On the Good of Patience

Contents

Reading pages: 1–23 · 24

1. 1Cyprian opens by noting that even listening requires patience, and that nothing in the Christian life is more useful or glorious than patience.
2. 2The philosophers' patience is as false as their wisdom, for they know neither the wisdom nor the patience of God and are proud rather than humble.
3. 3Christians are philosophers in deeds, not words; patience comes from God, and as his servants and children they should imitate it.
4. 4God shows patience by giving his gifts to good and bad alike and delaying judgment so that sinners may repent.
5. 5Christ taught his followers to love their enemies so as to be perfect like the Father; patience restores in us the divine likeness Adam lost.
6. 6Christ taught patience by his whole life: his incarnation, baptism, fasting, temptation, washing his disciples' feet, and bearing with Judas and his opponents.
7. 7In his passion Christ patiently bore spitting, scourging, thorns, blows, stripping, gall and vinegar, false witness, and death, silent to the end.
8. 8Christ receives even his murderers and persecutors if they repent; without such patience the church would not have had Paul.
9. 9Christians must walk as Christ walked, following his example of patient suffering, as John and Peter teach.
10. 10Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David all showed patience, and the prophets and martyrs won their crowns by it.
11. 11God's sentence on Adam, that he would toil in sorrow until he returned to the earth, binds all people and shows why patience is necessary.
12. 12Life begins with tears and is full of labor; Christians, facing temptations and persecutions, need patience even more than others.
13. 13Christ requires endurance to the end; since we hope for what is unseen, patience is needed to persevere in good works until we receive the crown.
14. 14Patience guards against the deadly sins of adultery, fraud, and murder, keeping the body, God's temple, and the hand that has held the Eucharist pure.
15. 15Love, the greatest virtue and the bond of unity, cannot last without patience, as Paul shows in describing love as enduring all things.
16. 16Christ's commands to forgive, love enemies, and turn the other cheek require patience, as Stephen showed; patience keeps anger and discord out of the Christian heart.
17. 17Since the Fall brought bodily weakness and death, patience is needed in sickness and loss; it is what distinguishes the righteous from the unrighteous.
18. 18Job lost property, children, and health, and was tempted by his wife, yet blessed God in patience; Tobit likewise bore his blindness patiently.
19. 19Impatience is the devil's evil: it caused his fall, Adam's sin, Cain's murder, Esau's loss, Israel's idolatry, and the rise of heresies.
20. 20Patience underlies every virtue: it restrains anger and lust, keeps virgins, widows, and married people faithful, forgives, and endures persecution and martyrdom.
21. 21Christians should not seek quick revenge on persecutors but wait for God's day of vengeance, as even the martyrs in the Apocalypse are told to wait.
22. 22Malachi, the Psalms, and Isaiah foretell the day when God will come as judge in fire to avenge the righteous.
23. 23The one who kept silent is Christ, silent in his passion as the prophets foretold, who will not be silent when he comes again in power.
24. 24Christ, worshiped in heaven, is not yet avenged on earth; Christians should imitate his patience, await his coming, and keep his commands.