Our Lord, when on the cross, showed us how to mortify those sentiments of nature which make us too tender about ourselves; for, being very thirsty, He did not ask a drink, but only manifested His want saying : "I thirst." After that He made an act of the greatest submission; for one of those present offering Him a sponge steeped in vinegar on the end of a lance, He tasted it with His blessed lips.
A strange thing! He was not ignorant that such a beverage would increase His anguish; nevertheless, He took it without a word, to teach us with what submission we should receive what is presented to us in sickness, without manifesting our repugnance or our disgust.
--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts
