ACC ~ Acts 14 v22

REJOICING IN TRIBULATIONS. CHRYSOSTOM: This [the apostles] said, this they showed. But it is purposely so done, not only by the apostles but by the disciples also, that they may learn from the very outset both the power of the preaching and that they must themselves also suffer such things, that they may stand nobly, not idly gaping for the miracles but much more ready for the trials. Therefore also the apostle himself said, “Having the same conflict which you saw in me and heard.” … And they were taught this by Christ when he said, “Rejoice not that the devils obey you.”For the joy indeed and without alloy is this, to suffer anything for Christ’s sake. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.

THE DESIRE FOR VAINGLORY. BASIL THE GREAT: We must receive rebuke and castigation as a medicine that destroys disordered passion and restores health. From this it is clear that those who feign goodness out of a disordered desire to please people lose all profit and plot against the true life itself. THE MORALS 72.5.

APPROVAL THROUGH TRIBULATION. BASIL THE GREAT: “And he snatched me from all my tribulations.” The just person’s entire life is tribulation, “both straight and narrow the way,” and “many are the tribulations of the just ones.”Therefore the apostle elsewhere says that he has been “afflicted in every way,” and here, that “we must enter the kingdom of God through many afflictions.” God does rescue the holy from affliction, but he does so not by rendering them untested but by blessing them with endurance. For if “affliction brings about endurance, then endurance brings about an approved character.” Whoever rejects affliction deprives himself of approval. Just as none is crowned who has no rival, so none can be pronounced worthy except through tribulations. Therefore, “he snatched me from all my tribulations,” not by allowing me not to be afflicted but by granting with the test a way out, in order to be able to endure. HOMILY ON PSALM 33.4.

Acts