"To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin"
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Thomas Aquinas addresses two distinct responses to injustice: the patient endurance of wrongs inflicted upon oneself, and the reaction to injustices endured by others. When individuals suffer personal wrongs and respond with forbearance and patience, it demonstrates virtue and spiritual maturity. Such endurance indicates control over one’s emotions, humility, and a readiness to imitate Christ’s own forgiveness and long-suffering. The willingness to forgo vengeance or resentment when personally harmed reveals not only self-mastery but a deeper sense of charity and moral strength, often considered an ideal in Christian ethics.
The moral calculus changes, however, when wrongdoing is directed at another person. Aquinas suggests that passively accepting injustice against others betrays a failure of virtue, perhaps even rising to the level of sin. Such indifference is not a sign of humility or strength, but one of moral neglect. When confronted with the suffering or harm of others, patience or indifference ceases to be a virtue and becomes a vice. Here, justice calls for active intervention on behalf of the oppressed or wronged. To stand idly by while another is victimized undermines solidarity and contravenes the obligations of love and justice imposed by Christian teaching.
For Aquinas, the distinction rests on the responsibilities we owe to ourselves versus those we owe to others. Patience with adversity directed at oneself reflects a laudable surrender of personal rights for a higher good. Refusing to intervene when others are victimized, however, neglects our duty to protect, help, or speak out. This is particularly important in Thomistic thought, which holds charity, the love of neighbor, as central. Thus, bearing wrongs against oneself might be saintly, but enduring or ignoring another’s suffering fails the demands of justice and charity, making it not merely a weakness but a moral failing. Human perfection, in Aquinas’s view, lies not only in mastering oneself but also in defending what is right for the sake of others.
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