The renewing of your mind means that you should think in another way. You can think of the same situation either in a way that agitates you, or in another way that calms you down.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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There is an Arabic saying that says that if someone loves you, he will endure and be patient with you, but your enemy lies in wait for you to make a mistake. This is very true. If I love someone, I will let it go; I will endure. But if I do not love, I will be lying in wait to catch the person in a word he might say. Lack of endurance is lack of love.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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Sometimes we ask, “Why is he treating me in this manner? Why this injustice?” This question itself is wrong. It will produce within us some kind of anger and intolerance. Therefore, we, as children of God, must program ourselves to endure injustice because of conscience toward God.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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What does “enduring because of conscience toward God” mean? While you can talk back politely to the one speaking with you, or you can answer “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,” or you can ignore them completely and not answer them, or any other kind of reaction, here however he is saying to you: “For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully” Then he continues, saying, “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?” That is to say, if I did something wrong, and then someone yelled at me, and I remain silent and endure it, here I deserve it because I had done something wrong. Then he goes on to say, “But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God,” meaning that, if I am walking uprightly, and then someone rebukes me or yells at me, and I take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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And he endured injustice and the harshness of the rich man, who walked in front of him day and night without paying him attention, not even giving him some food. And it is amazing that when the Lord told us the story of Lazarus, he did not mention any other virtue in the life of Lazarus, except this virtue, that he endured poverty, being in need, without grumbling or complaining.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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To help you grow in enduring others, you should find excuses for them. And when I say, “find excuses,” I am speaking about finding real excuses. Like the Lord on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” which was a real excuse. They did not know that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. When you find excuses for others, this will help you to endure them.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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Do not be this person, who does not have the grace of God. Do not be the person who embitters those around him, causing trouble in the community.
Do not be the person by whom others become defiled, through a thought of judging someone, a thought of / anger, a thought of revenge, and so on. Do not be this character.—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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Hope is a trust in God, that the Lord will take me out of this problem and will give me the grace of endurance, or He will defend me even after many years. After the cross, there is resurrection, and after darkness, there is light. Have hope in the Lord even if all doors are closed shut. As we have previously mentioned concerning the events of 1981, with the mind it was hopeless, but the Lord is our hope: “The hope of those who have no hope and the help of those who have no helper”‘!? For if you have no help, the Lord is your helper. If you are thinking, “How will these issues be resolved? The person who is causing trouble, how will he change?” Our Lord is the hope: “The hope of those who have no hope and the help of those who have no helper.”
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
