disturbs us; for still we walk amid the stumbling blocks of this world, and our true happiness is deferred. “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom 8:25).
With this patience King David endured the insults of one abusing him; he could have easily wrought vengeance on him (2 Sam 16:5-23). He not only did not do this, but even calmed an officer who wanted to take revenge on the offender. David used his royal power to forbid rather than to exercise vengeance. He was not then suffering from any bodily disease or wound. But he did recognize the time of humility and accepted the Will of God for whose sake he drank in the bitter reproach with the utmost patience.
Our Lord’s Patience
The Lord taught this kind of patience, too. The servants of the parable were disturbed at the mixture of cockle and wheat; they wanted to gather all together at once; the master replied: “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Mt 13:30).
One has to bear with patience whatever cannot be eliminated right away. Jesus himself furnished us an example of his patience; before his Passion, he endured the diabolic Judas as a thief before he exposed him as a traitor. And before his arrest, crucifixion, and death, Jesus did not refuse the kiss of peace from the betrayer’s deceitful lips.
All these instances show a kind of patience in which the mind bears patiently not its own sins, but injustice from without, while the body remains undisturbed.
The Martyrs: Aiming at an Eternal Reward
10 There is also patience in the body. With it, one endures any suffering of the body, not, as in the case of foolish or vicious men, to attain empty honors or perpetrate crimes, but, as our Lord has said, “for the sake of justice” (Mt 5:10).
The holy martyrs exercised both types of patience: in the soul and in the body. They were overwhelmed with insults by the wicked; their souls had to withstand these humiliations while their bodies were not affected.
But the martyrs also had to exercise patience in the body; they were imprisoned, fettered, beset with hunger and thirst, tortured, lacerated, butchered, cut to pieces, and burned. Yet, with strong fidelity, they remained unmoved; they subjected their minds to God while they suffered in the flesh whatever cruelty came into the minds of their executioners.
There is, indeed, a greater challenge to patience when an invisible enemy urges one to sin. Moved by his hatred for mankind, the devil uses snares to hunt us. The devil himself, through the sons of infidelity as well as through his own instruments, pursues the sons of light and attacks them with shrewd deceit. He presses on his wily assault with fury so that a sin, in thought or word, may be committed against God. But this enemy can be overcome openly and in broad daylight by not consenting.
Job: Anchored in God’s Will
11 Holy Job had to experience both types of temptations against patience. But he rejected the temptations with the shield of his patience and conquered with the weapons of his fidelity.
At first, though his body was unharmed, Job lost all his possessions. The devil wanted to crush his soul before torturing his flesh by removing from him all things that men esteem as valuable. He imagined that Job would rebel against God after having been deprived of his wealth; that was–he thought– Job’s only reason to love God.
Then Job was stricken by the sudden death of all his sons; at one stroke he lost those whom he had received –one by one– from God. The abundance of children was not to be a source of happiness for him, but a means of increasing his woes. Struck down with this misfortune, he remained immovable in God, fixed on the Will of Him whom he could not lose except by his own free decision. Job lost his children and possessions, but he possessed God who took them away; and in God, he found what had never perished. Job had not been stripped by one who desired to harm him, but by Him who had given him everything.
12 Then the enemy attacked Job’s body. He did not touch Job’s external things or possessions, but the man himself. From head to foot, Job burned with pain, his flesh swarmed with worms, matter oozed out from his wounds. But he remained there, his body rotten, his soul untouched, accepting with staunch fidelity and unshaken patience the horrible tortures of the decayed flesh.
His wife was there. She brought no help to her husband, but went on blaspheming God. Skilled in wrong‑doing, the devil made use of her after destroying her sons; he had learned with Eve how convenient a woman is for the tempter.
But this time he did not find a man as gullible as Adam whom he could deceive through a woman. With his pains, this man was more on his guard than Adam had been in the grove of delight. Adam was defeated in his enjoyment, Job conquered with his suffering; the former consented to pleasure, the latter did not give in under torture.
And Job’s friends came, not to console him in his misfortune, but to cast suspicion on his woes. They did not believe that he, suffering so grievously, was innocent. Their tongues were not silent; they assailed Job with false accusations that his conscience did not admit. He was enduring in his body the pains and wounds, and in his soul the accusations of his proud friends. Through patience, he corrected his wife’s foolishness, and taught his friends wisdom.
Suicide Is No Solution
13 Those who are persecuted and forced to deny Christ or to do anything contrary to justice, should, as true martyrs, bear all things patiently rather than to inflict death upon themselves in their impatience. If suicide were right, holy Job would have destroyed himself to escape the diabolic cruelty, the attacks against his own possessions, his sons, and his own body. But he did not do it.
