Dec 14 Sun
Should I be patient with the others?
In today’s reading, God himself comes down to earth. The ransomed Chosen People return to Israel. God heals them of every infirmity.
This is also a vision for every human being of a transformation from what should never have been—from sin and suffering—to what should always be—justice and joy.
Yet this suffering must be accepted with patience. If God is patient with me, shouldn’t I be patient with the others?
When we hear about patience, we usually think of one of those situations that get into our nerves: “I really have to be patient with this person.” We are thinking of patience as some sort of control over the irritation and anger we experience when we face people who do something wrong or inconvenient for us. In sum, we think of patience as some sort of serenity: the power of enduring trouble, suffering, and inconvenience, without complaining.
Or we might think of patience as some capacity to bear the delay of goods which do not come as fast as we would like: “I have to be patient before I save enough to buy a car.” This notion refers to the capacity to bear sacrifices for a long time until we attain a certain joy. Patience here appears as the ability to wait for results, to deal with problems without haste.
Patience makes us withstand with calmness of soul, for the love of God, and in union with Jesus Christ, all physical and moral sufferings.
- The good we wait for is eternal life.
- The matter of patience is any kind of suffering, whether physical or mental.
- The motive for patience is love of God.
- Our model and companion in patience is Jesus Christ.
- Our means of patience are our own efforts, inspired and assisted by supernatural grace.
There is also a vice which looks like patience but is really a lack of caring, indifference, or resignation. It is when one has given up on the good that’s out there. We could call it “give-up-itis” or “whatever-ism.”
Zeal is a kind of holy impatience. It is a fervor for something, an enthusiastic desire, a love so strong it must act. However, the zeal must be for something objectively good, and it must not employ bad means to achieve that end.
John the Baptist’s zeal was to prepare the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah. And Jesus Christ, being perfect man, also was filled with zeal: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Lk 12: 49-50)
An essential object of zeal for us, should be to live the Faith. We see how true, good, and beautiful the Christian life is, and so we want to live it in our home, parish, place of work, and community.
Our zeal must also impel us to evangelization, to spreading this faith to those around us through example, conversations, and initiatives.