{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.1", "endpoint": "/api/sources/rhineland-mystics/suso/vol-1-37-chapter-xlii.json" }, "work": { "slug": "suso", "name": "Heinrich Suso" }, "parents": [ { "slug": "rhineland-mystics", "name": "Rhineland Mystics", "url": "/sources/rhineland-mystics/" } ], "chapter": { "num": 38, "slug": "vol-1-37-chapter-xlii", "title": "Chapter XLII.", "of": 51, "words": 1214, "text": "## Chapter XLII.\n\nWhat sufferings are the most useful to men, and bring \nmost glory to God 1 \n\nThe holy daughter asked him, saying: — I \nwould gladly know what kind of sufferings are, \nabove all others, most useful to men, and bring \nmost glory to God. He answered as follows : — \nThou must know that there are many kinds of \nsufferings by which a man is disciplined and set \nforward on the road to bliss, if only he can use \nthem rightly. Sometimes God sends heavy \nsufferings on a man without any fault of his, \neither to try how firm he stands, or to show him \nwhat he is in himself, as we often read in the \nOld Testament ; or, again, merely to manifest \nHis own glory, as is related in the Gospel about \nthe man born blind whom Christ the Lord de- \nclared to be without fault, and restored to sight. \n\nOn the other hand, there are some sufferers \nwho well deserve their sufferings, as the thief \ndid who was crucified with Christ the Lord, \n\n\n218 LIFE OF BLESSED HENRY SUSO. \n\nand to whom Christ gave everlasting bliss be- \ncause of his trne conversion to Him amid his suf- \nferings. There are others, again, who are guilt- \nless in regard to the particular thing for which \nthey are at the moment suffering, but yet there \nis something else faulty in them, on account of \nwhich God makes them suffer ; just as it often \nhappens that Almighty God crushes haughty \narrogance, and brings persons of this description \nto themselves by letting their pride and super- \nciliousness meet with a heavy fall in things in \nwhich, perhaps, they are wholly and entirely \nfree from guilt. Again, God sometimes sends \nsufferings upon men out of special love for them, \nto save them in this way from a still greater \nsuffering, as is the case with those to whom God \ngives their purgatory in this life by sicknesses, \npoverty, or such like, that so they may be de- \nlivered from sufferings in the life to come ; or \nwith those whom He permits to be tried and ex- \nercised by fiendish men, that they may thus be \nsaved from the sight of the foul fiend at death. \nThere are others also who suffer from burning \nlove, like the martyrs, whose joy it was by the \nmanifold deaths, whether of body or soul, which \nthey endured, to show forth to the dear God their \nlove. \n\n\nTHE BENEFITS OF SUFFEEING. 219 \n\nBesides all this, we find in this world many \nsufferings which are vain and without consola- \ntion ; such, for example, as are undergone by those \nwho make it their aim to please the world in \nworldly things. These persons purchase hell at \na very dear price, while, on the contrary, those \nwho suffer for God find help in their tribulations. \nAgain, there are some persons who are often in- \nwardly admonished by God to give themselves \nto Him without reserve, because He wishes to \nadmit them to His intimacy. Now if they \nresist the call through negligence, God draws \nthem to Him by sufferings ; and to whichever \nside they turn in their endeavours to escape \nHim, the faithful God sends upon them tem- \nporal misfortunes and discomfort, and thus holds \nthem by the hair, that they cannot get away \nfrom Him. \n\nThere are many others also to be met with \nwho have no sufferings except those which they \nmake for themselves, by estimating too highly \nwhat is not worthy of being taken into account \nat all. Once when a man who was heavily \nladen with afflictions chanced to pass by a cer- \ntain house, he heard a woman within uttering \nvery great lamentations. The thought came to \nhim: — Go in and comfort the woman in her \n\n\n220 LIFE OF BLESSED HENRY SUSO. \n\nsufferings. Accordingly Jie went in and said : — \nDear lady, what lias happened to you, that you \nare bewailing yourself thus ? She answered : \n— I have let a needle drop, and cannot find it \nany where. He turned round, and thought to \nhimself as he went out: — O foolish woman, if \nthou hadst my burden on thee thou wouldst not \nweep for a needle! In this way some soft- \nnatured persons make for themselves sufferings \nin a multitude of things where there is nothing \nto suffer. \n\nBut the noblest and best kind of suffering is \nafter the pattern of Christ's sufferings — I mean \nthose which the heavenly Father gave to His \nonly-begotten Son, and which He still gives to \nHis dear and chosen friends. This must not \nbe taken as if any one were altogether without \nfault, except indeed the dear Jesus Christ, who \nnever sinned ; but it is to be understood of the \nexample of patience which Christ gave us when \nHe bore Himself in His sufferings like a gentle \nlittle lamb among wolves. Hence it is that He \nsometimes gives great sufferings to some of His \ndear and chosen friends, that we, who are so im- \npatient under suffering, may learn patience from \nthese blessed men, and in every case by sweet- \nness of heart to overcome evil with good. All \n\n\nTHE BENEFITS OF SUFFERING. 221 \n\nthis thou shouldst consider, my daughter, and \nbe ready to suffer without reluctance ; for from \nwhatever quarter sufferings come they can be \nturned to profit, if only the sufferer accepts them \nall as sent by God, and refers them back again \nto God, and so gets the mastery over them with \nHis help. \n\nThe daughter answered : — The noblest kind \nof suffering, of which you spoke last, I mean \nwhen a person suffers innocently, is the lot of \nfew. Therefore I would gladly hear how those \nwho for their sins have deserved to suffer cany \nby God's help, come forth victorious from their \nsufferings ; for such persons have a twofold source \nof pain : they have angered the Almighty God, \nand they are tormented from without. \n\nHe replied : — I will tell you. I knew a man \nwho, whenever he fell into a sin through human \nfrailty, used to do like a good washerwoman, who \ntakes the clothes, when she has steeped and soft- \nened them, to the pure spring, and there by wash- \ning makes every thing clean and fresh which be- \nfore was dirty. Even so this man would never \nrest until some of the innocent, down-trickling \nBlood of Christ, which the Lord shed with un- \nspeakable love, that it might be a help and com- \nfort to all sinners, had been spiritually poured \n\n\n222 LIFE OF BLESSED HENRY SUSO. \n\nforth iii sufficient measure upon him : and in \nthis hot Blood he washed himself and all his stains \naway, and he bathed himself in the healthful \nbrook of Blood as a little child is bathed in a \nwarm water -bath; and this he did with heart- \nfelt devotion in a well-grounded Christian faith \nthat this Blood must and would wash away all \nhis sins, and cleanse him from all guilt by its \nalmighty power. In this way, however things \nmight be, whether he was guilty or free from \nguilt, he always referred them ultimately to the \ngood God.", "project_translation": false, "text_trust": "verbatim", "quote_safe": true, "license": null, "methodology_url": null } }