Learning Patience

The Lord God is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

Therefore I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

~Isaiah 50:7

At this time, when we contemplate our Lord suffering in agony, dying for us, we should try to learn patience.  If we had a little bit of good sense, a tiny bit of hope, a modicum of love of God, we would want with all our strength to develop this virtue in ourselves.  In effect, reason tells us that we cannot prevent the evils that beset us; our heavenly expectations tell us that our sufferings will soon be over and greatly rewarded; and love -- or at least the desire for love -- makes us cherish the thought of resembling our Lord a little.  Now, He suffered patiently; He suffered because He wanted to; but what He underwent  was sent to Him by His Father and He wanted only one thing -- to receive it.  It was not just in an outburst of exaltation that He went out to meet the cross He was to carry for us; it was at every moment of His life that He remained peaceful and loving under the blows of divine justice.

No one should say that he is not naturally patient.  This is absolutely false.  One always has patience with what one wants.

Our motivation for patience -- could it not be an attempt to resemble Him who bore all for us, infinitely more than we could ever bear?  He asks us to help Him in His death throes and the only way we can help Him, and continue to save souls, is by resembling Him all through our lives.  And our Lord was never irritated with any disposal Providence made of Him.

"My God, I want to love You enough to believe, in all circumstances, in Your love for me."

~Mother Marie des Douleurs, Joy Out of Sorrow

Within Thy wounds, hide me,

oh good and gentle Jesus!

there let me learn Your patience,

there let me learn Your love.