Violent sicknesses either pass quickly or they carry us to the grave; slow
maladies drag wearily on and exercise the patience of the sufferers, nor
less that of those who tend them.
Our Blessed Father says on the subject: "Long sicknesses are good schools
of mercy for those who wait upon the sick and of loving patience for those
who suffer.
"They who wait upon the sick are at the foot of the Cross with our Lady and
St. John, whose compassion they imitate; the sick man himself is on the
Cross with our Saviour, Whose Passion he imitates.
"But how can we imitate either this compassion or this Passion if we do
not suffer from the motive of the love of God? For the Blessed Virgin and
St. John, the beloved Disciple, were moved by a compassion as much more
sorrowful than ours, as their love for the Crucified, their own dearest
Lord, was greater than ours can be. It was at the foot of the Cross that
the sword of grief pierced Mary's soul, and it was there that the beloved
disciple drank that chalice of bitterness, which, after permitting him to
share the glories of Thabor, the Saviour predicted should be his."
The whole life of a true Christian is one long period of suffering. Those
who endure not with Jesus Christ, are not fit to reign with Him. "O soul
in grace," says our Blessed Father, "thou art not yet the spouse of Jesus
glorified, but of Jesus crucified. This is why the rings, necklaces, and
other ornaments which He gives you, and with which He is pleased to adorn
you, are crosses, nails, and thorns; and the marriage feast He sets before
you gall, hyssop, and vinegar. It is in Heaven we shall possess the rubies,
diamonds, and emeralds, the wine, the manna, and the honey." The world is a
vast quarry in which are hewn out and shaped those living stones which are
to build up the heavenly Jerusalem, as the Church sings:
_Tunsionibus, pressuris,
Expoliti lapides
Suis cooptantur locis,
Per manus Artificis:
Disponuntur permansuri
Sacris ædificiis._[1]
Thou too, O Church, which here we see,
No easy task hath builded thee.
Long did the chisels ring around!
Long did the mallet's blows rebound!
Long worked the head, and toiled the hand!
Ere stood thy stones as now they stand.
[Footnote 1: Office of the Dedication of a Church.]