A wise man cannot commit against himself what not even Job’s foolish wife had suggested. Because, if she had suggested it, she would have deserved the reply that she heard on suggesting blasphemy: “Thou hast spoken like a foolish woman: if we have taken happiness from God’s hand, why should we not take sorrow?” (Job 2:10).
Had Job lost his patience either by blaspheming, as his wife wished, or by killing himself, which she did not dare to suggest, he would have died, and would be among those receiving this curse: “Woe to them that have lost patience” (Sirach 2:16). And he would have increased rather than escaped punishment; after the death of his body, he would have received the punishment of the blasphemers, or homicides, or the more grievous one of parricides.
Parricide is more heinous than any homicide, because one slays not merely a man, but a relative, or one’s own father; the guilt is graver the closer the person one has destroyed. Thus, undoubtedly, one who commits suicide is a worse sinner, for no one is closer to a man than himself.
What are those wretched men doing, who suffer self-inflicted mutilations?1 They will have to pay the penalty due, not only for their lack of respect for God, but also for the brutality against themselves. And they look for the glory of martyrdom! If in time of persecution they killed themselves to avoid suffering in the hands of their persecutors, it would rightly be said of them: “Woe to those who have lost patience.” The reward of patience could not be given to them; impatient suffering cannot be crowned.
It is forbidden to murder a neighbor. Moreover, we have been told: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mt 19:19). Thus, if one murders himself, he will be guilty of a grievous sin.
The Chosen Ones Are Tested with Fire
14 We read in the Holy Scripture the following advice on patience:.
My son, if you aspire to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for temptation.
Be sincere of heart, be steadfast,
and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.
Cling to him and do not leave him,
so that you may be honored at the end of your days.
Whatever happens to you, accept it,
and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
since gold is tested with fire,
and chosen men in the crucible of humiliation (Sirach 2:1-5).
And in another place we read: “My son, do not reject the correction of the Lord, and do not faint when you are reprimanded; for he scourges every well-loved son” (cf. Prov 3:11-12). The expression, “well-loved son,” is equivalent to “chosen men” in the quotation given above.
We were ejected from the happiness of paradise because of our bold appetite for pleasures; thus, it seems fair that we should be taken back through the humble endurance of difficulties. Fugitives because of our own evil‑doing, we will return to God through suffering evils. We acted contrary to justice, we must suffer for justice’ sake.
The Source of Patience
15 What is the source of true patience? Same say that true patience originates, not from God, but from man’s free will. This is an arrogant error, the error of the rich, “a reproach from the rich, and contempt from the proud” (Ps 123:4); this is the opposite of the patience of the poor, which “shall not perish forever” (Ps 9:19).
The poor receive patience from the wealthy One. They say, to Him, “You are my God, apart from you I have nothing good” (Ps 16:2); from Him “is every best gift and every perfect gift” (Jas 1:17). Thus, they seek from Him, beg from Him, knock on Him; they praise His name saying, “Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the sinner, and from the clutches of evil and cruel men. For you alone are my patience, O Lord, my hope since my youth” (Ps 71:4-5).
The rich, those who do not accept that they are needy before the Lord, will not receive true patience from Him. Glorying in their own false patience, they wish “to deride the poor man’s hopes, but the Lord is his refuge” (Ps 14:6). They attribute so much to themselves, to their will power; they do not apply to themselves the words of Scripture, “Cursed be the one who puts his trust in man” (Jer 17:5).
Sometimes they endure hard and rugged circumstances, but only not to displease men, or suffer worse hardships; or they suffer these circumstances with an arrogant will, seeking only their own pleasure and cultivating their vanity. What the blessed James the Apostle said about wisdom must be asserted about their patience: “Such wisdom does not come down from heaven. It is earthly, sensual, of the devil” (Jas 3:15).
There is a false patience in the proud as there is a false wisdom in them. God, the source of true wisdom, is the source of true patience. Thus, the poor in spirit sings to Him: “Find rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my patience” (cf. Ps 62:5).
Can We Be Patient without Charity?
16 Some may maintain any of the following propositions:
- Man alone, without any help of God, is able to endure painful circumstances only with the powers of his free will; he will do so to enjoy sinful delights in this mortal life. Thus, this very same man, in the same way, by the same powers of his free will, without awaiting divine help but relying only in its natural powers, is able to endure pain or suffering with patience for justice’ sake and for life eternal.
