es, to increase their nearness and likeness to Himself, to multiply
their merits for Heaven and bring them to everlasting crowns. They
discover the workings of Providence everywhere, in things that are
painful, as well as in things that are pleasant to nature. Thus behind
their pangs of body and mind, behind the whips and scorns of time, behind
the tongue that slanders and calumniates them, behind the oppressor's
wrong, the injustice and tyranny of princes and rulers, behind all the
evils of life they see the hand of Him who directs and governs all. But
here we must not conclude that the Saints and holy persons have never
resisted evil and evil-doers, and that consequently we must not. This
would be a serious mistake, as Church history and hagiography plainly
prove. Who was ever more vigorous and fearless in opposing wrong and the
doers of wrong than St. Paul, St. Augustine, and St. Jerome? Who was ever
more persistent in his efforts to prevail against the evils of sin in
others than St. Monica, St. Teresa, St. Dominic, and St. Catharine of
Siena? After their example, then, we may and we must struggle against
evils of all kinds, whether physical or spiritual, whether from ourselves
or from others, in so far as it is not certain that it is the will of God
that we should submit to them. But when we have exerted ourselves
reasonably and lawfully to rid our lives of that which afflicts us, and
still it persists, there can be no further doubt that it is the will of
God that we should patiently and submissively accept our condition and our
cross. Since, however, we do not know how long it is the wish of
Providence that we should be burdened and afflicted, we may continue
patiently to use every legitimate means to be delivered, provided it be
done with humble resignation to the will of our heavenly Father.

The acceptance of injuries, therefore, on the part of holy souls is not a
weak yielding to inevitable circumstances, nor a willing consent to the
wrongs of others. Like St. Paul, they know whom they have believed,(108)
and they are certain that, in due time, divine justice will bring all
evil-doers to an evil end and will deliver the just from their troubles.
And further, when the vengeance of the persecutor is turned upon them, and
they are hunted down without reason by their kind, even by the members of
their own household, they remember the words of their Shepherd, "The
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant abo