When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
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Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
With almighty God greater sometimes is the gift of the mind than of the [outward] benefit. For this reason the holy man says: “One day I wept for him who was in trouble, and my soul had compassion on the poor man.” For in bestowing outward things, he granted an object apart from himself. But one who bestows upon his neighbor weeping and compassion gives him something even from his very self. On this account we say that compassion is more than the gift. One who is compassionate gives something even to the one who does not give thought to compassion. One who feels true compassion never withholds that which he deems to be necessary for his neighbor.…
“But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.” For the faithful person who “looks for good” but receives evil, “waits for light” and meets with darkness, because by the grace of recompense one hopes to now already be admitted to the joys of the angels. Yet being delayed for a longer time here below, one i...
72. For the faithful people ‘looks for good,’ but receives evil, and it ‘waits for light,’ and meets with ‘darkness,’ because by the grace of the recompensing it hopes to be now already admitted to the joys of the Angels, and yet being delayed for a longer time here below, it is exposed to the hands of those that persecute it; and he who calculates to enjoy as quickly as possible the recompensing of the Light Eternal, is still forced to suffer here the darkness of his persecutors. Which same ills of those persecuting them would grieve them the less, if they arose from unbelievers and adversaries. But they torture the mind of the Elect the worse in proportion as they proceed from those, upon whom they were foreassuring good.
