Chapter VII.—The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts.

Now, however, while we run through the causes of impatience, all the other precepts also will answer in their own places. If our spirit is aroused by the loss of property, it is commonished by the Lord’s Scriptures, in almost every place, to a contemning of the world;71    Sæculo. nor is there any more powerful exhortation to contempt of money submitted72    Subjacet. (to us), than (the fact) the Lord Himself is found amid no riches. He always justifies the poor, fore-condemns the rich. So He fore-ministered to patience “loss,” and to opulence “contempt” (as portion);73    This appears to be the sense of this very difficult passage as Oehler reads it; and of Fr. Junius’ interpretation of it, which Oehler approves. demonstrating, by means of (His own) repudiation of riches, that hurts done to them also are not to be much regarded. Of that, therefore, which we have not the smallest need to seek after, because the Lord did not seek after it either, we ought to endure without heart-sickness the cutting down or taking away.  “Covetousness,” the Spirit of the Lord has through the apostle pronounced “a root of all evils.”74    1 Tim. vi. 10. See de Idol. xi. ad init. Let us not interpret that covetousness as consisting merely in the concupiscence of what is another’s: for even what seems ours is another’s; for nothing is ours, since all things are God’s, whose are we also ourselves. And so, if, when suffering from a loss, we feel impatiently, grieving for what is lost from what is not our own, we shall be detected as bordering on covetousness:  we seek what is another’s when we ill brook losing what is another’s. He who is greatly stirred with impatience of a loss, does, by giving things earthly the precedence over things heavenly, sin directly75    De proximo. See above, c. v. Deo de proximo amicus, “a most intimate friend to God.” against God; for the Spirit, which he has received from the Lord, he greatly shocks for the sake of a worldly matter. Willingly, therefore, let us lose things earthly, let us keep things heavenly. Perish the whole world,76    Sæculum. so I may make patience my gain! In truth, I know not whether he who has not made up his mind to endure with constancy the loss of somewhat of his, either by theft, or else by force, or else even by carelessness, would himself readily or heartily lay hand on his own property in the cause of almsgiving:  for who that endures not at all to be cut by another, himself draws the sword on his own body? Patience in losses is an exercise in bestowing and communicating. Who fears not to lose, finds it not irksome to give. Else how will one, when he has two coats, give the one of them to the naked,77    Luke iii. 11. unless he be a man likewise to offer to one who takes away his coat his cloak as well?78    Matt. v. 40; Luke vi. 29. How shall we fashion to us friends from mammon,79    Luke xvi. 9. if we love it so much as not to put up with its loss? We shall perish together with the lost mammon.  Why do we find here, where it is our business to lose?80    “Alluding to Christ’s words in Matt. x. 39” (Rigalt. quoted by Oehler). To exhibit impatience at all losses is the Gentiles’ business, who give money the precedence perhaps over their soul; for so they do, when, in their cupidities of lucre, they encounter the gainful perils of commerce on the sea; when, for money’s sake, even in the forum, there is nothing which damnation (itself) would fear which they hesitate to essay; when they hire themselves for sport and the camp; when, after the manner of wild beasts, they play the bandit along the highway. But us, according to the diversity by which we are distinguished from them, it becomes to lay down not our soul for money, but money for our soul, whether spontaneously in bestowing or patiently in losing.

CAPUT VII.

Jam vero, percurrentibus nobis caussas impatientiae, caetera quoque praecepta suis locis respondebunt. Si detrimento rei familiaris animus concitatur, omni pene in loco de contemnendo saeculo, Scripturis dominicis commonetur: nec major ad pecuniae contemptum exhortatio subjacet, quam quod ipse Dominus in nullis divitiis invenitur. Semper pauperes justificat, divites praedamnat . Ita detrimentum patientiae fastidium opulentiae praeministravit, demonstrans 1260C per abjectionem divitiarum, laesuras quoque 1261A eorum computandas non esse. Quod ergo nobis appetere minime opus est quia nec Dominus appetivit, detruncatum vel etiam ademptum non aegre sustinere debemus. Cupiditatem omnium malorum radicem Spiritus Domini per Apostolum pronuntiavit (I Tim. VI, X). Eam non in concupiscentia alieni tantum constitutam interpretemur; nam et quod nostrum videtur, alienum est: nihil enim nostrum, quoniam Dei omnia, cujus ipsi quoque nos. Itaque si damno affecti impatienter senserimus , non de nostro amissum dolentes, affines cupiditatis deprehendemur. Alienum quaerimus, cum alienum amissum aegre sustinemus. Qui damni impatientia concitatur, terrena coelestibus anteponendo, de proximo in Deum peccat. Spiritum enim quem a Domino 1261B sumpsit, saecularis rei gratia concutit. Libenter igitur terrena amittamus, coelestia tueamur. Totum licet saeculum pereat, dum patientiam lucrifaciam. Jam qui minutum sibi aliquid aut furto, aut vi, aut etiam ignavia, non constanter sustinere constituit, nescio an facile, vel ex animo, ipse rei suae manum inferre posset in caussa eleemosynae. Quis enim ab alio secari omnino non sustinens, ipse ferrum in corpore suo ducit? Patientia in detrimentis, exercitatio est largiendi et communicandi. Non piget donare eum, qui non timent perdere. Alioquin quomodo duas habens tunicas, alteram earum nudo dabit, nisi idem sit, qui auferenti tunicam, etiam pallium offerre possit (Matth., V)? Quomodo amicos de mammona 1261C fabricabimus nobis (Luc., XVI), si eum in tantum amaverimus, ut amissum non sufferamus? Peribimus cum perdito. Quid hic invenimus, ubi habemus amittere ? Gentilium est, omnibus detrimentis impatientiam adhibere, qui rem pecuniariam fortasse animae anteponant. Nam et faciunt, cum lucri 1262A cupiditatibus quaestuosa pericula mercimoniorum in mari exercent; cum pecuniae caussa etiam in foro nihil damnationi timendum aggredi dubitant; cum denique ludo et castris sese locant , cum per viam in mores bestiarum latrocinantur. Nos vero secundum diversitatem, qua cum illis sumus, non animam pro pecunia, sed pecuniam pro anima deponere convenit, seu sponte in largiendo, seu patientes in amittendo.