As I am about to speak of patience, dearly beloved brethren, and to proclaim its benefits and advantages, where could I better begin than from this: that even now I see patience to be necessary for your hearing, so that you cannot even do this very thing, namely hear and learn what you hear, without patience? For only then is a saving discourse and reasoning effectually learned, if what is said be heard patiently. Nor do I find, dearly beloved brethren, among the other ways of heavenly discipline by which the course of our hope and faith is divinely directed toward gaining the rewards, anything more profitable for life or greater for glory than that we, who lean upon the Lord's precepts in the obedience of fear and devotion, should above all guard patience with our whole observance.
This too the philosophers profess to pursue; but there the patience is as false as their wisdom also is false. For whence could he be either wise or patient who knows neither the wisdom nor the patience of God? Since God himself warns concerning those who seem to themselves to be wise in the world, and says: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject'; and likewise the blessed apostle Paul, full of the Holy Spirit and sent to call and form the nations, testifies and instructs, saying: 'See that no one despoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.' And in another place he says, 'Let no one deceive himself.'
'If any among you thinks himself to be wise, let him become a fool to this world, that he may become wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: He catches the wise in their own craftiness. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.' Therefore, if true wisdom is not there, true patience also cannot be there. For if he is patient who is humble and meek, but we see the philosophers to be neither humble nor meek, but greatly pleased with themselves, and by this very thing, that they please themselves, displeasing to God, it is evident that there is no patience where there is the insolent boldness of an affected liberty, and the shameless boasting of a bared and half-naked breast.
But we, dearly beloved brethren, who are philosophers not in words but in deeds, and who display wisdom not by our garb but by truth, who know the consciousness of virtues rather than their boasting, who do not speak great things but live them, let us, as servants and worshippers of God, show forth in spiritual obediences the patience which we learn from heavenly teachings. For this virtue is common to us with God. From thence patience takes its beginning; thence its brightness and dignity take their source. The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God as its author. A thing dear to God is to be cherished by man; the good which it loves the divine majesty commends.
If the Lord and Father is God to us, let us imitate the patience of the Lord and likewise of the Father, since it behooves servants to be obedient, and it does not befit sons to be degenerate. But how great and how vast is the patience in God, who, enduring most patiently the profane temples and earthly images and sacrilegious rites established by men to the insult of his majesty and honor, makes the day to dawn and the light of the sun to rise equally upon the good and the evil; and when he waters the earth with rains, no one is excluded from his benefits, so that he bestows undistinguished showers upon the just alike and the unjust.
We see, with the inseparable equanimity of his patience, that to the harmful and the harmless, to the religious and the impious, to the thankful and the thankless, at God's nod the seasons render obedience, the elements serve, the winds blow, the springs flow, the abundance of the harvests grows great, the fruits of the vineyards ripen, the orchards teem with apples, the groves grow leafy, the meadows blossom.
And although God is provoked by frequent, nay continual offenses, he tempers his indignation and patiently awaits the once-appointed day of retribution; and though he has vengeance in his power, he prefers long to maintain his patience, bearing with mercy, that is, and forbearing, so that, if it can be, the long-protracted malice may at length be changed, and man, wallowing in the contagion of errors and crimes, may even late be converted to God, as God himself warns and says: 'I will not the death of the dying, so much as that he should return and live.' And again: 'Return ye to me, says the Lord.' And again: 'Return ye to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and kind and patient and of great compassion, and one who bends his sentence against the malice that has been inflicted.'
This the blessed apostle Paul, recalling and recalling the sinner to repentance, sets forth and says: 'Or dost thou despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the patience and goodness of God leads thee to repentance? But thou, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.' He said that the judgment of God is just because it is delayed, because it is long and much deferred, so that by God's long patience provision may be made for man unto life. Then is punishment displayed to the impious and the sinner, when repentance can no longer profit for sin.
And that we may more fully understand, dearly beloved brethren, that patience is a thing of God, and that whoever is gentle and patient and meek is an imitator of God the Father, when in his Gospel the Lord was giving precepts unto salvation, and, bringing forth divine admonitions, was training his disciples unto perfection, he set it down and said: 'You have heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans so?'