- The will of the wicked, without God’s help, is strong enough to lead them to endure torture voluntarily for something evil, even if no one threatens them.
- Those who love dilly‑dallying are strong enough, without the help of God, to persist in their lies amid atrocious and lengthy torments in order to avoid the death sentence that will result from the confession of their crimes.
- The will of the just is not strong enough, without strength from above, to make them endure punishment for justice sake, or for the love of eternal life.
18 But we read in the Scripture: “God is love; anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him” (1 Jn 4:16). Thus, one cannot have love of God without God, without God’s help; one cannot possess God without his help.
St Paul tells us about love of God and patience: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? As it is written, `For your sake we face death all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these things we overcome because of him who has loved us.” Not, then, through ourselves, but through “Him who has loved us.”
Then he continues: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor things to come, nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35-39). This “love of God” is “poured into our hearts,” not by us, but “by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).
On the other hand, the lust for evil – the root of false patience– comes “not from the Father but from the world” (1 Jn 2:16).
Human Motives, Not the Source of Patience
19 Those who maintain these opinions–against Scripture–do not see the difference between the true patience of the just–a divine gift–and that of the wicked, which is based on vile, human motivations; it is simple endurance.
They do not realize that the wicked man is hardened by his lusts to endure any outrage but only as long as he sees any chance of satisfying his desires. The lust for worldly things begins with a choice of the will, proceeds with the pleasure of the will, and is built up on a chain of habits.
Wicked men persist in their evil actions because of their lustful desire for worldly things. Whenever this desire for worldly things enables a man to sustain a calamity, man boasts in the strength of his own will; the desire is a stultifying disease, not a healthy remedy. That boasting is not patience but madness. A wicked man seems more tolerant of sufferings the more he yearns for temporal goods, but he remains empty of eternal goods.
True Patience Is Infused by God
On the other hand, the greater the just man’s love of God, the more courageous he will be to endure hardships. “The love of God has been poured into our hearts,” surely not by us, but “by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us” (cf. Rom 5:5). Thus, the patience of the just man, and his charity, are from God.
Praising this charity, the Apostle says that it “is always patient and kind;” charity does not envy. A little later he says, “Charity is always ready to endure whatever comes” (1 Cor 13:7). The greater the charity of God that the saints possess, the more do they endure all things for Him whom they love. The stronger the desire for worldly things in sinners, the more do they endure any and all difficulties to satisfy their lusts.
The true patience of the just is from the same source as the charity of God which is in them. The false patience of the unjust is from the same source as their lust of the world. For this reason, John the Apostle says: “Do not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–does not come from the Father but from the world” (1 Jn 2:15-16).
The stronger and more vehement the lust of the sinner–this is not from God but from the world–the more willing is he to accept hardships in pursuing the object of his desires. The patience of the sinner, then, does not come from above, but is from the world.
The patience of the faithful, coming down from above, is from the Father of lights. The former is earthly, the latter heavenly; that is animal, this spiritual; that is devilish, this divinizing. The charity by which the upright man suffers all things is from God.
Human will, without God’s help, can be sufficient for the man of false patience to keep him going; he will sustain evils, as long as he remains lustful. But human will is not sufficient for the man with true patience, unless it is aided and sparked from above. No one likes to suffer for no reason; thus, one cannot endure hardships in a meritorious manner unless one is enkindled by the Holy Spirit, the fire for the soul.
22 What is man, using his own will, before he chooses to love God? An unjust and hopeless creature. What is man?, I say–a creature drifting away from his Creator, unless his Creator–taking care of him–chooses and loves him. Of himself, man cannot choose or love God, unless he is first chosen and loved by God.
But someone may say: “How can God choose and love man, an unjust worker of iniquity?” How? Because God loves man in a wonderful and ineffable way; because He is patient. Yet, can we not see that a good doctor both hates and loves the sick people? He hates them because they are sick; he loves them in order to rid them of their illness.
Charity and Divine Filiation, Roots of Patience
23 Charity is the root of God’s patience with man. Without it, there can be no true patience in us either. We are patient in doing good, despite difficulties, because of the love of God, which enables us to bear all things. This charity is infused in us by the Holy Spirit, “who has been given to us.” Thus, our patience is from God, as is our charity.
We are heirs who have been told: “You have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry: “Abba! Father!’”(Rom 8:5)
29 Let us cry out, therefore, moved by charity, and, until we reach heaven–our everlasting inheritance–let us be patient and abounding in love, not patient with a servile fear. Let us insist in our petition, as long as we are poor, until we are enriched with that inheritance. We have received wonderful pledges; to enrich us, Christ himself became poor, and after he had risen to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to inspire holy desires within our hearts.
