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| Of Patience Under Bereavement.
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Chapter
IX.—Of Patience Under Bereavement.
Not even that species of impatience under the loss
of our dear ones is excused, where some assertion of a right to grief
acts the patron to it. For the consideration of the
apostle’s declaration must be set before us, who says, “Be
not overwhelmed with sadness at the falling asleep of any one, just as
the nations are who are without hope.”9108
And justly; or, believing the resurrection of Christ we believe also in
our own, for whose sake He both died and rose again. Since, then, there
is certainty as to the resurrection of the dead, grief for death is
needless, and impatience of grief is needless. For why should you
grieve, if you believe that (your loved one) is not perished? Why
should you bear impatiently the temporary withdrawal of him who you
believe will return? That which you think to be death is
departure. He who goes before us is not to be lamented, though by all
means to be longed for.9109
That longing also
must be tempered with patience. For why should you bear without
moderation the fact that one is gone away whom you will
presently follow? Besides, impatience in matters of this kind
bodes ill for our hope, and is a dealing insincerely with the
faith. And we wound Christ when we accept not with equanimity the
summoning out of this world of any by Him, as if they were to be
pitied. “I desire,” says the apostle, “to be now
received, and to be with Christ.”9110
| 9110 Phil. i. 23, again loosely rendered: e.g.
ἀναλῦσαι ="to weigh
anchor,” is rendered by Tertullian “recipi.” |
How far better a desire does he exhibit! If, then, we grieve
impatiently over such as have attained the desire of Christians,
we show unwillingness ourselves to attain it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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