Latimer: the purpose of suffering

Wednesday, October 16, 2019
    Commemoration of the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer, bishops and martyrs, 1555
Meditation:
    Then [Jesus] said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
    —Hebrews 10:9-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It may fortune thou wilt say, “I am content to do the best for my neighbor that I can, saving myself harmless.” I promise thee, Christ will not hear their excuse; for He himself suffered harm for our sakes, and for our salvation was put to extreme death. I wis, if it had pleased Him, He might have saved us and never felt pain; but in suffering pains and death He did give us example, and teach us how we should do one for another, as He did for us all; for, as He saith himself, “He that will be Mine, let him deny himself, and follow Me, in bearing My cross and suffering My pains.” Wherefore we must needs suffer pain with Christ to do our neighbor good, as well with the body and all his members, as with heart and mind.
    ... Hugh Latimer (1485?-1555), in The World’s Orators, Guy Carleton Lee, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900, p. 160-161 (see the book)
    See also Luke 9:59-62; Matt. 16:24; Heb. 10:9-10; 1 Pet. 2:21
Quiet time reflection:
    Show me, Lord, the sacrifices I must make for my neighbor. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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