Good Deeds And Suffering

Melius est enim benefacientes, si velit voluntas Dei, pati, quam malefacientes. Haec sententia illorum stultitiam eleganter arguit, qui cum pro culpis arguuntur a fratribus, vel etiam poenis coercentur, patienter omnino tolerant; at cum absque culpa, vel verborum contumelias, vel damna rerum, vel adversa quaeque patiuntur a proximis, mox ad iracundiam prorumpunt, et qui hactenus videbantur innoxi, per impatientiam se et murmurationem noxios reddunt. Ut autem flagellorum distania in disparibus meritis longe dispar appareat, videmaus una eademque caecetatis molestia Tobiam, Saulum, Elymam fuisse percussos. Sed Tobiam ob hoc, ut virtus patientiae ejus latius in exemplum cunctis claresceret; Saulum ob hoc, ut de Saulo persecutore in Paulum mutaretur apostolum; Elymam vero, ut, dignas suae perfidiae poenas luens, ab eorum quoque qui credituri erant dementatione cessaret. Et mihi si detur optio, malim cum tanto Patre sive divinis seu humanis subjacere justis verberibus, quam ob injustitam verberum vi ad justitia studia trahi. Rursumque malim a culpis flagello retrahi, quam pro insanabili pondere peccatorum aeternae ultioni subjici. Sancta Beda, In Primam Epistolam Sancti Petri, Caput III Source: Migne PL 93.57c-d

For it is better to do good and suffer, if God wills it, than to do evil.1 This sentence elegantly refutes the stupidity of those who patiently suffer when they are corrected by brothers, or even undergo punishment, but when they lack fault and suffer insolent speech, or the loss of things, or anything adverse from their neighbours, they are swift to burst out in anger, and who as far as this goes appear innocent, but by their impatience and muttering they make themselves guilty. That it might be clear that there is a difference in blows for differing merits, let us look at the one and same affliction of blindness that struck Tobit 2 and Saul 3 and Elymas. 4 Now Tobit because of this, by the virtue of his patience, shone most brightly as an example to all, and Saul because of this was changed from Saul the persecutor to Paul the Apostle. But Elymas paid the price worthy of his treachery, so that he would no longer madly obstruct those who would believe. And if the choice were given to me, I would greatly prefer to suffer righteous blows, whether from the Father or any of the Divine, or from men, so that because of my wickedness the violence of blows brought me to a zeal for righteousness. And again I would prefer to be driven out from errors by the whip, rather than by the weight of my sins to incur the eternal punishment that cures not at all. Saint Bede, Commentary on the First Letter of Peter, Chapter 3 1 1 Pet 3.17 2 Tob 2.9-3.17 3 Acts 9.1-9 4 Acts 13.6-12