'And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more? Do not even the heathen do the same? Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.' Thus he said that the sons of God are made perfect; thus he showed and taught that they are consummated, being restored by heavenly birth, if the patience of God the Father abides in us, if the divine likeness which Adam had lost by sin is made manifest and shines in our actions. What glory it is to become like to God! What and how great a felicity to have among one's virtues that which can be matched with divine praises! Nor did Jesus Christ, dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and God, teach this by words alone, but he fulfilled it also by deeds.
And he who had said that he had come down to this end, that he might do the will of the Father, among the other marvels of his powers by which he expressed the tokens of divine majesty, kept also the Father's patience by an unbroken endurance. In short, his every act, from the very moment of his coming, is marked with patience as its companion: that, first of all, descending from that heavenly sublimity to earthly things, the Son of God did not disdain to put on the flesh of man, and, though he himself was not a sinner, to bear the sins of others. Laying aside meanwhile his immortality, he suffered himself to be made mortal, that the innocent might be slain for the salvation of the guilty. The Lord is baptized by a servant, and he who was to give the remission of sins did not himself disdain to wash his body in the laver of regeneration.
He fasts forty days, through whom others are fed; he hungers and felt hunger, that those who had been in famine of the word and of grace might be filled with heavenly bread. He engages with the tempting devil, and, content only to have conquered the enemy, attempts nothing beyond words. He presided over his disciples not as a lord by lordly power, but, kind and meek, he loved them with brotherly charity; he deigned even to wash the feet of the apostles, that while the Lord is such toward his servants, he might by his own example teach what a fellow-servant ought to be toward his peers and equals.
Nor is it to be wondered at that he showed himself such toward the obedient, who could with long patience endure Judas even to the very end, take food with an enemy, know a domestic foe and not openly disclose him, and not refuse the betrayer's kiss. But in bearing with the Jews, how great his equanimity, and with how great patience to bend the unbelieving toward faith by persuading, to cherish the thankless with kindness, to answer gently those who gainsaid, to bear with the proud clemently, to yield humbly to those who persecuted, to be willing—even to the hour of the cross and the passion—to gather together the slayers of the prophets and those forever rebellious against God!
But under the passion itself and the cross, before it came to the cruelty of slaying and the shedding of blood, what reproaches of revilings were patiently heard, what mockeries of insults endured! So that he received the spittle of those who reviled him, who a little before had with his own spittle formed the eyes of the blind; and that he, in whose name the devil with his angels is now scourged by his servants, should himself suffer scourgings; that he should be crowned with thorns, who crowns the martyrs with eternal flowers; that he should be struck on the face with palms, who grants the true palms to those who conquer; that he should be stripped of his earthly garment, who clothes others with the raiment of immortality; that he should be fed with gall, who gave the heavenly food; that he should be given vinegar to drink, who proffered the cup of salvation.
He, the innocent one, he the just one—nay, innocence itself and justice itself—is reckoned among malefactors, and truth is borne down by false testimonies; he who is to judge is judged, and the Word of God is led silent to the cross. And though at the Lord's cross the stars are confounded, the elements are troubled, the earth trembles, night closes the day, the sun withdraws both its rays and its eyes lest it be compelled to look upon the crime of the Jews—he speaks not, nor is he moved, nor even under the passion itself does he profess his majesty: all things are borne perseveringly and continually to the end, that in Christ patience full and perfect might be consummated.
And after these things he still receives his very slayers, if they turn and come to him; and with saving patience, being kindly toward the preserving of his Church, he shuts out no one. Those adversaries, those blasphemers, those forever enemies of his name, if they do penance for their offense, if they acknowledge the crime committed, he admits not only to indulgence for the crime but to the reward of the heavenly kingdom. What can be said more patient, what more kind? He is quickened by the blood of Christ who even shed the blood of Christ. Such and so great is the patience of Christ: which, had it not been such and so great, the Church would not have the apostle Paul either.
