+JMJ+
Thank you for reading another issue of The Peasant Times-Dispatch, where we explore the life of faith from the perspective of a peasant—we aren’t experts, we aren’t theologians, we are just trying to do our best (and trying to mean it). Last month, we began an essay series about the Cardinal Virtues by reflecting on the Theological Virtues. This month, I’m beginning the meat ‘n potatoes by reflecting on the first virtue: Patience.
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Refresher and Reflection
Before we get into the substance of this article, let’s refresh our memory. Recall that the Theological Virtues are gifts from God which we cannot grasp by our own effort, and no amount of striving can increase in us Faith, Hope, or Charity. We can, however, work at the Cardinal virtues and in so doing better dispose ourselves to God’s working in our lives. Growing in Virtue just is disposing ourselves more to God’s perfect will than our own fallen will. In considering each of these Cardinal virtues and how they relate separately and simultaneously to Faith, Hope, and Charity, my hope is that you and I will better understand the nature of the work we are doing and so make better progress growing in these virtues we so much desire.
This series begins now with the virtue of Patience, not because it takes pride of place but because the nature of an essay series one essay must follow another. Patience then serves two purposes: I might beg your patience while the rest of this series unfolds, and we might recall the need for patience with others and ourselves while we undertake the work of growing in virtue.
The contrary vice to patience is wrath. Wrath is, in its own way, an expression of pride—the presumption that when we are slighted in even the least way, we may exact some vengeance on our trespasser to satisfy our inflated sense of self. Patience mortifies Wrath by helping us to wait serenely, to abandon ourselves to God’s providence, to welcome our circumstances as if God has ordained them for us and not as if they interpose themselves on our own plans.
St. Francis de Sales said: “The highest degree of meekness consists in seeing, serving, honoring, and treating amiably, on occasion, those who are not to our taste, and who show themselves unfriendly, ungrateful, and troublesome to us.”
Perhaps it is in heavy traffic that we find all those souls not to our taste who wish to make use of the same road we are using; perhaps we find that friend telling us the details of their hobby troublesome; perhaps someone is unhappy with us in their own right and we find them unfriendly. Patience is the virtue we exercise when we bear each of these situations with kindness and serenity, remembering that God ordained this situation for us and desires it for our good; that God made these souls and has ordained this situation, in some way, for their good.
Above all, we should recall how long we have made God wait for us while we trespass upon His infinitely good and divine graces with our own sins and evils. Surely, now that we recognize His perfect goodness and repent of our own sin and folly, we can extend to others that patient grace which Our Lord extends to us?
Overcome Evil With Good
O most meek Jesus, prince of peace, who when Thou wast reviled, reviled not, and on the cross didst pray for thy murderers: implant in our hearts the virtues of gentleness and patience, that, restraining the fierceness of anger, impatience, and resentment, we may overcome evil with good, for Thy sake love our enemies, and as children of our heavenly father seek Thy peace and evermore rejoice in Thy love. Amen.
In recalling patience we restrain the fierceness of anger and we overcome evil with good. Every temptation to wrath is a battle, and when we hear the word ‘battle’ we think fighting and conflict and overpowering our foes. But in Christ is there the counterintuitive conquest of peace over the pugnacious, serenity over strife. Wrath desires our will first, at the expense of all others. Patience goes with the flow of things—and not in a passive way, but with forbearance.
We might be tempted to ask how Patience relates to the theological virtue of Hope. As we said last month, Hope enables us to see the trials and tribulations of the world as sanctifying rather than something to avoid. And the sufferings of this world can be as big as a debilitating and chronic illness, or as small as an unpleasant yet brief conversation with a stranger. In all these things, embracing these situations with patience helps us to understand the virtue of Hope. If we can have patience for five seconds of talking about the weather, we can maybe have patience for an hour, maybe a day, maybe a year, maybe a lifetime of hoping for Heaven. St. Theresa de Avila said that, compared to heaven, our earthly life will seem like one bad night in a hotel. Can we endure that bad night with patience, and remember the reward that waits us when it ends? There lies Hope!
Faith, for its part, relates to fidelity. A couple newly married may look on the future as a long and uncertain chart to navigate, but patience joined to their marriage sacrament will help them remember that each day is a new day, is a day to choose fidelity to each other and to God. God, for His part, created us and patiently waited for us to recognize Him and serve Him. Faith helps us return that gift to God by patiently bearing His will for us (which we don’t understand) over our entire lives (a duration we can’t see).
Charity—or Love—is aided by patience in two ways. First, patience must be informed by love of God. Trying to be patient for any other reason will surely end in failure, but patience with Love can only succeed. Holy Writ itself tells us that Love is patient, and endures. So the first way I mean is that we must love God with a patient love, that can endure through all time because God loves us through all time. The second way is in recalling that this love from God is not exclusive, but applies to all of God’s creatures. Every human soul we encounter was created with tender care by God—shall we rest patiently in God’s love and turn around with wrath on our brothers and sisters in Christ? No: patience allows us to look on our brothers and sisters with new eyes, eyes which see the love of God in our fellow man, which we choose to love as well.
“I am impatient, where do I start to grow in patience?”
This will not seem like a satisfying answer at first, but as with most things the beginning and ending is in prayer. Pray for patience. And then—wait for God to answer. How often do we pray and ask for God’s blessings and then don’t give Him time to work? We begin to despair that God will not answer because He has not answered fast enough.
I remember a story I heard of a priest who was discerning his vocation after a long time away from the faith, he prayed for a week about his vocation and went to his spiritual director and said something to the effect of “I got nothing.” His director replied, “After all that time away, you think you can come back and pray for a week and get an answer? Get back down there—keep praying!” This particular prayer took eighteen months before he knew his calling with certainty.
So, first and foremost pray for patience, and pray with patience. God might respond by sending you situations that force you to grow in patience. Traffic may become preternaturally bad, you may become a magnet for conversations you do not find interesting. This is the crucible in which patience is formed. Once you recognize it, you can start to embrace it. Once you embrace it, you will find that virtue taking root in your soul, and with it the fruits of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Looking Forward
This post has been meditations on patience. The next post in this series will cover Humility, and how Humility can help us receive Faith, Hope, and Charity. Is there something about the virtue of Patience you think I missed, or a question you would like me to answer about Patience or the Theological Virtues? Send me a DM—I will answer your questions anonymously in a future post.
If you liked this essay, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the rest of the series! Or if you think someone you know needs to read some of what I’ve said, share it with your friends! Otherwise, thank you so much for reading. I look forward to bringing you more essays in this new format for Season Four.
AJPM
Welp: this is *entirely* not providentially relevant to my own circumstances just now in such a way that it seems almost that my patron saint might as well be leaning over the banisters of Heaven yelling "HEY! YOU NEED PATIENCE! READ THIS! SEE?"
Nope. Not at all. ;)