In the day of prosperity there is a forgetfulness of affliction: and in the day of affliction there is no more remembrance of prosperity.
Read Chapter 11
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
Since Job was patient and was supported by the serenity of his soul in the midst of a malicious people, he said, "Did perhaps the men of my tent not say, "To whom has he not given his flesh to be satisfied?" " So, why, now, does a holy person list all of his merits in the midst of scourges? Why does he praise with his mouth the works he has done, if not because in the midst of the plagues and of the words that could otherwise drive him to despair, he leads his soul back to hope? He who was humble in prosperity remembers his merits and thus does not lose heart in his adversity. In the midst of many scourges, indeed, these words would have induced despair in the soul of anyone who could not have recalled to his own memory the good he had done. The holy person, therefore, having to listen to all these evil things, saw his mind driven to desperation. He did everything he could to anchor himself in the secure hope of his own good works. Thus is fulfilled what is written: "On good days remember the bad, on bad days remember the good." If, indeed, when we have good days we remember the bad ones that we have already suffered or that we may yet suffer, we do not think overly highly of ourselves for the good things that we have received because the fear that springs from the memory of the bad things we have experienced contains the joy we have over the good things that have happened to us. And the same holds true for when we are in trouble: if at those times we remember the good things we have received or that we still hope to receive, the burden of our trouble will not push our soul toward desperation because the memory of the good that has happened to us lifts us toward hope. - "Homilies on Ezekiel 2.7.20"
