§12Quod (ad) pecis gratissimae deo attinet disciplinam.
As far as the discipline of peace, which is most pleasing to God, is concerned.
quis omnino impatientiae natus uel semel ignoscet fratri suo, non dicam septies et septuagies septies? quia ad iudicem cum aduersario suo dirigens negotium conuenientia soluet, nisi prius iram delerit, duritiam amaritudinem, uenas scilicet impatientiae, amputarit? quomodo remittes et remittetur tibi,. si tenax iniuriae per absentiam patientiae fueris? nemo conuulsus animum in fratrem suum munus apud altare perficiet, nisi prius, reconciliando fratri l\'euersus, ad patientiam fuerit.
Who that is born entirely for impatience will forgive his brother even once, not to say seventy-seven times? For how will he, directing his business with his adversary to the judge, settle it by agreement, unless he has first deleted his anger and amputated hardness and bitterness, which are the veins of impatience? How will you forgive and be forgiven, if you are holding onto injury through the absence of patience? No one who has his mind convulsed against his brother will complete his offering at the altar, unless first, having returned by reconciling with his brother, he has applied himself to patience.
sol super iram nostram si occiderit, periclitamur.
If the sun sets upon our anger, we are in danger.
non licet nobis una die sine patientia manere.
We are not allowed to remain even one day without patience.
atenim cum omnem speciem salutaris disciplinae gubernet, quid mirum, quod etiam paenitentiae ministrat? solita lapsis subuenire, haec expectat, haec exoptat, haec exorat paenitentiam quandoque inituris salutem.
And indeed, since it governs every form of saving discipline, what wonder is it that it also ministers to repentance? Accustomed to succor the lapsed, this patience awaits, desires, and begs for salvation for those who will at some time enter upon repentance.
quantum boni utrique confert, cum disiuncto matrimonio — ex ea tamen causa, qua licet seu uiro seu feminae a diuiduitatis perseuerantia sustineri — alterum adulterum non facit alterum emendat.
How much good it confers on both, when, the marriage being dissolved — for that cause, however, for which it is permitted for either husband or wife to endure the perseverance of separation — it does not make the one an adulterer and corrects the other.
sic et illis dominicarum similitudinum exemplis de paenitentia saluis adest: erroneam ouem patientia pastoris requirit et inuenit — nam impatientia unam facile contemneret, sed laborem inquisitionis patientia suscipit - et humeris insuper aduehit, baiulus patiens, peccatricem derelictam; illum quoque prodigum filium patientia patris et recipit et uestit et pascit et apud impatientiam irati fratris excusat.
Thus it is also present to those examples of the Lord's parables concerning repentance, keeping them safe: the patience of the shepherd seeks and finds the straying sheep — for impatience would easily despise one, but patience undertakes the labor of the search — and carries it moreover on his shoulders, a patient bearer, the abandoned sinner; that prodigal son also, the patience of the father both receives and clothes and feeds and excuses before the impatience of the angry brother.
saluus est igitur qui perierat, quis paenitentiam iniit; paenitentia non periit, quia patientiam inuenit.
Saved, therefore, is he who had perished, who entered upon repentance; repentance has not perished, because it found patience.
iam dilectio, summum fidei sacramentum, Christiani nominis thesaurus, quam apostolus totis uiribus sancti spiritus commendat, cuius nisi patientiae disciplinis eruditur? dilectio, inquit, magnanimis est: id a patientia sumit.
Now love, the supreme sacrament of faith, the treasure of the Christian name, which the apostle commends with all the strength of the Holy Spirit, by what other discipline is it educated than that of patience? Love, he says, is magnanimous: this it takes from patience.
benefica est: malum patientia non facit.
It is kind: patience does no evil.
non aemulatur: id quidem patientiae proprium est.
It envies not: this indeed is proper to patience.
nec proteruum sapit: modestiam de patientia traxit.
Nor does it behave itself unseemly: it has drawn modesty from patience.
non inflatur, non proteruit: non enim ad patientiam pertinet.
It is not puffed up, it does not behave itself arrogantly: for these do not belong to patience.
nec sua requirit: suffert ** sua, dum alteri prosit.
Nor does it seek its own: it suffers its own, so long as it may profit another.
nec incitatur: ceterum quid impatientiae reliquisset? ideo, inquit. dilectio omnia sustinet, omnia. tolerat, utique quia patiens.
Nor is it provoked: otherwise what would it have left to impatience? Therefore, he says, love sustains all things, tolerates all things, certainly because it is patient.
merito ergo numquam excidet.