But if we also, dearly beloved brethren, are in Christ, if we have put him on, if he is the way of our salvation, let us who follow Christ in his saving footsteps walk by the examples of Christ, as the apostle John instructs, saying: 'He who says that he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk just as he walked.' Likewise Peter, upon whom the Church of the Lord was by his condescension founded, sets it down in his epistle and says: 'Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his footsteps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not, but delivered himself up to him who judged unjustly.'
We find, in short, that the patriarchs and prophets and all the just, who bore the figure of Christ with an image going before, kept nothing more carefully unto the praise of their virtues than that they held patience with strong and steadfast equanimity. Thus Abel, beginning and consecrating the origin of martyrdom and the passion of the just man, first does not resist nor struggle against his parricidal brother, but, humble and meek, is patiently slain. Thus Abraham, believing God and first establishing the root and foundation of faith, when tempted in his son, does not doubt nor delay, but with all the patience of devotion obeys the precepts of God. And Isaac, prefigured to the likeness of the Lord's sacrifice, when he is offered by his father to be immolated, is found patient.
And Jacob, put to flight by his brother, patiently departs from his own land, and with even greater patience afterward, as a suppliant, brings back to concord by peaceful gifts the one yet more impious and a persecutor. Joseph, sold by his brethren and banished, not only patiently forgives, but even bountifully and clemently bestows free grain upon them when they come. Moses is frequently despised by an ungrateful and faithless people, and is almost stoned, and yet, gentle and patient, he entreats the Lord on their behalf.
But in David, from whom according to the flesh the birth of Christ arises, how great and wondrous and Christian a patience he had, who often had it in his power to slay Saul, the king who persecuted him and longed to kill him, and yet chose rather to preserve him, subdued and delivered into his hands, and did not repay the enemy in kind, but, when he had at last been slain, even avenged him besides! So many prophets, in short, were slain, so many martyrs honored with glorious deaths, who all came to the heavenly crowns by the praise of patience. For neither can the crown of sufferings and passions be received, unless patience go before in the suffering and the passion.
But how useful and necessary patience is, dearly beloved brethren—that it may be more manifestly and fully known—let us consider the sentence of God which Adam, unmindful of the precept and a transgressor of the law given, received at the very origin of the world and of the human race. Then shall we know how patient we ought to be in this world, who are so born that we labor here amid pressures and conflicts. 'Because,' he says, 'thou hast heard the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of that tree, of which alone I had charged thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed shall the earth be in all thy works; in sorrow and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbage of the field.'
'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, until thou return into the earth from which thou wast taken; for earth thou art, and into the earth shalt thou go.' By the bond of this sentence we are all tied and bound, until, death being discharged, we depart from this world. Of necessity must we be in sorrow and groaning all the days of our life; of necessity must we eat our bread with sweat and toil. Hence each one, when he is born and received into the hospitality of this world, takes his beginning from tears; and although as yet ignorant and unknowing of all things, he knows nothing else in that very first birth than to weep.
By a natural providence it laments the anxieties and labors and storms of mortal life, which it enters; and the raw soul at the very outset bears witness by its weeping and groaning. For sweat is shed as long as one lives here, and there is toil; nor can any other solaces better come to the aid of those who sweat and toil than those of patience.
And while these are fitting and necessary in this world for all men, so much the more are they for us, who are the more shaken by the assaulting devil, who, standing daily in the battle-line, are wearied by the struggles of an inveterate and practiced foe; for whom, besides the various and continual battles of temptations, in the contest of persecutions also patrimonies must be relinquished, prison must be undergone, chains must be borne, lives must be laid down, the sword, the beasts, the fires, the crosses—in short, all kinds of torments and punishments must be endured by the faith and virtue of patience, the Lord himself instructing and saying: 'These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace; but in the world tribulation. Yet be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.'
But if we who have renounced the devil and the world suffer the pressures and assaults of the devil and the world the more frequently and violently, how much the more ought we to hold to patience, by whose help and companionship we may endure all hostile things! It is the saving precept of our Lord and Master: 'He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved.' And again: 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.' We must endure and persevere, dearly beloved brethren, that, being admitted to the hope of truth and freedom, we may be able to attain to the very truth and freedom; for this very thing, that we are Christians, is a matter of faith and hope.
