Training the Heart Through Small Trials

The Gospel Without Varnish

The Desert Fathers present the Gospel in its rawest form. Their words strike the heart not because they soften Christ’s commands but because they echo them without compromise: do not resist the one who is evil, forgive seventy times seven, love your enemies, bless those who curse you. To modern ears, this sounds offensive—even impossible. How can one not seek justice, especially when faced with cruelty, violence, or grave injustice?

Yet the Fathers insist: freedom in Christ means clinging to nothing but His love as the one thing necessary. When we are wronged, our sorrow should not be for what has been taken from us, but for the soul of the one who has inflicted harm. Their sin is their true wound. Our calling is not to avenge but to forgive, not to condemn but to pray.

Hypothesis XXXVII presses this home with piercing clarity. A struggler carrying a corpse is told: “Bear the living instead.” To shoulder the weakness of our neighbor, to endure his sins and insults, is the harder burden—but also the one that unites us to Christ.

The examples unfold like a mirror before us. The elder who restrains himself when boys blaspheme outside his cell reminds his heart: If I cannot bear this small vexation, how will I endure a greater trial? Another, who endures the disobedience of his companion without protest, embraces a hidden martyrdom. Still another teaches: To put up with your neighbor in a difficult moment is equal to the martyrdom of the Three Youths in the furnace.

The lesson is relentless: daily forbearance is our Golgotha. To return angry words, to demand repayment, to run to courts for vindication—these reveal hearts still bound to the world. But to endure injustice with patience, to forgive without condition, to pray for those who wrong us—this is to share in Christ’s meekness on the Cross.

Abba Isaiah pierces deeper: how can we beg God’s mercy for our sins while refusing mercy to our neighbor? To repay evil for evil is to declare, in effect, that God does not judge rightly. The Fathers show us how far we fall short: Christ bore poverty, betrayal, insult, and death without retaliation—yet we cannot endure even a word of offense without bitterness.

Modern sensibilities stumble here. We demand rights, recompense, recognition. But the Fathers summon us to something purer and more terrifyingly beautiful: to love as Christ loves, even when it crucifies us. When wronged, our grief must be for our brother’s soul, not our own loss. His sin wounds him unto death; our response must be prayer for his healing.

This is no easy path. It is a crucifixion of the will, a death to self. It cannot be done without grace. Yet in enduring wrong with gentleness, in forgiving when wounded, in praying for those who hurt us, we enter the very marrow of the Gospel.

The Desert Fathers offer no compromise. The way of Christ is the way of the Cross. To bear wrongs patiently is to drink His chalice. To forgive without measure is to wear His likeness. And to weep not for what we have lost but for the one who has harmed us—this is the freedom of those who live only in His love.

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Text of chat during the group:

00:15:19 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 284 number five: forbearing those who offend us and not taking vengeance

00:15:29 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 284, 5

00:21:21 Rick Visser: Has this any bearing on social media? A million small vexations......which we very often feel compelled to tell them off?

00:49:55 Catherine Opie: What does one say to someone who justifies anger by pointing to the righteous anger of Jesus driving people out of the temple? This is a common thing that I hear from people who wish to justify their own anger, including myself here.

00:55:34 Anthony: Jesus had already proved Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath, correct?  He demonstrated authority.  Plus they Knew Him from the prophecy of His birth and the disputation in the Temple at age 12/13

01:01:59 Rick Visser: What is the best book on the life of each of the saints?

01:03:24 Adam Paige: Replying to "What is the best boo…"
The Golden Legend, the Roman Martyrology

01:04:19 Rick Visser: Replying to "What is the best boo..."

👍

01:09:22 John Burmeister: nowhere in the scriptures does it say Jesus was angry. It just says he drove them out. We just assume that he is angry. my Dad wasn't angry with me when he spanked me, he was correcting me and disciplining me

01:11:47 Rick Visser: Mark 3:1-6

01:12:09 Myles Davidson: Mark 3:5: "He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored."

01:12:47 John Burmeister: i stand corrected then. thanks

01:13:03 Myles Davidson: Reacted to "i stand corrected th..." with 🙏

01:14:23 Forrest Cavalier: This was a topic of a recent homily that I heard. The occurrence in Mark 3:5 was the only place where Jesus was angry. The Strong's concordance is at  https://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_3709.htm

01:15:44 Maureen Cunningham: Thank You Everyone Blessing

01:15:56 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:16:00 Catherine Opie: god bless

01:16:12 Elizabeth - VT: Thanks!🙏🏻