In this life we are only here for a short time, but there are many sufferings to be endured. How can we suffer with patience?
Newsdesk (Gaudium Press) This earth is a place in which to gain merit, therefore it is a place of suffering. Our homeland is Paradise, where God has prepared our place of rest in eternal joy. In this life, we are only here for a short time, but in this short time, we will have to go through many sufferings. And it is by suffering with patience that our souls will be found in conformity with the life of Jesus Christ who “suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we might follow in His footsteps ” (cf. Pt 2:21).
One day Saint Teresa said: “Know that the souls dearest to my Father are those who are afflicted by the greatest sufferings”. For this reason, the saint, when she found herself tormented, said that she would not exchange her sufferings for all the treasures of the world. After her death, she appeared to a soul and revealed to them that she enjoyed a great reward in Heaven, not so much for her good works as for the sufferings she had voluntarily undergone for love of God during her life.
Those who loves God in suffering, have a double gain for Heaven: that of loving and that of suffering. St. John Chrysostom writes that when the Lord gives someone the grace of suffering, He gives them greater grace than if He gave them the power to raise the dead, because in working miracles man becomes God’s debtor, but in suffering it is God who becomes man’s debtor.
Nevertheless, “let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). This means that there is nothing more pleasing to God than to see a soul that with patience and peace suffers all the crosses that He sends to them.
Saint John saw all the saints clothed in white and holding palms in their hands (Rev 7:9). The palm is the insignia of the martyrs, but not all the saints have suffered martyrdom; why, therefore, do all the saints bear palms in their hands? St. Gregory explains that all the saints were martyrs either by the sword or by patience; and so, therefore, he adds, “We, without the sword, may become martyrs, if we maintain patience.”
Taken from: St Alphonsus of Ligouri .
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
