Patient Endurance

 

As a rule, the patience of virtue is not one of the strong points of people in today’s world.  We want things to be done quickly and efficiently.  Promises and appointments should be kept as accurately as they were made; otherwise an outburst of impatience may follow.  We have all experienced the impatient and impulsive driver in front of or behind us who takes unreasonable chances and causes disaster quite often.  Patients in a hospital or nursing home obviously must practice the virtue of patience.  They have to wait for recovery patiently and when they’re old or sick for a long time they often have to wait for company or friends with even more patience.

A classic example of impatience is that of the Jews at Mount Sinai.  In waiting for Moses’ return from the mountain, they lost patience and constructed the golden calf.  They said to Aaron, “Come, make us a god who will be our leader” (Exodus 32:1).

Advent is a time of waiting for the coming of Christ.  Promises have been made to us about a way out of our distress.  Salvation will come, but when?  We pray, but does God listen?  Jeremiah (33:14-16), St. Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians (3:12-4:2), and Jesus (Luke 21:25-38) deal with this problem.  Waiting for somebody to come, i.e., Jesus Christ, supposes patience.  We must accept the human condition of “not yet” with the patient hope for better things to come.