Fausto Gomez OP
During the quarantine, or confinement at home, hospital or hotel, people, psychologists, pastors and friends invite us to be patient. The pandemic is part of our fragile life and will pass. And tomorrow will be better – hopefully!
MEANING OF PATIENCE
Patience is an essential human and Christian virtue in life. It is a human virtue, that is, a good habit, a firm disposition of the soul, a quality of a flourishing human being. Cicero’s definition of the virtue of patience is classical: It is “the voluntary and prolonged endurance of arduous and difficult things for the sake of virtue or profit.” Francesc Torralba speaks of patience as the art of not taking the pear from the tree before its time, and knowing to hope and endure the passage of the months and of the inclemency of the weather. One may describe patience as “the virtue of meanwhile.” Patience helps us to confront wisely the fragility and vulnerability of this life. It is the virtue that aids us to moderate our sorrows so as not to be unduly disturbed by them. It gives us the strength we need to bear our sorrows and fears in a rational and prudent manner, and to evaluate them under the main values of human life: love, family, friendship, creativity, compassion.
As a moral virtue, patience stands in the middle between two defects, one by excess and the other by defect. Thus, patience is opposed to two vices or evil habits, namely insensibility and impatience. Patience is opposed by excess to insensibility or hardness of heart towards our sorrows and sufferings and the sorrows and suffering of others, especially of our loved ones. Insensibility is manifested by unreasonable passivity and indifference.
The virtue of patience is opposed by defect to the vice of impatience or the inability to listen to the rhythm of our nature and to respect the required time of waiting by not giving up. The vice of impatience is manifested in anger, bad temper, and sadness. At some difficult and dramatic times in our life, some of us may be unable to bear these sorrows or sufferings. In these cases, words of encouragement will not help us much, like in the case of deep depressions that need proper medical assistance.
How may we acquire patience? Like other moral virtues, patience is acquired through continuing effort, through the repetition of acts of patience. Continuing intensive deeds of patience cause in us a firm inclination – a good habit – to perform actions of patience easily, promptly and even joyfully.
The virtue of patience is truly necessary in our journey of life. All human virtues are connected and so is patience. In a special manner, with courage, perseverance and hope. Patience is a moral virtue under the cardinal virtue of courage or fortitude. Thus, patience is “indispensable with courage for creative activity” (Jose Antonio Marina). “Patience is not a completely passive attitude but one accompanied by activity, by a dynamic and creative interaction with others” (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia). Our human hopes then sustain us by looking towards a better tomorrow with courageous and persevering patience – and loving hope: Tomorrow is today’s dream (K. Gibran).
PATIENCE FROM
THE PERSPECTIVE OF FAITH
In Christian perspective, virtues are divided into acquired (by personal human efforts, repetition of the same good deed) and infused (by God). Infused virtues, theological and moral virtues, accompany grace and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Rooted in divine grace and permeated by charity (the form and motor of all virtues), infused virtues raise up and perfect human virtues. Thus, human patience is deeply improved by infused patience that makes of our patient deeds steps toward more happiness here and ultimately eternal happiness.
In the perspective of faith, patience is a great gift of God, a divine grace: “From him is my patience” (Ps 61:6). It is one of the twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23; cf. CCC 1832). Patience is a needed virtue to control reasonably impatience, anger, and anxiety. “Unless we cultivate patience, we will always find excuses for responding angrily” (Pope Francis).
Patience is an infused moral virtue closely connected with the cardinal virtue of fortitude or courage, and the theological virtues, in particular hope. Patience is a virtue annexed to fortitude; truly, a part of fortitude with the virtue of perseverance. Fortitude aids us to endure the fear of death, and patience helps us bear the sorrows of life. Patience enables those who have it to bear the physical or moral hardships of life with tranquility, and for the sake of greater goods – more happiness here and everlasting happiness hereafter.
Patience is deeply connected with the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Faith asks for patience in life (Eph 4:31), charity is patient (1 Cor 13:4), and hope is patient hope: a faithful, loving and hopeful patience does not disappoint (Rom 5:5). The virtue of patience is a quality of Christian hope.Patience is aided by the theological virtue of hope, which trusts in God. Patient hope is the virtue of the pilgrim, who journeys to a better tomorrow: “Our hope is the present of the future” (St. Augustine).
Spirituality writers speak of three ascending degrees of patience. The first and basic degree of personal patience entails bearing our sufferings and those of our loved ones patiently. The second and higher degree implies not just to accept our sufferings but to wish more personal sufferings for the love of Christ. The third and highest degree of patience means, moreover, rejoicing in our sufferings for Christ’s sake. Of course, we do not wish the sufferings of others nor do we rejoice in them, but we are with those who suffer empathetically. Example of first degree of patience, Job; of the second, the martyrs, and of the third, the apostles after Pentecost, and thereafter the patience of the saints and men and women of good will who bear their sufferings patiently, pray for more sufferings and rejoice in them – not for their sake but for the Lord’s sake (cf. Luis de Granada).
LET US TRY TO BE PATIENT
God is patient with us, and his patience “is shown in his mercy towards sinners” (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia). Believers endure sorrows and sufferings for the sake of God and the good to come – eternal happiness: “Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient, since gold is tested in the fire, and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him [in God], and he will help you” (Sir 2:4-6).
Jesus was most patient through his life, and dramatically, incredibly patient through the last days of his passion and death. How awesome his piercing cry from the cross! Father, “why have you, abandoned me.” Jesus tells his disciples to be patient: “By your patience you will gain your souls” (Lk 21:19). Among the first Christians, there were some who were impatient because the Lord was taking too long to come back (his promised Second Coming). In our time, the problem may be the opposite: some of us, perhaps, do not seem to care much about his Second Coming or even eternal life.
God the Sower is patient with the weeds in our souls and the souls of others. Jesus says: “Let both of them [the wheat and the weeds] grow together until the harvest” (Mt 13:30). Likewise, we ought to be patient with those who, on the journey of this life, inflict wounds to our souls. God gives us chances and graces to improve our lives, and He forgives us always. And so ought we to do. We forgive others every day and thus practice hope in ourselves and in others. Indeed, forgiveness is a call to patient hope. “Charity is the tree of love, the essence of which is patience and benevolence with the neighbor” (St Catherine of Siena).
At times, we may lose patience and become impatient when we are tempted to believe that God is absent from our lives and seems deaf to our petitions. We may even then look and ask for extraordinary signs or miracles. Instead, we pray to feel the presence of God in our life and events, including in our present or future days of darkness. (By the way, in dangerous times in particular, some rest and a bit of good humor help us deemphasize sadness and anger, and give us the ability to receive patiently the usual punches of life). Hence, “Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (Ps 37:7). In her well-known poem, St Teresa of Avila invites us to be prayerfully patient: Let nothing disturb you. / Let nothing frighten you; / all things pass away. / God never changes. / Patience obtains all things; / he who has God / finds he lacks nothing. / God alone suffices.
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