We are poor; we believe without yet contemplating; we hope without yet possessing; we ardently desire without being settled in happiness; we hunger and thirst without being satiated.
“The patience of the poor,” the psalm says, “shall not perish forever” (Ps 9:19). This does not mean that with patience, we will have nothing to suffer; but that our sufferings will not be unfruitful. Patient suffering will bear eternal fruit that “shall not perish forever.”
He who labors in vain says: “I have lost so much labor,” because the results from his labor are disappointing. But he who attains what he expected from his work says: “I have not lost my labor.” It does not mean that his labor remains forever, but that it was not expended in vain.
We, the poor of Christ, are the enriched heirs of Christ; our patience will not perish forever, not because, in heaven, we will have to continue suffering things patiently, but because in return for our patient sufferings here on earth, we will there enjoy eternal happiness. God, who gives us patience, will also give us eternal happiness; both gifts come from Him, from his charity, which is itself a gift. Amen.
Footnote:
1 St Augustine is referring to the Donatists, heretics who mutilated themselves and offered themselves for martyrdom.
This sermon on patience is attributed to St Augustine.
God Is Patient
1 Patience is primarily a virtue of man’s soul; God bestows this great gift on man. We often say that God possesses it, that God is patient, for he, as a good Father, waits for the repentance of sinners. So, although God cannot suffer, and patience surely has its name from suffering and enduring (patiendo), we believe in a patient God and acknowledge him to be such.
How can we explain the nature and breadth of God’s patience? We say that God is impassible (that he cannot suffer or have passions), but not impatient; he is extremely patient. His patience is beyond description, yet it exists as does his jealousy, his wrath, and any characteristic of this kind.
But these qualities do not exist in God in the same manner as they exist in us. In men, these feelings are coupled with a sense of annoyance, a condition that does not exist in God. God is jealous without any ill will, angry without being emotionally upset, compassionate without grieving, sorry without having to correct any fault of his; likewise he is patient without suffering at all.
Man’s Patience
2 I shall try to explain the nature of human patience that we should attain and possess.
We possess the virtue of patience when we endure evils with equanimity, and retain the good that will lead us to sanctity. Rejecting evil and preserving goodness, it deserves the name of virtue if we struggle with serenity, in spite of the difficulties.
By their unwillingness to suffer, the impatient are not delivered from distress; instead, they bring upon themselves more pain and misery.
The patient prefer to endure wrongs rather than inflicting wrongs on the others; thus, they do not commit the sin of impatience. By bearing difficulties and not inflicting harm on the others, the patient lessen their pain and escape from the bad consequences of impatience. By accepting brief and passing evils, they do not lose the great and eternal good, for “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared,” the Apostle says, “with the glory to come that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). And he also says: “Our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure” (2 Cor 4:17).
Suffering for Unworthy Objectives Is Not Patience
3 Dearly beloved, men are often willing to suffer hardships because of their excessive love for worldly things. They see material possessions solely as a means to greater happiness; they unhappily covet them. We see them bearing, with the utmost patience, extreme dangers and difficulties to acquire false riches, for empty honors, or out of love for frivolous pastimes. They are men eager for money, glory, and lust. To fulfil their desires and keep what they have acquired, they willingly and culpably suffer the heat of the sun, icy cold rain, tidal waves, hurricanes and stormy weather, the difficulties and dangers of wars, or terrible blows and dreadful wounds. These insane acts, somehow, seem licit to them.
4 Greed, ambition, luxury, and a passionate interest in frivolous games are considered blameless, unless they become the source of some crime or dishonesty forbidden by the laws of man.
Without defrauding anyone, a man may suffer and work intensely to make money, win fame by winning a contest, score in a game, or successfully present some theatrical play. And he is in no way criticized, but praised and given glory, because of the vanity of the people. As Scripture says: “The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul” (Ps 9:24).
Strong desires make their labor and suffering tolerable. But no one voluntarily suffers torture except for what will bring pleasure. To fulfil those desires men, passionately aflame, patiently endure many hardships and much bitterness. Why are these efforts considered licit and lawful, if the cause is unworthy?
Simple Endurance Is Not Patience
5 Why do men endure many grievous ills to perpetrate criminal acts? They are not willing to suffer as much in order to imprison the lawbreakers. Highway robbers spend sleepless nights lying in wait for travelers, using their bodies and minds, under any darkened sky, to catch the harmless passerby. And some of them torture one another in their training to avoid being caught; this punishment in no way differs from the law’s punishment. They are, perhaps, not tortured as much by the judge who tries to interrogate them, as they are by their fellow criminals, and yet they will not betray their partners in crime.
