(Philippians 2:17)

2^ND CATEGORY NT

QUESTION 63. HOW IS IT THAT THE APOSTLES, AFTER HAVING HEALED ALL THE SICK WHO WERE PRESENTED TO THEM, HAVE NOT CURED THE DISEASES OF THEIR OWN DISCIPLES? FOR, AFTER ALL, EPAPHRODITUS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SICK UNTO DEATH IF THE PRAYERS OF THE APOSTLE HAD BEEN ANSWERED. WHO CAN DOUBT, INDEED, THAT THE APOSTLE HAS OFTEN ASKED GOD FOR HIS CURE WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO OBTAIN IT? FOR IF GOD HAD ANSWERED IT, THIS AILMENT WOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED AT ONCE. — The Apostles did wonders and miracles to bring the faithful to the faith. At the sight of these brilliant facts, which it was impossible for men to do, they recognized the voice of God in the preaching of the Apostles, and these miracles were for them a demonstration of the high wisdom of the faith. Words are always subject to contradiction, acts of power come to serve them as witnesses, and failing them, to prove the high reason of faith that words are powerless to express. For the faithful, on the contrary, miracles and wonders are not necessary, but a firm hope. As soon as he is convinced of the truth of the promises, the spirit is made a weapon of this conviction to arrive by contempt of the enjoyments present to make himself worthy of eternal goods, and to increase his merits by his work, following this recommendation of Solomon: "My son, while approaching the service of God, abide in righteousness and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. (Eccl. 2:1) This recommendation is based on the usefulness of trials for man. This is what makes the Apostle also say: "It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:21) These temptations that arise from trials come to us in different ways, so that the soul that in the midst of these tribulations perseveres in the faith that it has received, may obtain the crown. Now it is not only on faith that man is tempted, but by illness, by loss, by persecutions, by the death of those dear to him; and if in the midst of these various trials he does not let himself be carried away to implore the help of demons, he obtains in the outpouring of his blood the glory of martyrdom. If, therefore, the Apostle did not obtain what he asked, it was not an evil but a good thing for Epaphroditus; It was thus that the Apostle, having prayed to God to deliver him from a personal ailment, received this answer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for virtue is perfected in infirmity.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

(Philippians 2:27)

2^ND CATEGORY OT & NT

QUESTION 11. THE APOSTLE ST. PAUL URGES US NOT TO GRIEVE ABOUT THE DEAD, WHICH IS PROPER TO THOSE WHO HAVE NO HOPE; AND HE HIMSELF SAYS TO US ELSEWHERE, WHEN HE SPEAKS OF EPAPHRODITUS: "HE HAS BEEN SICK UNTO DEATH, BUT GOD HAS PITY ON HIM; AND NOT ONLY OF HIM, BUT ALSO OF ME, SO THAT I DID NOT HAVE AFFLICTION ON AFFLICTION.” WHY DOES HE FORBID CHRISTIANS TO BE SAD, SINCE HE DECLARES THAT THE DEATH OF EPAPHRODITUS HIMSELF WOULD HAVE THROWN HIM INTO GREAT SADNESS? — The pain that the Apostle forbids Christians is not that which he would have felt from the death of Epaphroditus had he come. The reason why this death would have caused him sadness was that he lost in him an auxiliary, a support in the preaching of the Gospel. As for us, St. Paul forbids us to grieve, as if we were crying for lost dead without return and without hope of resurrection. There is, then, a great difference between the tears caused by the absence of an auxiliary, of a friend, and the pain produced by the death of a person who is no longer thought to exist. On one side there is no more consolation possible, on the other despair alone is excluded.