Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 27

After shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many and terrible tortures of the flesh and body, the apostle Paul says that he is not hurt but benefited by his adversity because through such terrible affliction he might more truly be proved. “There was given to me,” he says, “a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be lifted up. I sought the Lord three times about this so that it might leave me; and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness.” When, therefore, weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize us, then our strength is made perfect. Then, if our faith is put to the test, it will stand fast and receive a crown, as it is written: “The furnace tries the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation tests just people.” This, in short, is the difference between us and others who do not know God, that in misfortune they complain and murmur, while adversity does not call us away from the truth of virtue and faith but strengthens us by its suffering.

Treatise VII. On the Mortality 13

If you are a sinner, recognize that it is for your correction that you have been afflicted, or at least for your purification.… If, rather, you are righteous (but do not presume to attribute this title to yourself), then you will understand that your sufferings happen so that you might receive glory from the trial. It is written, “As the furnace tests what it receives from the potter, so the temptation of trials tests the righteous.” Thus the apostle also says, “Trials lead to patience, patience produces perseverance, and perseverance, hope. And hope does not deceive.” In this world, therefore, various pains are inflicted to test the righteous, to correct sinners or to punish the impious. These blows bring death to some; to others, salvation. Precisely for this reason the following is written in the book of Psalms, with great acuity, “The death of sinners is miserable, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.” Here it considers miserable the death of those sinners who, desiring to remain in the wickedness of their sins, hate the righteous One who afflicts them. Of those who can be corrected, it says, “There are many lashes for sinners.” Finally, of the saints it says, “Many are the trials of the righteous.” It is not at all difficult, for anyone who has the Spirit, to discern these differences based on the fruit of each, as the Lord says, “By their fruits you will know them.”

To Benivolus 42-43

Epilepsy attacks the sufferers at considerable intervals, during which he who suffers from it seems in no way different from the person in good health, at the season when the epilepsy is not working on him. Similar disorders you may find in certain souls that are often supposed to be healthy in point of temperance and the other virtues—but then, sometimes, as if they were seized with a kind of epilepsy arising from their passions, they fall down from the position in which they seemed to stand and are drawn away by the deceit of this world and other lusts. Perhaps, therefore, you would not be in error if you said that such persons, so to speak, are epileptic spiritually, having been cast down by “the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” They are often ill at the time when the passions attack their soul; at one time falling into the fire of burnings, when, according to what is said in Hosea, they become adulterers, like a pan heated for the cooking from the burning flame; and, at another time, into the water, when the king of all the dragons in the waters casts them down from the sphere where they appeared to breathe freely, so that they come into the depths of the waves of the sea of human life. This interpretation of ours in regard to the lunatic will be supported by him who says in the book of Wisdom with reference to the even temperament of the just person, “The discourse of a pious person is always wisdom,” but, in regard to what we have said, “the fool changes as the moon.”

Commentary on Matthew 13:4

“You have made perfect sun and moon.” The sun indicates spiritual people; the moon, carnal ones. As carnal as one is, may he not be forsaken and may he too be made perfect. The sun, as it were, is a wise person; the moon, as it were, is an unwise person. You have not however forsaken either one. For thus it is written, “A wise person endures as the sun, but a foolish person as the moon is changed.” What then? Because the sun endures, that is, because the wise person endures as the sun, a foolish person is changed like the moon. Is one who is still carnal, still unwise, to be forsaken? And where is that which has been said by the apostle, “To the wise and unwise a debtor I am”?

Expositions of the Psalms 73:19

Treachery is the worst evil, and of difficult remedy. This was shown by the example of Judas the traitor, of whom it was said through the prophet in the psalm, “Even the friend in whom I trusted, even he, who ate my bread, raises his heel against me.” One who despairs in horror at the consciousness of his own sin thinks more of the noose than of the salutary medicine of repentance. This is why it is written about him, “He loved cursing: may it fall on him! He did not want blessing: may it be far from him!”

On Ecclesiasticus 6:7

Those who handed Jesus over were forsaken. The high priests ceased to exist, with no others coming after them. The scribes who condemned Jesus to death, their intelligence darkened and their minds blinded, were no longer able to see the meaning of the sacred text. All those who condemned Jesus to death were handed over to Christ’s enemy, death. Those who mocked him in turn became the object of mockery when “Jerusalem was surrounded by armies” and its desolation drew near. Those who scourged Jesus were themselves scourged and continue to be so, until “the fullness of the nations has come in.” In fact, “one who throws a rock in the air hits himself on the head.” And all of this happened so that God’s vigilance over them would cease and would be transferred to those who have been saved from among the nations, along with the “chosen remnant.” Indeed, “if the Lord of hosts had not left a remnant,” they would already be “like Sodom,” and they would have become like Gomorrah.

Commentary on Matthew 16:3

In the ninth vision Darius the Mede took the throne. He set up 120 satraps in his kingdom, commanded by three leaders, one of whom was Daniel, who had found favor in the king’s sight. Envious men, plotting a trick against the servant of God, convinced the king to command that for thirty days no prayer could be offered to a god or a person but only to the king, with the penalty that if someone transgressed the king’s order he would be thrown into the pit as food for the lions. Although he saw the posted decree, the prophet continued to pray to his Lord three times a day, as was his custom. They arrested him as a rebel and took him to the king, who, unable to save him from their envy, entrusted the prophet to his God, confessing that he only could save him from death, which is exactly what happened. In his distress, the king would not eat, taking neither food nor sleep, and at dawn he went in haste to see Daniel. Finding him alive and unhurt and glorifying the true God, he ordered Daniel to be taken from the pit and those who accused him to be thrown in instead, and they were immediately devoured in his presence. In these events also the prophecy was fulfilled: “One who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it. And one who lays a snare for his neighbor will perish in it.” And our Lord Jesus, in whom all of these figures appeared, says by the mouth of the prophet, “They have dug a pit before me and have fallen in it themselves,” and, “The Lord sent his mercy and his truth and has freed my life from the lions.”

The Book of Promises and Predictions of God 2:35.77