In all these instances, their patience is to be marveled at rather than praised; or rather, neither marveled at nor praised, for it is not patience at all. Their endurance is to be marveled at; their patience, denied. There is nothing in them deserving praise, nothing to be imitated, but instead something that deserves an increasingly severe punishment the more they use it, for it is a tool of vice.
Patience is the attendant of wisdom, not the handmaid of passion. Patience is the friend of a good conscience, not the enemy of innocence.
True Patience Is Known through Its Cause
6 True patience is recognized only through its cause. One easily distinguishes deserving patience from its opposite. Patience is real when its cause is good, untarnished by passion. But it does not deserve the name of patience when it is maintained to accomplish a criminal act.
All who know have knowledge, but not all who suffer have the virtue of patience. Those who suffer in the right way, merit praise for their true patience; they are crowned with the reward of patience.
Temporal Suffering and Eternal Salvation
7 We see that men willingly endure sufferings to accomplish their unlawful desires or even crimes to ensure their temporal well-being. How much should we endure even greater suffering to live a holy life, so that afterwards we may live forever secure in the true happiness of heaven without fear of ever losing our reward.
The Lord says: “By your patience you will win your souls” (Lk 21:19). He does not say: “villas, possessions, luxuries,” but “your souls.” If men suffer so much to gain material goods, the means by which they will lose their souls, how much should we be willing to suffer not to be lost forever?
To mention something blameless, if we are willing to suffer so much at the hands of doctors to cure our body, allowing them to cut or cauterize our flesh, how much should we suffer for our own safety against the attacks of the enemies of our salvation? Doctors, by inflicting pain on the body, try to keep it from death; our enemies, on the other hand, by threatening us with hardships and death, are working for the eternal death of our body and soul in hell.
In his struggle to live a holy life, the thoughtful and wise man will patiently suffer in his body hardships and even death. The Apostle speaks of the redemption, the yearning of all human beings by which “we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” And he adds: “For in hope were we saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For how can a man hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:23-25).
Patience in the Body
8 At times, we may be distressed, suffering some material pain without really feeling any temptation to do something evil. We need then patience in the body to endure these attacks directed against the body. With this patience, we will possess our souls without causing distress on others. Our body may be suffering or going through a tremendous ailment; with patience we will regain lasting stability and happiness. Even through excruciating pain and death, we can obtain endless happiness and possess life forever.
Our Lord Jesus exhorted his martyrs to patience; he even promised them integrity of the body without the loss, not of a limb, let me say, but even of a single hair of their heads. “Amen, I say to you,” were his words, “not a hair of your head shall perish” (Lk 21:18).
Moreover, the Apostle says, “no one ever hated his own flesh” (Eph 5:29); thus, a sensible man is always vigilant over the integrity of his body; he must assure himself compensation in heaven for the losses of this present life, however serious they may be. He can achieve more by patience than by impatience, thinking of the inestimable gain of future incorruption.
Patience in the Soul
Patience is a virtue of the soul; the soul may practice patience with the body, as I have described, or with itself.
Without suffering any sickness or suffering in the body, one may be induced by adverse events, a treacherous action, or some insulting words to do or say something offensive or unbecoming. One practices patience in the soul when he rejects all these attacks and evil suggestions, and avoids committing sin in word or deed.
David’s Patience
9 We can practice patience even if nothing disturbs us; for still we walk amid the stumbling blocks of this world, and our true happiness is deferred. “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom 8:25).
With this patience King David endured the insults of one abusing him; he could have easily wrought vengeance on him (2 Sam 16:5-23). He not only did not do this, but even calmed an officer who wanted to take revenge on the offender. David used his royal power to forbid rather than to exercise vengeance. He was not then suffering from any bodily disease or wound. But he did recognize the time of humility and accepted the Will of God for whose sake he drank in the bitter reproach with the utmost patience.
Our Lord’s Patience
The Lord taught this kind of patience, too. The servants of the parable were disturbed at the mixture of cockle and wheat; they wanted to gather all together at once; the master replied: “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Mt 13:30).
One has to bear with patience whatever cannot be eliminated right away. Jesus himself furnished us an example of his patience; before his Passion, he endured the diabolic Judas as a thief before he exposed him as a traitor. And before his arrest, crucifixion, and death, Jesus did not refuse the kiss of peace from the betrayer’s deceitful lips.
All these instances show a kind of patience in which the mind bears patiently not its own sins, but injustice from without, while the body remains undisturbed.
