Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter XVI

Of the Conformity We Are to Have to the Will of Giod in Time of Sickness

As health is a gift of God, so is sickness also; and God sends it us to try and correct us—to make us sensible of our weak- “ness—to disabuse us of our high notions—to detach us from the love of terrene things, and the pleasures of our senses— to check the impetuosity and diminish the strength of our greatest enemy, our own flesh; to put us in mind that we are here in a place of exile, and that heaven is our real country; and in fine, to procure to us all the advantages which flow therefrom, when it is received as a present from his hand. ‘A grievous sickness maketh the soul sober.” (Ecclesiasticus 31:2) And hence an ancient father of the desert said to one of his disciples, who was sick: My son, be not troubled at this sickness; on the contrary give God thanks: for it is a fire which purges all your rust, if you are iron; and purifies you, if you are gold. It is a sign of great piety and perfect virtue, to thank God for all the infirmities he pleases to send us.

We read in the Life of St. Clare, that for the space of twenty-eight years she was a martyr to several grievous infirmities; and instead of murmuring or making her complaints, she constantly gave God thanks. But in her last sickness in particular, her pains were so acute, that she could take nothing; and her confessor endeavouring to comfort and exhort her to bear this long martyrdom with patience; she said, that since by means of the great St. Francis, she had come to know the grace of Jesus Christ her Saviour, she found no difficulty in her infirmities, nothing insupportable in her sufferings, nothing hard or painful in the practice of penance. The life of St. Lidwina is also a most wonderful example in this respect, and well calculated for the comfort and encouragement of persons in their sickness. This holy virgin lay sick for thirty-eight years, in unspeakable pain and torture; she was bed-ridden for thirty, without being able, all this time, to set her foot upon the ground. And she supported all these afflictions with that patience and humility, as to merit thereby that God should shew her daily some notable sign of his favour and kindness.

But because, in these trials, there occur to the mind some particular reasons, which, under pretence and appearance of good, impede our entire resignation to the divine will; we will endeavour to give a full and satisfactory answer to all. First, one will say, inasmuch as it regards myself, I should be wholly indifferent whether I were visited with sickness, or enjoyed my health; but what troubles me most is, that I feel myself a burden to religion, and a charge to the house. To this I answer, that you hereby tax the superiors with want of charity and of submission to the will of God; that you ought to believe that they endeavour, as well as you, to conform themselves to his will, and to accept all things as coming from his hand; and consequently, if it be his pleasure to employ them for some space of time in providing for your necessities, and taking care of you, it is but what he requires of them. And as you bear patiently the crosses and afflictions he sends you; so they will accept the share and part assigned them.

But I see clearly, you will say, the great charity and tenderness of the society; yet I feel uneasy, when I consider, that if God gave me health, I could improve myself—I could preach— I could teach or employ my time in the direction of souls; and all this while I must lie in bed, and be prevented by sickness. _ St. Austin solves this very satisfactorily. We do not know, says he, whether it is expedient or not to obtain what we desire. Let us therefore think on this, in all the designs we frame to ourselves; and then, if they succeed, we may rejoice; not because we have attained what we desired, but what has been the will of God. But if, on the contrary, our designs succeed not to our expectation, we are not therefore to afflict ourselves, and lose our peace of mind. ‘‘For it is more reasonable we comply with, and.accommodate ourselves to the will of God, than that he accommodate himself to ours.” In fine, as this great saint concludes, “no one can ever be better regulated in his actions, than he who is more disposed, not to perform what the divine power forbids, than he is to do what human reason urges him to project.” We must therefore have such an indifference of mind to whatsoever we take in hand, that, supposing it pleases not God to bring it to the end we propose to ourselves, we remain always ready and prepared to exercise an entire conformity to his holy will. So that if sickness or anything else prevents us from executing our resolutions, we are not therefore to trouble or disquiet our thoughts; how profitable soever, and conducive this our design might have been to the service of God, and the good of souls. Father Avila, writing to a certain priest that lay sick, advised him not to consider what he would do were he in good health, but how acceptable he would be to God in taking his sickness patiently. And provided you seek only the will of God, as I question not but you do, what matter is it whether you are sick or well, since this divine will, whence springs all our good, is equally accomplished?