But that hope and faith may be able to arrive at their fruit, patience is needful. For we do not pursue a present glory but a future one, according to what Paul the apostle also admonishes, saying: 'By hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience.' Expectation and patience are necessary, that we may fulfill what we have begun to be, and may, with God presenting it, receive what we hope and believe. Finally, in another place the same apostle, instructing the just and those who labor and lay up for themselves heavenly treasures from the increase of the divine interest, that they should be patient also, teaches and says:
'Therefore, while we have time, let us work that which is good toward all, but most of all toward those of the household of faith. And in doing good let us not fail; for in our own time we shall reap.' He admonishes that no one impatient should fail in the work, that no one, either called away or overcome by temptations, should desist in the midst of the journey of praise and glory, and that past things should perish while the things which had begun cease to be perfect; as it is written: 'The righteousness of the just shall not deliver him in whatever day he goes astray.' And again: 'Hold fast what thou hast, lest another receive thy crown.' This voice exhorts to persevere patiently and bravely, that he who strives toward a crown with its praise now close at hand may, his patience enduring, be crowned.
But patience, dearly beloved brethren, not only guards what is good, but also repels what is adverse. Favoring the Holy Spirit and cleaving to heavenly and divine things, it struggles by the bulwark of its virtues against the deeds of the flesh and the body by which the soul is assailed and captured. Let us, in short, consider a few things out of many, that from the few the rest may be understood. Adultery, fraud, homicide are mortal crimes. Let patience be strong and steadfast in the heart, and neither is the body, sanctified and the temple of God, defiled by adultery, nor is the innocence consecrated to righteousness infected by the contagion of fraud, nor is the hand, after it has borne the Eucharist, stained with the sword and with blood.
Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the tenacity and firmness of unity, which is greater than both hope and faith, which goes before both works and martyrdoms, which will remain with us forever, eternal in the kingdoms of heaven. Take patience from it, and, forsaken, it does not last; take away the substance of bearing and enduring, and it perseveres with no roots and no strength. The apostle, in short, when he spoke of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. 'Charity,' he says, 'is magnanimous, charity is kind, charity envies not, is not puffed up, is not provoked, thinks no evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.' Thence he showed that it can tenaciously persevere, in that it has learned to endure all things.
And in another place he says: 'Bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' He proved that neither unity nor peace can be kept, unless the brethren cherish one another with mutual forbearance and guard the bond of concord with patience intervening. What then? That you do not swear nor curse, that you do not seek back what is taken from you, that when you have received a blow you offer the other cheek also to him who strikes you, that you forgive your brother who sins against you not only seventy times seven but absolutely all sins whatever, that you love your enemies, that you make prayer for your adversaries and persecutors—will you be able to bear these things except by the firmness of patience and endurance?
We see this done in Stephen, who, when he was being slain by the Jews with violence and with stones, sought not vengeance for himself but pardon for his slayers, saying: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' Thus it behooved Christ's first martyr to be, who, going before the martyrs that should follow by a glorious death, was not only a preacher of the Lord's passion but also an imitator of his most patient gentleness. What shall I say of anger, of discord, of strife, which ought not to be in a Christian? Let there be patience in the heart, and these can have no place there; or if they attempt to enter, being quickly shut out they depart, that a peaceful dwelling may abide in the heart, where the God of peace delights to dwell. The apostle, in short, admonishes and teaches, saying:
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and indignation and clamor and blasphemy be taken away from you. For if a Christian has departed from rage and carnal strife as from the whirlpools of the sea, and has now begun to be calm and gentle in the harbor of Christ, he ought to admit neither anger nor discord within his breast, since it is not lawful for him to return evil for evil, nor to hate. Moreover, patience is also necessary for the various afflictions of the flesh and the frequent and harsh torments of the body, by which the human race is daily wearied and shaken.
