To Believe ~ To Suffer

​Our vowed life is a life lived in imitation of Christ's life. Fr. Louis Colin writes about religious life, "Devised by the sovereign Wisdom, from all eternity, proposed by the Master to His disciples, it is one of the exquisite fruits of the Redemption: a vigorous and immortal offshoot growing at the very foot of the Tree of the Cross, watered and nourished by the Blood of Jesus." 

​Growing, as it does, at the foot of the Cross, it demands ongoing formation in how to participate more fully in our Spouse's redemptive mystery. Our chief Teacher in this course is Christ Himself, along with Our Lady, the Church, the Community, and those who have lived in imitation of His life before us: the saints. Each saint teaches us the lesson Christ taught them; today, Vincent of Saragossa shares with us his steadfastness of faith in suffering. 

Excerpts from St. Augustine on St. Vincent

To you, said the Apostle Paul, it has been granted for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.

Vincent had received both these gifts; he had received them, and he kept them. After all, if he had not received them, what would he have had? But he did have faithfulness in his words, he did have endurance in his sufferings.

... Call to mind the King of Martyrs equipping his troops with spiritual weapons, indicating the wars to be fought, lending assistance, promising rewards; first saying to his disciples, In this world you will have distress; then immediately adding words that would allay their terrors: But have confidence: I myself have vanquished the world.

So why should we be surprised, dearly beloved, if Vincent was victorious in him by whom the world was vanquished? In this world, he says, you will have distress; such that, even if it distresses, it cannot oppress you; even if it knocks you down, it cannot knock you out. The world mounts a double attack on the soldiers of Christ. It wheedles in order to lead them astray; but it also terrifies, in order to break them. Let us not be held fast by our own pleasures, let us not be terrified by someone else’s cruelty, and the world has been vanquished.

 In this world, he says, you will have distress; such that, even if it distresses, it cannot oppress you; even if it knocks you down, it cannot knock you out. ... The world has been vanquished.

At each attack, Christ comes running to the defense, and the Christian is not vanquished. If, in this passion of Vincent’s, one only gave thought to human powers of endurance, it would begin to look unbelievable; but if one acknowledges divine power, it ceases even to be wonderful.