Jas 1:12

“James does all he can to encourage people to bear their trials with joy, as a burden which is bearable, and says that perfect patience consists in bearing things for their own sake, not for the hope of some better reward elsewhere. He nevertheless tries to persuade his hearers to rely on the promise that their present state will be put right. The person who has fought the hard battles will be perfectly able to handle anything. Someone who comes through his troubles in this way will be duly prepared to recieve his reward, which is the crown of life prepared by God for those who love him.”

“Let us not be troubled when we are plunged into darkness, especially if we are not the cause of it ourselves. For this darkness is brought about by divine providence for reasons that are known only to God. Our soul becomes suffocated and placed, as it were, in the middle of a storm system. Even if someone tries to approach Scripture—or whatever he approaches, it is only darkness on darkness that he finds instead that causes him to give up. How often is it that he is not even allowed to approach. He is totally incapable of believing that any other possibilities are out there that might give him some peace again. It is an hour filled with despair and fear! The soul is utterly deprived of hope in God and the consolation of faith. It is entirely filled with doubt and fear.But those who have been tested by the distress of such an hour know that in the end it is followed by a change. God never leaves the soul for a whole day in such a state, otherwise it would lose life and all Christian hope.… Rather, he allows it to emerge very soon from the darkness. Blessed is he who endures such temptations. For, as the Fathers say, great will be the stability and the strength to which he will come after that. This struggle will not be over all at once, however; neither will grace come and dwell in the soul completely at once, but gradually. After grace, the trial returns. Sometimes there is temptation, sometimes consolation.… We do not expect complete deliverance from it here, nor do we expect complete consolation.”

“If anyone is so zealous for continence or good works that he neglects to seek the rewards of eternal recompense in return for them, that person may indeed appear to have a fine linen miter on his head, but he does not have little crowns, for although he certainly displays the image of virtue before other human beings, he does not acquire the reward of virtue with the Lord.”

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tested, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. This is similar to that in Revelation: "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life," which God has promised, He says, to those who love Him (Revelation 2). He openly admonishes that one ought to rejoice all the more in temptations, the more it is evident that God imposes a greater burden of temptations on those He loves, so that through the exercise of temptations they may be proven perfect in faith; when they have been proven to be truly faithful, that is perfect and entire, lacking nothing, they rightly receive the promised crown of eternal life.”

“We have said that trials are of two kinds and that patience is useful in each kind. The apostle, remembering the Lord's Prayer, which suggests to us the safest course, that is, that we should pray not to fall into temptation, returns to an explanation of which temptation is from God and which is from us, from our own will. However, the following is also good: the Lord and God, looking upon the great weakness of human nature, proposed that we pray for the removal of temptations from us, since His disciples were still far from perfect; but when through the knowledge of His resurrection and His ascension into heaven our weak nature was strengthened, then His brother according to the flesh teaches us no longer to fear temptations.”

“"A great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." We shall have this crown if we wish to imitate the glorious Virgin. Whence it is written: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life."”

“A hermit was living in a cave in the Thebaid with one well-tested disciple. It was usual for him to teach the disciple during the evening and show him how the soul should progress, and after the address he used to pray and send him away to sleep. Some devout laymen who knew of the hermit's ascetic life happened to visit him. He gave them counsel and they went away. Then he sat down after the evening prayers as usual to instruct the brother. But while he was talking, sleep overcame him. The brother waited for the hermit to wake and end with the usual prayer. But he went on sleeping and the brother went on sitting for a long time and in the end the disciple felt he must go and sleep though he was uneasy about it. So he pulled himself together, and resisted the temptation, and went back to sit by the hermit. A second time he was forced away by the longing for sleep, but he sat down again. This happened seven times, and still he went on resisting it. In the middle of the night the hermit woke up, and found him sitting nearby and said, 'Haven't you gone away yet?' He said, 'No, you did not send me away, abba.' The hermit said, 'Why did you not wake me up?' He answered, 'I did not dare to nudge you for fear of upsetting you.' They both got up and began to say the morning prayers. After that the hermit sent his disciple away. When the hermit was sitting alone, he was shown a vision of a glorious place, with a throne in it, and on the throne seven crowns. He asked the angel who showed him the vision, 'Whose crowns are those?' and he replied, 'They are the crowns of your disciple. God had given him this place and throne because of his goodness and tonight he has been granted these seven crowns.' The hermit was amazed and called his disciple to him with wonder and said, 'Tell me what you did all night.' He answered, 'Alas, abba, I did nothing.' The hermit could see that he was being humble and concealing something, and said, 'Look here, I can't rest until you tell me what you did and thought last night.' But the brother was not aware that he had done anything and could not say a word. Then at last he said to the hermit, 'Indeed, abba, I did nothing, except that seven times I was driven by wandering thoughts to go away and sleep; but you had not sent me away as you usually do, so I did not go.' Then the hermit at once understood that every time he resisted the temptation, God bestowed a crown on him. To the disciple he said nothing, thinking it best for his soul, but he told other directors of souls, to teach us how God can bestow crowns upon us even for resisting little temptations. It is good that a man discipline his whole self for God's sake. As it is written, 'The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm' (Matt. 11:12).”

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. It seems that this blessed one has made use of the discourse about temptations more securely, in which he says, "Rejoice, my brethren, when you fall into divers temptations." (James 1:2) Then, remembering the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:12), which commands what is best, namely that we pray that we may not fall into temptation, he repeats the discourse: according to what is proposed here, showing what temptation is sent by God, namely, which is also a source for joy, and which is from our will. Yet it can rightly be said that the Lord and God Jesus Christ, looking to the weakness of human nature, admonishes the disciples to flee temptations, since they were still more badly affected: which he also did to others in many places, meanwhile abstaining from those who perfected them. But after our weak nature was strengthened by the thought of His resurrection and ascension into heaven: His [Jesus] brother [James] according to the flesh teaches us, so that we may not fear temptations, since we can, after being strengthened by the Lord's afflictions, overcome every ensuing affliction and temptation. Since there are twofold temptations, as we have said, patience is useful in both: in those that come from God, because afterwards we attain praise from victory, like Abraham; in those that are from ourselves, because by enduring with gratitude, we refer this as a kind of compensation for the sins we have committed. He who was conscious of his own sins, lays the beginning of his salvation and conforms himself to the form of a righteous man, as the first accuser of himself.”