The Martyrs: Aiming at an Eternal Reward
10 There is also patience in the body. With it, one endures any suffering of the body, not, as in the case of foolish or vicious men, to attain empty honors or perpetrate crimes, but, as our Lord has said, “for the sake of justice” (Mt 5:10).
The holy martyrs exercised both types of patience: in the soul and in the body. They were overwhelmed with insults by the wicked; their souls had to withstand these humiliations while their bodies were not affected.
But the martyrs also had to exercise patience in the body; they were imprisoned, fettered, beset with hunger and thirst, tortured, lacerated, butchered, cut to pieces, and burned. Yet, with strong fidelity, they remained unmoved; they subjected their minds to God while they suffered in the flesh whatever cruelty came into the minds of their executioners.
There is, indeed, a greater challenge to patience when an invisible enemy urges one to sin. Moved by his hatred for mankind, the devil uses snares to hunt us. The devil himself, through the sons of infidelity as well as through his own instruments, pursues the sons of light and attacks them with shrewd deceit. He presses on his wily assault with fury so that a sin, in thought or word, may be committed against God. But this enemy can be overcome openly and in broad daylight by not consenting.
Job: Anchored in God’s Will
11 Holy Job had to experience both types of temptations against patience. But he rejected the temptations with the shield of his patience and conquered with the weapons of his fidelity.
At first, though his body was unharmed, Job lost all his possessions. The devil wanted to crush his soul before torturing his flesh by removing from him all things that men esteem as valuable. He imagined that Job would rebel against God after having been deprived of his wealth; that was–he thought– Job’s only reason to love God.
Then Job was stricken by the sudden death of all his sons; at one stroke he lost those whom he had received –one by one– from God. The abundance of children was not to be a source of happiness for him, but a means of increasing his woes. Struck down with this misfortune, he remained immovable in God, fixed on the Will of Him whom he could not lose except by his own free decision. Job lost his children and possessions, but he possessed God who took them away; and in God, he found what had never perished. Job had not been stripped by one who desired to harm him, but by Him who had given him everything.
12 Then the enemy attacked Job’s body. He did not touch Job’s external things or possessions, but the man himself. From head to foot, Job burned with pain, his flesh swarmed with worms, matter oozed out from his wounds. But he remained there, his body rotten, his soul untouched, accepting with staunch fidelity and unshaken patience the horrible tortures of the decayed flesh.
His wife was there. She brought no help to her husband, but went on blaspheming God. Skilled in wrong‑doing, the devil made use of her after destroying her sons; he had learned with Eve how convenient a woman is for the tempter.
But this time he did not find a man as gullible as Adam whom he could deceive through a woman. With his pains, this man was more on his guard than Adam had been in the grove of delight. Adam was defeated in his enjoyment, Job conquered with his suffering; the former consented to pleasure, the latter did not give in under torture.
And Job’s friends came, not to console him in his misfortune, but to cast suspicion on his woes. They did not believe that he, suffering so grievously, was innocent. Their tongues were not silent; they assailed Job with false accusations that his conscience did not admit. He was enduring in his body the pains and wounds, and in his soul the accusations of his proud friends. Through patience, he corrected his wife’s foolishness, and taught his friends wisdom.
Suicide Is No Solution
13 Those who are persecuted and forced to deny Christ or to do anything contrary to justice, should, as true martyrs, bear all things patiently rather than to inflict death upon themselves in their impatience. If suicide were right, holy Job would have destroyed himself to escape the diabolic cruelty, the attacks against his own possessions, his sons, and his own body. But he did not do it.
A wise man cannot commit against himself what not even Job’s foolish wife had suggested. Because, if she had suggested it, she would have deserved the reply that she heard on suggesting blasphemy: “Thou hast spoken like a foolish woman: if we have taken happiness from God’s hand, why should we not take sorrow?” (Job 2:10).
Had Job lost his patience either by blaspheming, as his wife wished, or by killing himself, which she did not dare to suggest, he would have died, and would be among those receiving this curse: “Woe to them that have lost patience” (Sirach 2:16). And he would have increased rather than escaped punishment; after the death of his body, he would have received the punishment of the blasphemers, or homicides, or the more grievous one of parricides.
Parricide is more heinous than any homicide, because one slays not merely a man, but a relative, or one’s own father; the guilt is graver the closer the person one has destroyed. Thus, undoubtedly, one who commits suicide is a worse sinner, for no one is closer to a man than himself.