St. Chrysostom affirms, that Job merited more by these words: “As it pleased our Lord, so it has happened: blessed be the name of our Lord” (Job 1:21); and by his submission to the divine will in his afflictions and sufferings, than by all the actions he performed in his health and prosperity. You will merit also more, and become more pleasing to God, by conforming yourself wholly to his will in time of sickness, than in all you can do in perfect health. St. Bonaventure is of the same opinion. ‘‘ There is more perfection,” says he, “in supporting adversities with patience, then in seriously applying ourselves to good works.” For God stands not in need of you or me to produce in his Church the fruit he desires. ‘I have said to our Lord, you are my God, since you stand not in need of whatI have.’ (Psalms 15:1) It is he who preaches to you at present by means of sickness, and who teaches you patience and submission. Let him go on without interruption; he knows what is expedient for you, and you are ignorant of it yourself. Were we to desire health upon any account, it would be to employ it in serving and pleasing bim; but if he is better pleased that I be sick, and if I please him more, by my suffering patiently all the pains of a troublesome disease, his holy will be done. It is what is more for my profit and advantage, and what may be most expedient forme. God permitted the apostle of nations, St. Paul, to lie in prison two whole years, at a time wherein the primitive Church had so great a need of persons to preach the gospel. Do not look upon it much if God detains you as it were in prison, by a sickness of two months or two years, or even of your whole life, if it be his pleasure; since you are not so necessary to his Church as this great apostle was.

There are also some others, whose constant infirmity prevents them from being regular to the community hour, and forces them to singularity of conduct on many occasions. These persons feel quite distressed and mortified; for they fancy, that not discharging the requisite duties, they either are not true religious, or that their singularities are, at least, disedifying. And this chiefly, if their sickness is not considerable externally— if it is known only to God, while every one sees them dispensed with in their rules. To this I answer, that their sentiments are very just and laudable; yet, nevertheless, they are to take care that none of these considerations any way diminish the conformity they ought to have to the divine will in their afflictions. On the contrary, they ought hence to take an occasion of increasing their merit, whether it be by an absolute resignation of themselves to God, in all the dispositions he is pleased to send them; whether it be that of an ardent desire of being able to perform with exactness and punctuality all the exercises of religion, or that of feeling in themselves an extreme sorrow at not being able to be present as others are. In this manner, besides the merit they have on one hand in supporting their infirmity with patience and resignation; they merit on the other as much, if not more, than those who are in health, and live in the regular observance of all their rules.

St. Austin, preaching on the obligation all Christians have of fasting during the time of Lent, and coming to speak of those who by reason of indisposition where exempted from this duty, says of them, that since they are not able to fast, it is sufficient they sigh and lament in their hearts to see others fast, and themselves at the same time constrained to eat. A courageous and valiant soldier being carried off wounded in the engagement, is more concerned that he cannot fight and distinguish himself in the service of his prince in the battle, than that he suffers the pain of his wounds, and is to undergo the operations of the chirurgeon. This ought to be the case of a true and perfect religious, when, by sickness, he is hindered from performing the exercises and rules of the order andcommunity. This hindrance ought to bea more sensible affliction to him, than the distemper. But after all, neither this impediment, nor anything else, should ever hinder us from maintaining an entire conformity in our hearts to the divine will, during our sickness; but on the contrary, we are to receive it as coming from his hand, as sent us for his greater glory and our greater profit and advantage.

St. Jerom relates that holy Abbot John’the Egyptian was once very much importuned by a certain religious, to cure him of a fever wherewith he was afflicted. “You desire,” said the abbot, “to be freed from a thing which is very necessary for you. For as the body is cleansed from sweat and noisome evaporations, by soap, and other such detersive ointments; so is the soul purified, and cleansed from all its defects, by corporal infirmities and afflictions.

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