5 Unto this hope is man tamed, and shall his Tamer then be deemed intolerable? Unto this hope is man tamed, and shall he murmur against his beneficent Tamer, if He chance to use the scourge? You have heard the exhortation of the Apostle, “If you are without chastening, you are bastards, and not sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? Furthermore,” he says, “we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?” For what could your father do for you, that he corrected and chastised you, brought out the scourge and beat you?
Could he make you live for ever? What he could not do for himself, how should he do for you? For some paltry sum of money which he had gathered together by usury and travail, did he discipline you by the scourge, that the fruit of his labour when left to you might not be squandered by your evil living. Yes, he beats his son, as fearing lest his labours should be lost; forasmuch as he left to you what he could neither retain here, nor carry away. For he did not leave you anything here which could be his own; he went off, that so you might come on.
But your God, your Redeemer, your Tamer, your Chastiser, your Father, instructs you. To what end? That you may receive an inheritance, when you shall not have to carry your father to his grave, but shall have your Father Himself for your inheritance. Unto this hope are you instructed, and do you murmur? And if any sad chance befall you, do you (it may be) blaspheme? Whither will you go from His Spirit? But now He lets you alone, and does not scourge you; or He abandons you in your blaspheming; shall you not experience His judgment? Is it not better that He should scourge you and receive you, than that He should spare you and abandon you?
Source: Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (New Advent)