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SUFFERING
What is equal to being scourged
for Christ's sake, and holding converse with God, and being more than a
match for all things, and gaining the better of those who cast us out, being
unconquered by the whole world, and then the expectation of attaining hence
to such good things as "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; neither have
entered into the heart of man?"
And what is equal to suffering
for godliness sake and receiving from God consolations infinite, and being
rescued from sins so great and many, and counted worthy of the Spirit, and
of being justified and sanctified, and regarding no man with fear and
trembling, and in peril itself outshining all?
So then grieve not when thou are
in affliction; but like as a little spark, if thou cast it into a mighty
deep, thou presently puttest it out, so doth even a total and
excessive sorrow, if it lights on a good conscience, easily dies away and
disappears.
St. John Chrysostom
(10-30-04)
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