"One of the Greatest Trials of Saints"

I was just chatting with someone the other day about how good people down through the ages have disagreed and squabbled. I recalled St. Paul "beseeching" Evodia and Syntyche to get along with each other and stop bickering. (Philippians 4:2 - I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord.) I remembered the good priests that opposed the work of St. John Bosco with the poor street boys of Turin, or the Archbishop who opposed St. Francis de Sales' Visitation nuns visiting the poor and sick instead of staying in their convents. Good people...who will probably all be in Heaven together, yet here on earth disagreeing and squabbling because they're blinded by - something. Prejudice? Rash judgment? Pride? Envy? Most of the time they don't even know what is influencing them to act the way they do. They just think the other person is wrong, and it's their job to oppose that person and/or that project.

This beautiful quote sheds a sweeter light on this very common and unfortunate difficulty. David Lewis, M.A., in his booklet on the life of St. Teresa of Avila, says that Our Lord personally directed Teresa's soul by allowing her this tribulation:

"He prepared and directed her Himself through the furnace of that which was in reality the persecution or contradiction of good men, which is one of the greatest trials of saints."

If you or someone you love is encountering the persecution or contradiction of good men, be of good heart, this is one of the greatest trials of saints! :) Not, on the other hand, that this should make us prideful, but rather, as a good priest I know says in the confessional, "Take courage"!

(One of the gates to the walled city of Toledo, Spain, that St. Teresa probably entered)