The virtue of patience

The 19th-century French prolific writer Père Alexandre Dumas once wrote: "All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope". Patience is a powerful warrior against all odds. No wonder Benjamin Franklin said: "He that can have patience, can have what he will." Patience endures the most excruciating tests of time. That is why Ralph Waldo Emerson declared: "Patience and fortitude conquer all things".

Any fruitful endeavour in life has to embrace patience as its basic component. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that those who bore fruit were the ones who let patience mould and direct their untiring efforts to reap the rewarding results of their hard toil. "And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Lk 8, 15). Does patience, then, not feature as faith? I tend to agree with what Corazon Aquino said about faith and simply equate it with patience. "Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignation, yes, but above all with blazing, serene hope".

It is this blazing and serene hope which patience produces that, according to Adel Betavros, gives birth to the three theological virtues.

"Patience with self is hope. Patience with God is faith. Patience with others is love". When we fall short of our attempts at being patient let us remind ourselves of what Mother Teresa used to say: "God does not require from us to succeed. He only requires that we try. Don't lose heart with patience. Always remember advice."

Keep up your good work! If you persevere in your patience journey, you will see how your life is indeed a great blessing to you, to those around you, and most of all, an unending hymn of praise to the Most High!