5. So many persecutions the soul suffers daily, with so many risks is the heart wearied, and yet it delights to abide here long among the devil’s weapons, although it should rather be our craving and wish to hasten to Christ by the aid of a quicker death; as He Himself instructs us, and says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”11 John xvi. 20. Who would not desire to be without sadness? who would not hasten to attain to joy? But when our sadness shall be turned into joy, the Lord Himself again declares, when He says, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.”12 John xvi. 22. Since, therefore, to see Christ is to rejoice, and we cannot have joy unless when we shall see Christ, what blindness of mind or what folly is it to love the world’s afflictions, and punishments, and tears, and not rather to hasten to the joy which can never be taken away!
V. Tot persecutiones animus quotidie patitur , tot periculis pectus urgetur; et delectat hic inter 0585C diaboli gladios diu stare, cum magis concupiscendum sit et optandum ad Christum, subveniente velocius morte , properare, ipso instruente nos et dicente : 0586AAmen amen dico vobis quoniam vos plorabitis et plangetis, saeculum autem gaudebit; vos tristes eritis, sed tristitia vestra in laetitiam veniet (Joan. XVI, 20). Quis non tristitia carere optet? quis non ad laetitiam venire festinet? Quando autem in laetitiam veniat nostra tristitia Dominus denuo ipse declarat dicens: Iterumvidebo vos, et gaudebit cor vestrum, et gaudium vestrum nemo auferet a vobis (Ibid. 22). Cum ergo Christum videre gaudere sit, nec possit esse gaudium nostrum nisi cum viderimus Christum, quae caecitas animi quaeve dementia est amare pressuras et poenas et lacrymas mundi, et non festinare potius ad gaudium quod numquam possit auferri?