What are those wretched men doing, who suffer self-inflicted mutilations?1 They will have to pay the penalty due, not only for their lack of respect for God, but also for the brutality against themselves. And they look for the glory of martyrdom! If in time of persecution they killed themselves to avoid suffering in the hands of their persecutors, it would rightly be said of them: “Woe to those who have lost patience.” The reward of patience could not be given to them; impatient suffering cannot be crowned.
It is forbidden to murder a neighbor. Moreover, we have been told: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mt 19:19). Thus, if one murders himself, he will be guilty of a grievous sin.
The Chosen Ones Are Tested with Fire
14 We read in the Holy Scripture the following advice on patience:.
My son, if you aspire to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for temptation.
Be sincere of heart, be steadfast,
and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.
Cling to him and do not leave him,
so that you may be honored at the end of your days.
Whatever happens to you, accept it,
and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
since gold is tested with fire,
and chosen men in the crucible of humiliation (Sirach 2:1-5).
And in another place we read: “My son, do not reject the correction of the Lord, and do not faint when you are reprimanded; for he scourges every well-loved son” (cf. Prov 3:11-12). The expression, “well-loved son,” is equivalent to “chosen men” in the quotation given above.
We were ejected from the happiness of paradise because of our bold appetite for pleasures; thus, it seems fair that we should be taken back through the humble endurance of difficulties. Fugitives because of our own evil‑doing, we will return to God through suffering evils. We acted contrary to justice, we must suffer for justice’ sake.
The Source of Patience
15 What is the source of true patience? Same say that true patience originates, not from God, but from man’s free will. This is an arrogant error, the error of the rich, “a reproach from the rich, and contempt from the proud” (Ps 123:4); this is the opposite of the patience of the poor, which “shall not perish forever” (Ps 9:19).
The poor receive patience from the wealthy One. They say, to Him, “You are my God, apart from you I have nothing good” (Ps 16:2); from Him “is every best gift and every perfect gift” (Jas 1:17). Thus, they seek from Him, beg from Him, knock on Him; they praise His name saying, “Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the sinner, and from the clutches of evil and cruel men. For you alone are my patience, O Lord, my hope since my youth” (Ps 71:4-5).
The rich, those who do not accept that they are needy before the Lord, will not receive true patience from Him. Glorying in their own false patience, they wish “to deride the poor man’s hopes, but the Lord is his refuge” (Ps 14:6). They attribute so much to themselves, to their will power; they do not apply to themselves the words of Scripture, “Cursed be the one who puts his trust in man” (Jer 17:5).
Sometimes they endure hard and rugged circumstances, but only not to displease men, or suffer worse hardships; or they suffer these circumstances with an arrogant will, seeking only their own pleasure and cultivating their vanity. What the blessed James the Apostle said about wisdom must be asserted about their patience: “Such wisdom does not come down from heaven. It is earthly, sensual, of the devil” (Jas 3:15).
There is a false patience in the proud as there is a false wisdom in them. God, the source of true wisdom, is the source of true patience. Thus, the poor in spirit sings to Him: “Find rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my patience” (cf. Ps 62:5).
Can We Be Patient without Charity?
16 Some may maintain any of the following propositions:
- Man alone, without any help of God, is able to endure painful circumstances only with the powers of his free will; he will do so to enjoy sinful delights in this mortal life. Thus, this very same man, in the same way, by the same powers of his free will, without awaiting divine help but relying only in its natural powers, is able to endure pain or suffering with patience for justice’ sake and for life eternal.
- The will of the wicked, without God’s help, is strong enough to lead them to endure torture voluntarily for something evil, even if no one threatens them.
- Those who love dilly‑dallying are strong enough, without the help of God, to persist in their lies amid atrocious and lengthy torments in order to avoid the death sentence that will result from the confession of their crimes.
- The will of the just is not strong enough, without strength from above, to make them endure punishment for justice sake, or for the love of eternal life.
18 But we read in the Scripture: “God is love; anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him” (1 Jn 4:16). Thus, one cannot have love of God without God, without God’s help; one cannot possess God without his help.
St Paul tells us about love of God and patience: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? As it is written, `For your sake we face death all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these things we overcome because of him who has loved us.” Not, then, through ourselves, but through “Him who has loved us.”
Then he continues: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor things to come, nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35-39). This “love of God” is “poured into our hearts,” not by us, but “by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).
On the other hand, the lust for evil – the root of false patience– comes “not from the Father but from the world” (1 Jn 2:16).
Human Motives, Not the Source of Patience
19 Those who maintain these opinions–against Scripture–do not see the difference between the true patience of the just–a divine gift–and that of the wicked, which is based on vile, human motivations; it is simple endurance.
