“Good things come to those who wait.” In today’s world of computers, cellular phones and instant access to information, this age-old maxim has been forgotten—as has patience. No one wants to wait and I know some people who actually get angry when they don’t get instant answers. OK, I confess that I’m one of those people. We’ve become so accustomed to instant satisfaction that we often have little patience when God doesn't answer our prayers right away, often causing us to ask ourselves if we even need Him anymore. We're impatient with people who do not measure up to our standards. Our impatience can offend and discourage family members, which leads in many cases to unnecessary and irreparable strife.
Our readings this week are about God's patience. They're also about God's incredible forgiveness, first with the Israelites when they panicked at Moses' absence on the mountain, and made a golden calf as a substitute for the One True God. At the very time God was presenting Moses with the Ten Commandments, they were breaking the first one! It was Moses, of course, who cooled God's anger, so that God relented - - God relented of His anger, forgave the Israelites, and gave them a second chance.
In the second reading, we read about God's patience with Paul (then called Saul), who was murdering the new Christians with great zeal. Paul tells us that Christ came to redeem sinners, and mercifully treated him "so that in me, as the foremost (sinner), Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life."
In the Gospel, we have the story of a lamb, a coin, and two brothers who were lost. There are some beautiful paintings of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, pulling that poor lamb out of a thorn bush, or carrying the exhausted and trembling lamb on his shoulders. The second story about the woman sweeping the house for a single coin, then throwing a party in her joy, seems a bit exaggerated to us today, but we certainly get the idea that Jesus is filled with happiness when someone like us, not much more important than a small coin, comes back to his senses.
The third story is the most famous, the one about the Prodigal Son. The spendthrift, younger son can't even get his carefully rehearsed speech out of his mouth before the Father smothers him with kisses, and treats him like a returning hero. He could well sing for the rest of his days, "I once was lost but now am found." We're not so sure of his angry, resentful older brother. The tearful father could not persuade him to come to the party! But the father forgives him, too.
If we can just remember God's forgiveness of our own sins and failings, and pray constantly for the grace needed to help us avoid rushing to judgment against others, God will help us to be much more patient with the foibles of our friends and family.
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