The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-06-19
His Own Words.

With all this before us, there should
be little difficulty in deciphering the
description, which he gives of his in
trinity. Our English translation of his
words is worse than the Latin, and
the Latin itself is not accurate. This
S what he actually says: There was
given to me, to my flesh, a stake, the
nigel of Satan to buffet me, for which
thing thrice / besought the Lord that
He would depart from me-" This
stake, which is pointed wooden pin,
has been taken to mean headache,
sore eyes, epilepsy, malaria, govt,
levers of various kindssexternal perse-
cutions, internal combats. This last
explanation, although !, anciently I'M
Known, became for a long while the
most prevalent 1t isk the one most
easily excluded. ST. Paul, in writing
previously to the SAME Corinthians,
said: Il would that all men were
even as l myself; but every one hath
his proper gift from Cod These
words taken with the context make
clear that the Apostle was not tor
mented by assaults against chastity,
but rather that he was so free, that
he would wish all to embrace his cele-
bate state. Besides, Paups infirmity
is known; he is grateful to the Gala
tians, that they overlooked it; he
glories in it for the humiliation,
which it brings. But such internal
combats are unknown and by no
twist of the mind can we see how
any one can glory in them. The other
explanations are not very felicitous
guesses and have no arguments in
their favor. But a stake or silver in
the flesh (Robertson's Grammar just
published says that the dative ito the
flesh" is locative) is an accurate de-
scription of quick temper. We are
unconscious of silver in our hand.
BY some chance we brush it against
an object and, as quick as a flash,
inevitably we recoil. So it is with a
quick temper. Touched by even a
trivial matter it strikes to the quick
and instant is the response. An ordi-
nary hot temper is silver, st. Paul's
was a stake. Now hot temperament,
the driving force of which would carry
him over mountains and seas and
make him ready to face any of those
battlements, he was pulling down, Is
something the Apostle might glory In,
even though it occasionally drove him
too far and Inundated him exceeding
| ly. He says that he prayed thrice, not,
| take it, that it would depart, but
that the Lord would depart from him.
Does not this remind US of the prayer
of Simon after the miraculous catch
of fishes: Go out from me, o Lord,
for l am a sinful MANI" The Lord
did not go, but promised to make him
fisher of men. Paul realized that he
had prosecuted the Church of God; he
must have realized also that he Gre
ated general distress by rebuking
Peter and by attending his best
friend. Can we not WI III some essur-
ance put our finger on these three
events and say that it was after them
that he prayed the Lord to relieve
him from the Apostolate, for which he
felt that his temper untitled him?
But necessity was laid upon him" to
preach the Gospel. II objection Is
made that according to the text he
had not this infirmity by nature, but
that it was given to him; the answer
is, that Paul uses the same expression
for natural endowment, as, when he
says, that the tresses of woman are
given her for covering. There are
other arguments, but II Is not neces-
sary to fire on all ones shot.