Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day 25

Day 25

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy

Based on Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers (Eds. Christopher D. Hudson, J. Alan Sharrer, and Lindsay Vanker: Hendrickson Press, 1999) 

Honest Praise 

Augustine 

Reading about the great trials Job endured makes one shudder, cringe, and quake. Yet, in the end, what did he receive? Double what he had lost. However, don’t let one who has an eye for temporal reward suffer patiently, and say to himself, “Let me bear evils, and God will repay me as he repaid Job.” Such an attitude is not really patience but greed. For if Job did not endure suffering with patience to bravely testify of the Lord’s providence, why did he suffer? 

Beloved, don’t let those who bear such tribulations look for a reward. If they suffer any losses don’t let them say, perhaps, “The Lord gave, the Lord had taken away; as it please the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord,” when all they want is to receive twice as much again. Let your patience praise God, not greed. For if you try to receive double your losses by praising God, you praise him out of covetousness not from love. 

TGB: Too many people import capitalist principles into Christian theology. They say: People deserve what they get and get what they deserve. They abdicate social responsibility by thinking I deserve my health and wealth, and others deserve their sickness and poverty. Christian faith is opposed to such thinking. We deserve nothing and earn nothing but rely solely on God’s grace.