It is good for me to be troubled, Lord, as long as you are with me, better than reigning without you, of feasting without you, of being glorified without you. It is good for me to embrace you in tribulation, to have you with me in the furnace, better than being without you even in heaven. ‘For whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you’. ‘The furnace tests gold, and the trial of tribulation just men’. There, yes, there you are present with them, Lord. You are there in the midst of those gathered in your name, as you once deigned to appear in the fiery furnace with the three young men even to a heathen, so that he might say ‘the appearance of the fourth is like the son of God’. Why should we tremble, why should we hesitate, why flee this furnace? The fire rages, but the Lord is with us in tribulation. ‘If God is with us who can be against us?’ If he snatches us out of their hands, who can grab us out of his? Is there anyone who can pluck us out of his hand?
Bernard of Clairvaux
