You may think you have patience until your patience is tried! Someone once said to me: “father, how long will it take God to answer my prayers? None of the investments and business I have done is yielding fruits. I am angry and frustrated, and have stopped praying and going to Church.”
Patience is not the ability to wait but how you behave while waiting. Life does not always go as planned. Life is full of challenges, protocols or delays that may hinder moving forward. These hindrances may be temporal but because we do not know how long we have to wait, we grow despondent and lose hope along the way. Thus our patience is tried on daily basis. But for you to be happy in this life, you need patience, otherwise you’ll harm yourself. No wonder the saying: patience is a virtue!
And so, if you want to know how to cultivate patience while waiting for the manifestation of your prayers and heart desires, continue reading slowly…
James 5:7-10
Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains! You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon. Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates. For your example, brothers, in submitting with patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
POINTS FOR REFLECTION
1. In the reading above, St. James draws our attention to the importance of the virtue of patience in our physical and spiritual lives using the analogy of the FARMER and the PROPHET. To the farmer, patience helps to wait for the germination and maturity of seeds planted; and to the prophet, it helps to wait for the fulfilment or manifestation of God’s word.
2. Child of God, on this third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) as the church calls us to ‘rejoice’ because the birth of the Saviour is nigh, it is worthy to reflect on the virtue of patience, because patience is key to a healthy and happy life, and without it we can’t rejoice! This virtue is so important because it help us maintain a good behaviour and disposition while having both physical and spiritual expectations. Without patience in our expectations, we may become worried and make hasty conclusions like John the baptist who sent his disciples to confirm if Jesus was the Christ (the Chosen One) or not. Jesus’ response is intriguing! He responded like he wasn’t concerned about John’s doubts or expectations but tells us what those who wait patiently experience- happiness:
‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me.’ (Matthew 11:2-11)
3. Patience is a power- a supernatural virtue sustained by sanctifying grace. Patience is an exercise of the cardinal virtue of fortitude- the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. (Cf. CCC 1266, 1808)
Importance of the Virtue of Patience
There are many importance of patience, I will highlight some:
Patience helps you to be physically healthy
Anger and stress are usually the result of being impatient and are linked to illnesses like hypertension, ulcers and heart diseases, etc. Research have shown that patient people have lower stress levels and illness associated with anxiety and stress.
Patience help you to develop a good spiritual and physical attitude
Lack of patience always manifest in being unhappy, focusing on the negative rather than positive things in your life. Patience helps you to accept setbacks and persevere till the manifestation of one’s prayers and heart desires. Hence the saying: the patient dog eats the fattest bone!
Patience transforms relationships
The virtue of patience helps us to avoid becoming unnecessarily irritated, defensive and abusive. It help us to prevent hasty and selfish decisions. Patience helps us to develop empathy- the ability to understand life from the perspective of others. But when you’re impatient you only focused on yourself and what you are not receiving. Without patience relationships cannot last. That is why the bible says: “love is patient and kind…love bears all things… (1Cor 13:4, 23). In Paul’s description of the many characteristics of love – the first thing he says about love is that it is patient, and the next thing he says is that it is kind. That means with the practice of patience we can grow in love.
Ways to develop the virtue of Patience
Slow down
Many live their life at a fast pace, which makes patience difficult. They want everything to happen quickly and snappy at their own pace. Everything cannot happen according to your ‘whims and caprices’, so slow down.
Think before acting
Using thoughts to manage emotions is key to growing patience. Many don’t think or reflect before they act, they just act and after they have faltered they start apologising. Thinking before acting could have saved the day! You can engage your mind by asking empathic questions: If I were in his or her shoes, what would I do?
Choose to be patient
You can literally choose or tell yourself to be patient. It requires a self-talk: “I am going to relax” or “I am going to adjust my expectations, suspend judgement and be patient”.
Surrender all to God
There’s more to life than we can control. Trying to control things beyond us will result to stress, worry and depression. Saint Augustine once said: “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” Only a wise person knows there are realities beyond him and he is not God that can control everything. Only with such wisdom can one pray effectively, subjecting to God in prayer all things beyond us.
TASK
Go out there now as a patient disciple, bringing joy and laughter to those around you, and your life shall be full of joy as well.
I pray for you
May God give you the grace to be patient and kind that you will grow in charity.
The bible says “And patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.” (James 1:4)
I pray your life shall be perfected in patience, you will not be a failure but shall Succeed, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Very practical to implement. Thanks for the reflection.
Thank you Lord for these reflection, tho it spoke to me today and I felt fulfilled and blessed.
Well done padre. God bless you