They do not realize that the wicked man is hardened by his lusts to endure any outrage but only as long as he sees any chance of satisfying his desires. The lust for worldly things begins with a choice of the will, proceeds with the pleasure of the will, and is built up on a chain of habits.
Wicked men persist in their evil actions because of their lustful desire for worldly things. Whenever this desire for worldly things enables a man to sustain a calamity, man boasts in the strength of his own will; the desire is a stultifying disease, not a healthy remedy. That boasting is not patience but madness. A wicked man seems more tolerant of sufferings the more he yearns for temporal goods, but he remains empty of eternal goods.
True Patience Is Infused by God
On the other hand, the greater the just man’s love of God, the more courageous he will be to endure hardships. “The love of God has been poured into our hearts,” surely not by us, but “by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us” (cf. Rom 5:5). Thus, the patience of the just man, and his charity, are from God.
Praising this charity, the Apostle says that it “is always patient and kind;” charity does not envy. A little later he says, “Charity is always ready to endure whatever comes” (1 Cor 13:7). The greater the charity of God that the saints possess, the more do they endure all things for Him whom they love. The stronger the desire for worldly things in sinners, the more do they endure any and all difficulties to satisfy their lusts.
The true patience of the just is from the same source as the charity of God which is in them. The false patience of the unjust is from the same source as their lust of the world. For this reason, John the Apostle says: “Do not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–does not come from the Father but from the world” (1 Jn 2:15-16).
The stronger and more vehement the lust of the sinner–this is not from God but from the world–the more willing is he to accept hardships in pursuing the object of his desires. The patience of the sinner, then, does not come from above, but is from the world.
The patience of the faithful, coming down from above, is from the Father of lights. The former is earthly, the latter heavenly; that is animal, this spiritual; that is devilish, this divinizing. The charity by which the upright man suffers all things is from God.
Human will, without God’s help, can be sufficient for the man of false patience to keep him going; he will sustain evils, as long as he remains lustful. But human will is not sufficient for the man with true patience, unless it is aided and sparked from above. No one likes to suffer for no reason; thus, one cannot endure hardships in a meritorious manner unless one is enkindled by the Holy Spirit, the fire for the soul.
22 What is man, using his own will, before he chooses to love God? An unjust and hopeless creature. What is man?, I say–a creature drifting away from his Creator, unless his Creator–taking care of him–chooses and loves him. Of himself, man cannot choose or love God, unless he is first chosen and loved by God.
But someone may say: “How can God choose and love man, an unjust worker of iniquity?” How? Because God loves man in a wonderful and ineffable way; because He is patient. Yet, can we not see that a good doctor both hates and loves the sick people? He hates them because they are sick; he loves them in order to rid them of their illness.
Charity and Divine Filiation, Roots of Patience
23 Charity is the root of God’s patience with man. Without it, there can be no true patience in us either. We are patient in doing good, despite difficulties, because of the love of God, which enables us to bear all things. This charity is infused in us by the Holy Spirit, “who has been given to us.” Thus, our patience is from God, as is our charity.
We are heirs who have been told: “You have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry: “Abba! Father!’”(Rom 8:5)
29 Let us cry out, therefore, moved by charity, and, until we reach heaven–our everlasting inheritance–let us be patient and abounding in love, not patient with a servile fear. Let us insist in our petition, as long as we are poor, until we are enriched with that inheritance. We have received wonderful pledges; to enrich us, Christ himself became poor, and after he had risen to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit to inspire holy desires within our hearts.
We are poor; we believe without yet contemplating; we hope without yet possessing; we ardently desire without being settled in happiness; we hunger and thirst without being satiated.
“The patience of the poor,” the psalm says, “shall not perish forever” (Ps 9:19). This does not mean that with patience, we will have nothing to suffer; but that our sufferings will not be unfruitful. Patient suffering will bear eternal fruit that “shall not perish forever.”
He who labors in vain says: “I have lost so much labor,” because the results from his labor are disappointing. But he who attains what he expected from his work says: “I have not lost my labor.” It does not mean that his labor remains forever, but that it was not expended in vain.
We, the poor of Christ, are the enriched heirs of Christ; our patience will not perish forever, not because, in heaven, we will have to continue suffering things patiently, but because in return for our patient sufferings here on earth, we will there enjoy eternal happiness. God, who gives us patience, will also give us eternal happiness; both gifts come from Him, from his charity, which is itself a gift. Amen.
Footnote:
1 St Augustine is referring to the Donatists, heretics who mutilated themselves and offered themselves for martyrdom.