Love
is the bond of fellowship, the foundation of peace, the link and
strength of unity. It is greater than both faith and hope. It comes
before both good works and martyrdoms, and since it is eternal it will
always remain with us in God's presence in the realms of heaven.
But if you remove patience, love no longer endures. Remove the
substance of endurance and tolerance and it has no roots or strength to
persevere. For this reason the Apostle spoke about love in the same
breath as tolerance and patience.
“Love”,
he says, “is worthy of a great soul, love is kind, love does not envy,
nor is it full of pride, it does not rise in anger or think any evil,
but is content with all things, believes in all things, finds hope in
all things and endures all things”. Thus he shows how it is able to
persevere, since it knows how to endure all things. And in another
place he says: “Sustaining one another in love, striving to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. He showed that neither unity
nor peace can be preserved unless we love one another with mutual
understanding and guard the bond of harmony by the mediation of
patience.
Patience, my dear brothers and sisters, not only preserves what is
good: it repels what is evil. Favorable to the Holy Spirit, and in
harmony with what is celestial and divine, it struggles by its power of
resistance against those actions of the flesh and body by which the
soul is overcome and captured. Let us now consider just a few examples
from many which will serve to illuminate the others. Adultery, deceit,
murder are mortal crimes. Let the heart be strengthened and fortified
by patience, so that neither the sanctified body nor the temple of God
is polluted by adultery. Nor should that innocence which has been
dedicated to righteousness be stained with the contagion of deceit. Nor
should the hand which has taken the Eucharist be besmirched with the
sword and bloodshed.
It is patience and endurance that enables us not to swear or curse,
not to recover things taken from us, to receive a blow and turn our
cheek to our attacker, to forgive a brother who sins against us not
seventy times seven but absolutely all his sins, to love and pray for
our enemies and persecutors. Stephen showed just such patience when he
was stoned by the violence of the Jews, and he sought not revenge for
himself but pardon for his murderers saying: “Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge”. Such was the noble end to the first martyr of Christ
who, in foreshadowing future martyrs in a glorious death, did not only
preach the passion of the Lord, but also imitated his most patient
gentleness.
What should I say of that anger, discord, or hatred, which should not
be present in a Christian? If true patience is in our heart, then
these will not be able to find room within it, or if they attempt to
enter, they will soon be excluded and forced to leave, so that the
heart shall continue to be a place of peace where the God of peace
loves to dwell. The Apostle warns us and teaches us saying: “Do not
grieve the Holy Spirit to whom you were consigned until the day of
redemption. Cast out all your bitterness and anger and indignation and
empty noise and blasphemy”. For if a Christian has escaped from all the
rage and strife of the flesh as from the tempests of the sea, and has
now entered in gentleness and tranquility the port of Christ, then we
should keep our hearts free from all anger and discord, for we must
neither return evil with evil, nor bear hatred to anyone.
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| Christians being fed to lions in the Colosseum of Rome |
Reference:
Cyprian of Carthage(1991).
Born to New Life.