Deservedly, therefore, it will never fall away.
nam cetera euacuabuntur consummabuntur exhaurientur: linguae scientiae prophetiae, permanent autem fides spes dilectio: fides, quam Christi patientia induxit, spes, quam hominis patientia expectat, dilectio, quam deo magistro patientia comitatur.
For other things will be cleared away, consumed, and exhausted: tongues, knowledge, prophecies; but there remain faith, hope, love: faith, which the patience of Christ introduced; hope, which the patience of man awaits; love, which patience accompanies with God as teacher.
§13Usque huc de patientia tantum simplici et uniformi et tantum in animo constituta, cum eandem etiam in corpore demerendo domino multipliciter adlaboremus, utpote quae ab ipso domino in corporis quoque uirtute edita est, siquidem rector animus facile communicat spiritus inuecta cum habitaculo suo.
Up to this point we have spoken only of patience that is simple and uniform and established only in the mind, whereas we also labor in many ways for the same in the body to deserve well of the Lord, as that which was exhibited by the Lord Himself in the virtue of the body as well, since the ruling mind easily communicates the inputs of the spirit to its habitation.
quae igitur negotiatio patientiae in corpore? inprimis adflictatio carnis, hostia domino placatoria per humiliationis sacrificium, cum sordes cum angustia uictus domino libat, contenta simplici pabulo puroque aquae potu, cum ieiunia coniungit, cum cineri et sacco inolescit.
What, then, is the operation of patience in the body? First of all, the affliction of the flesh, a placatory victim to the Lord through the sacrifice of humiliation, when it offers filth and scarcity of food to the Lord, content with simple nourishment and the pure drink of water, when it joins fastings, when it grows familiar with ashes and sackcloth.
haec patientia corporis precationes commendat, deprecationes adfirmat; haec aures Christi (et) dei aperit, seueritatem dispergit. clementiam elicit.
This patience of the body commends prayers, strengthens supplications; this opens the ears of Christ and of God, disperses severity, elicits clemency.
sic ille rex Babylonius offenso domino cum squalore et paedore septenni ab humana forma exulasset, immolata patientia corporis sui et regnum recuperauit et. quod optabilius homini est, satis deo fecit.
Thus that Babylonian king, having offended the Lord, when he had been exiled from human form in filth and dirt for seven years, by the immolation of the patience of his body both recovered his kingdom and, what is more desirable to man, made satisfaction to God.
iam si altiores et feliciores gradus corporalis patientiae digeramus, eadem sanctitati quoque praecurat continentiam carnis: haec et uiduam tenet et uirginem adsignat et uoluntarium spadonem ad regna caeli leuat.
Now if we arrange the higher and happier degrees of bodily patience, the same also prepares for holiness the continence of the flesh: this both holds the widow and assigns the virgin and lifts the voluntary eunuch to the kingdoms of heaven.
quod de uirtute animi uenit in carne perficitur.
What comes from the virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh.
carnis patientia in persecutionibus denique proeliatur.
Finally, the patience of the flesh fights in persecutions.
si fuga urgeat, incommoda fugae caro militat.
If flight presses, the flesh campaigns against the inconveniences of flight.
si et carcer praeueniat, caro in uinculis, caro in ligno, caro in solo; illa et in paupertate lucis, illa et in penuria mundi.
If prison also forestalls, the flesh is in chains, the flesh on the wooden block, the flesh on the ground; it is both in the poverty of light and in the penury of the world.
cum uero producitur ad experimentum felicitatis, ad occasionem secundae intinctionis, ad ipsum diuinae sedis ascensum, nulla plus illic quam patientia corporis.
But when it is produced to the test of happiness, to the occasion of the second baptism, to the very ascent of the divine throne, nothing there is of more avail than the patience of the body.
si spiritus promptus, sed caro infirma, ubi salus spiritus sine patientia et carnis ipsius? at cum hoc dominus de carne dicit, infirmam pronuntians, quid ei firmandae opus sit, ostendit, patientia scilicet aduersus omnem subuertendae fidei uel puniendae paraturam, ut uerbera, ut ignem, ut crucem bestias gladium constantissime toleret, quae prophetae, quae apostoli sustinendo uicerunt. .
If the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, where is the salvation of the spirit without the patience of the flesh itself? But when the Lord says this of the flesh, pronouncing it weak, He shows what is necessary to strengthen it, namely, patience against every preparation for subverting or punishing faith, so that it may most constantly tolerate scourges, fire, the cross, beasts, and the sword, which the prophets and the apostles conquered by sustaining.