St. Gertrude the Great: The Herald of Divine Love:
Book I: (Classics of Western Spirituality)
Chapter 12. Bearing with Human Defects
The person addressed in this chapter is the Lord.
In the same way I thank you for yet another similitude, no less useful and acceptable. You made me understand with what loving patience you bear with our faults so that in amending them we may be blessed.
One evening I had given way to anger, and the next day, before dawn, I was taking the first opportunity to pray when you showed yourself to me in the form and guise of a pilgrim; as far as I could judge, you seemed to be destitute and helpless. Filled with remorse, with a guilty conscience, I bewailed my lapse of the previous day. I began to consider how unseemly it was to disturb you, Author of perfect purity and peace, with the turmoil of our wicked passions, and I thought it would be better—rather, I considered that I would actually prefer—to have you absent rather than present (but at such a time only) when I neglected to repel the enemy who was inciting me to do things so contrary to your nature.
This was your reply: "What consolation would
there be for a sick person who, leaning on others, has just succeeded in going
out to enjoy the sunshine when he is suddenly overtaken by a storm, had he not
the hope of seeing clear sky again? In the same way, overcome by my love for
you I have chosen to remain with you during the storm brought on by your sins
and to await the clear skv of your amendment in the shelter of your
humiliation. "
Since my tongue is ineffective to express how, in this showing, you granted me still more abundantly the abiding gift of your grace, may the affection of my heart do so, and from the depths of my humility—to which I was brought by your loving condescension— may I learn to direct my gratitude effectively through the affective movement of my heart toward your love.
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