For since in that first transgression of the commandment the firmness of the body departed together with immortality, and with death came infirmity, and firmness cannot be recovered unless immortality also has been received, it is necessary to struggle and contend ever amid this frailty and bodily infirmity; and this struggle and contest can be sustained only by the strength of patience. Now, that we may be tested and tried, diverse pains are brought upon us, and a manifold kind of temptations is laid upon us: through losses of property, through the burnings of fevers, through the torments of wounds, through the loss of those dear to us.
And nothing more distinguishes the unjust and the just than this: that in adversity the unjust man, through impatience, complains and blasphemes, while the just man is proved by his patience, as it is written: In sorrow endure, and in thy humility keep patience; for gold and silver are tried in the fire. Thus Job was examined and proved, and was raised to the highest pinnacle of praise by the virtue of patience. How many darts of the devil were hurled against him, how many torments were applied! The loss of his household goods is inflicted, the bereavement of a numerous offspring is laid upon him: he who was a lord rich in estate and a father yet richer in children, is suddenly neither lord nor father. There is added the devastation of wounds, and the gnawing punishment of worms consumes his wasting and dissolving limbs.
And lest anything at all should remain that Job might not experience in his temptations, the devil arms even his wife, using that ancient cunning of his wickedness, as if he could through woman deceive and beguile all men, as he did in the beginning. Yet Job is not broken by these grievous and crowded conflicts, but rather, amid those straits and pressures, by his conquering patience the blessing of God is proclaimed. Tobias also, after the magnificent works of his righteousness and mercy, being tried by the loss of his sight, in the measure that he patiently bore his blindness, in that same measure greatly merited God's reward by the praise of his patience.
And that the good of patience may shine forth the more, dearly beloved brethren, let us consider what evil, on the contrary, impatience brings in. For as patience is the good of Christ, so on the contrary impatience is the evil of the devil; and as in him in whom Christ dwells and abides Christ is found patient, so he in whose mind the devil's wickedness has taken possession ever shows himself impatient. Let us, in short, look at the very beginnings. The devil bore impatiently that man was made in the image of God: thence he first perished and brought others to ruin.
Adam, impatient of the heavenly commandment concerning the deadly food, fell into death, and did not preserve by the keeping of patience the grace divinely received. And Cain, that he might slay his brother, was impatient of his sacrifice and offering; and Esau, in that he descended from greater things to lesser, lost his birthright through impatience for lentils. As for the Jewish people, faithless and ungrateful toward the divine benefits, was not their departure from God in the first place a crime of impatience?
For while it could not endure the delays of Moses conversing with God, it dared to demand profane gods, that it might call as the leaders of its journey an ox's head and an earthly figment; nor did it ever cease from that same impatience, but, ever impatient of teaching and of the divine governance, by slaying its own prophets and all the just, it rushed forward even to the cross and to the blood of the Lord. Impatience also makes heretics in the Church, and, after the likeness of the Jews, drives the rebellious against the peace and charity of Christ into hostile and frenzied hatreds. And, not to be long in recounting particulars, all things absolutely that patience builds up by its works unto glory, impatience destroys unto ruin.
Wherefore, dearly beloved brethren, having diligently weighed both the goods of patience and the evils of impatience, let us hold fast with full observance that patience by which we abide in Christ and are able to come with Christ to God. This patience, copious and manifold, is not confined within a narrow limit nor restrained by short bounds. Wide reaches the virtue of patience, and its richness and bounty spring indeed from a single fountain of one name, but, by overflowing veins, it is diffused through the many paths of its glories; nor can anything in our deeds profit toward the consummation of praise unless it receive from thence the firmness of its consummation. It is patience that both commends us to God and keeps us for Him.
It is she who tempers anger, who bridles the tongue, who governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the onset of lust, represses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, restrains the power of the rich, refreshes the want of the poor; she guards in virgins their blessed integrity, in widows their laborious chastity, in the wedded and married their undivided charity. She makes men humble in prosperity, brave in adversity, gentle against injuries and insults. She teaches us swiftly to forgive those who offend, and, if you yourself offend, to entreat long and earnestly. She overcomes temptations, endures persecutions, brings sufferings and martyrdoms to their consummation. It is she who firmly fortifies the foundations of our faith.
