Bearing With One Another

Sufferentes invicem in charitate. Si quis intelligit quid sit, sufferentes invicem in charitate, non putabit in sanctos viros hoc convenire mandatum: verum in eos qui sunt in virtutum initiis? constituti. Sancti quippe non habebunt quod inter se invicem sufferant: sed hi qui quasi homines aliqua adhuc passione seperantur. Nec mirum si Ephesi haec audiant, cum in multitudine credentium sint aliqui qui adhuc invicem sufferre se debeant. Hoc ipsum mihi videtur significare et ? quod ad Galatas scribitur: 'Alterutrum onera vestra portate.' Possumus ergo utrumque testimonium et aliter interpretari: ut vel alterutrum onera portate, vel sufferre invicem in charitate, et eos complere dicamus, qui divites sunt, et inopiam pauperum sublevant. Si quis aegrotanti fratri praebet obsequium, suffert eum in charitate. Si quis in coelibatu beatam transigens vitam, alium qui et uxorem habet et liberos, et seipsum vix potest pascere, adjuverit, et utcumque ? potest, fuerit consolatus, alienum onus portasse laudabitur. Est qui matrem vel sororem viduam cernens egestate tabescere, non potest adjuvare: huic si quis porrexerit manum, sustinuit eum in charitate. Sive autem superiorem sensum, sive posteriorem sequamur: nec peccantem fratrem, nec inopem consolatur, qui non habet charitatem, et contemnit verba Apostoli commonentis: Debemus autem nos, qui fortiores sumus, infirmitates imbecillorum portate, et non nobismetipsis placere. Sanctus Hieronymus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber II, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 26.494a-c

Bearing with one another in love. 1 If someone would understand what this may be: 'Bearing with one another in love,' he should not think this is a command that befits one who is among holy men, those who are established on the foundations of virtue; for the holy do not have among themselves anything to endure, but rather this is for those who are yet separated by passion. Do not wonder if the Ephesians hear these things, when amid the multitude of the faithful they are some whom they should yet endure. This to me seems to intend what was written to the Galatians: 'Bear one another's burdens.' 2 We are able therefore to understand both testimonies in this way: Either you bear the burdens of others, or suffer one another in love. And we should say that they fulfill this who being rich relieve the poverty of the poor. And if someone offers service to a sick brother, he endures with him in love. If someone passing a blessed life in celibacy helps him who has a wife and children who he is barely able to support, and, as he is able, he comforts him, he shall be praised as bearing the burdens of others. Is there someone who has a widowed mother or sister withering in need, who he is not able to help? If someone offers him a hand, he sustains him in love. Either the first or second sense let us follow. He who does not console an erring brother, nor a poor man, does not have love, and he spurns the words of the Apostle, which we recall: 'We who are stronger should bear the infirmities of the weak and not please ourselves.' 3 Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Ephes 4.2 2 Galat 6.2 3 Rom 15.1