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Avantages des la patience

VI.

2° Jésus-Christ, mes frères bien-aimés, ne s’est pas contenté de, nous prêcher la patience; il l’a pratiquée toute sa vie. Descendu parmi nous, comme il le dit lui-même, pour faire la volonté de son Père, il a manifesté sa divinité par d’admirables vertus; mais la patience est cel1e qui brille du plus vif éclat; celle qui donne à tous ses actes un caractère divin. Il quitte les splendeurs du Ciel pour habiter la terre, et lui, le fils de Dieu, ne craint pas de revêtir notre humanité. Il est l’innocence même, et il prend sur ses épaules le fardeau de nos iniquités. Il se (361) dépouille de son immortalité, et victime innocente, il subit la mort pour le salut des pécheurs. Maître de l’univers, il est baptisé par un esclave; il ne dédaigne pas de plonger son corps dans les eaux de la pénitence, alors qu’il vient nous apporter le pardon de nos péchés. Il jeûne quarante jours, lui qui nourrit le genre humain. Il souffre la faim, lui qui vient distribuer le pain céleste aux âmes affamées de la parole et de la grâce divine. Il repousse les tentations du démon, et, content de la victoire, il épargne son ennemi. Il fut pour ses disciples non un maître sévère, mais un frère et un ami. Il daigna laver les pieds de ses apôtres, pour nous montrer, par son exemple, nos devoirs envers nos frères. Faut-il s’étonner qu’il ait ainsi traité ses disciples fidèles, lui dont la patience inaltérable supporta jusqu’à la fin le traître Judas, qui mangeait avec lui, qui connaissait ses projets criminels sans les dévoiler, qui souffrit de sa part jusqu’à un baiser?

Avec quelle douceur, avec quelle patience, il supporta les persécutions des Juifs! Il attirait par la persuasion les incrédules à la foi; il touchait les ingrats par ses bienfaits; il répondait avec douceur à la contradiction; il supportait l’orgueil; c’était humblement à la persécution. Jusqu’à la croix, il s’efforça de réunir autour de lui ce peuple qui tuait les prophètes et qui était toujours en révolte contre Dieu.

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On the Advantage of Patience

6.

Nor, beloved brethren, did Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, teach this in words only; but He fulfilled it also in deeds. And because He had said that He had come down for this purpose, that He might do the will of His Father; among the other marvels of His virtues, whereby He showed forth the marks of a divine majesty, He also maintained the patience of His Father in the constancy of His endurance. Finally, all His actions, even from His very advent, are characterized by patience as their associate; in that, first of all, coming down from that heavenly sublimity to earthly things, the Son of God did not scorn to put on the flesh of man, and although He Himself was not a sinner, to bear the sins of others. His immortality being in the meantime laid aside, He suffers Himself to become mortal, so that the guiltless may be put to death for the salvation of the guilty. The Lord is baptized by the servant; and He who is about to bestow remission of sins, does not Himself disdain to wash His body in the laver of regeneration. For forty days He fasts, by whom others are feasted. He is hungry, and suffers famine, that they who had been in hunger of the word and of grace may be satisfied with heavenly bread. He wrestles with the devil tempting Him; and, content only to have overcome the enemy, He strives no farther than by words. He ruled over His disciples not as servants in the power of a master; but, kind and gentle, He loved them with a brotherly love. He deigned even to wash the apostles' feet, that since the Lord is such among His servants, He might teach, by His example, what a fellow-servant ought to be among his peers and equals. Nor is it to be wondered at, that among the obedient ¹ He showed Himself such, since He could bear Judas even to the last with a long patience--could take meat with His enemy--could know the household foe, and not openly point him out, nor refuse the kiss of the traitor. Moreover, in bearing with the Jews, how great equanimity and how great patience, in turning the unbelieving to the faith by persuasion, in soothing the unthankful by concession, in answering gently to the contradictors, in bearing the proud with clemency, in yielding with humility to the persecutors, in wishing to gather together the slayers of the prophets, and those who were always rebellious against God, even to the very hour of His cross and passion!