It is she who loftily advances the increase of hope. She directs our action, that we may be able to hold the way of Christ while we walk through His endurance. She brings it about that we persevere as sons of God, while we imitate the patience of the Father. And since I know, dearly beloved brethren, that very many, whether by the weight of distressing injuries or by grief over those who assail and rage against them, desire to be avenged swiftly, this also must not be left unsaid in the final part: that, set amid these whirlwinds of an unstable world and amid the persecutions of Jews or Gentiles and of heretics also, we should patiently await the day of vengeance, and not hasten with querulous haste to the avenging of our own grief, since it is written:
Wait for me, saith the Lord, in the day of my resurrection, for a testimony; for my judgment is unto the gatherings of the nations, that I may take the kings and pour out upon them my wrath. The Lord bids us wait and sustain with brave patience the day of future vengeance. He also speaks in the Apocalypse, saying: Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is now at hand: and let those who persist in doing harm, do harm; and he who is in filth, let him be filthy still; but let the just do still more just things, and likewise the holy more holy things. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each one according to his deeds.
Whence also the martyrs, crying out and hastening toward their vengeance with grief bursting forth, are bidden still to wait and to show patience until the times are fulfilled and the number of the martyrs is completed. And when he had opened, he says, the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of God the souls of those slain for the word of God and their testimony, and they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And to each of them was given a white robe, and it was said that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow servants and brethren should be completed, who afterward also are to be slain after their example. And He declares when the divine vengeance for the just blood shall come:
the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet Malachi: Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning like an oven, and all the strangers and all the wicked shall be stubble, and the coming day shall set them on fire, saith the Lord. We read the same likewise in the Psalms, where the advent of God the Judge is proclaimed, to be revered in the majesty of His judgment: God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and round about Him a mighty tempest. He shall call the heaven above and the earth, that He may separate His people. Gather unto Him His just ones, who dispose His covenant in sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare His justice, for God is judge. And Isaiah foretells the same, saying:
For behold, the Lord shall come as fire, and as a tempest His chariots, to render vengeance in wrath; for in the fire of the Lord they shall be judged, and by His sword they shall be wounded. And again: The Lord God of hosts shall go forth and shall shatter the war; He shall stir up the conflict and shall cry out against His enemies with might: I have held my peace; shall I always keep silence? But who is this who says that He first held His peace and shall not always keep silence? Surely He who, as a sheep led to the slaughter, and as a lamb without voice before its shearer, opened not His mouth. Surely He who cried not out, nor was His voice heard in the streets.
Surely He who was not stubborn nor contradicted, when He set His back to the scourges and His cheeks to the blows, yet turned not away His face from the foulness of spittings. Surely He who, when He was accused by the priests and elders, answered nothing, and, while Pilate marveled, kept a most patient silence. This is He who, having kept silence in His passion, shall hereafter not keep silence in His vengeance. This is our God, that is, the God not of all but of the faithful and believing, who, when He shall come manifest at His second advent, shall not keep silence. For though He was first hidden in lowliness, He shall come manifest in power.
Let us await Him, dearly beloved brethren, our Judge and Avenger, who will avenge alike the people of His Church and the number of all the just from the beginning of the world together with Himself. Let whoever hastens and presses too eagerly for his own vengeance consider that not even He who avenges has yet been avenged. God the Father commanded His Son to be adored; and the apostle Paul, mindful of the divine precept, sets it down and says: God hath exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal. And in the Apocalypse the angel resists John, who would adore him, and says: See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren: adore the Lord Jesus.
Of what kind is the Lord Jesus, and how great His patience, that He who is adored in heaven is not yet avenged on earth! Let us, dearly beloved brethren, ponder His patience in our persecutions and sufferings. Let us render full and obedient expectation to His advent, and not, as servants, hasten to be vindicated before the Lord with irreverent and immodest haste. Let us rather press on and labor, and, watching with our whole heart and steadfast unto all endurance, keep the commandments of the Lord, so that, when that day of wrath and vengeance shall come, we may not be punished with the impious and the sinners, but be honored with the just and those who fear God.