I would like to point out three “places” where patience takes concrete form.
The first is our personal life. One day we responded to the Lord’s call and, with enthusiasm and generosity, we gave ourselves to Him. Along the way, along with consolations, we have also received disappointments and frustrations. Sometimes the enthusiasm of our work does not correspond to the results we expected, our sowing does not seem to produce the right fruit, the fervor of prayer weakens and we are not always immune to spiritual dryness. It can happen, in our life as consecrated men and women, that hope is worn out by disappointed expectations. We must be patient with ourselves and wait with confidence for God’s times and ways: He is faithful to His promises. This is the foundation stone: He is faithful to His promises. Remembering this allows us to rethink our paths, reinvigorate our dreams, without giving in to inner sadness and disenchantment. Brothers and sisters: Inner sadness in us consecrated men and women is a worm, a worm that eats us from within. Flee from inner sadness!
The second place where patience is made concrete is in community life. Human relationships, especially when it comes to sharing a life project and apostolic activity, are not always peaceful, as we all know. Sometimes conflicts arise and we cannot demand an immediate solution, nor should we rush to judge the person or the situation: we must know how to keep our distance, try not to lose our peace, wait for the best moment to clarify with charity and truth. Do not be confused by the storm. In tomorrow’s breviary reading there is a beautiful passage from Diadocus of Foticé on spiritual discernment, which says: “When the sea is rough you cannot see the fish, but when the sea is calm, you can see them”. We can never have good discernment, see the truth, if our heart is agitated and impatient. Never. In our communities we need this mutual patience: to bear, that is, to carry on our shoulders the life of our brother or sister, including their weaknesses and defects. All. Let us remember this: the Lord does not call us to be soloists – in the Church there are already many, we know that – no, he does not call us to be soloists, but to be part of a choir, which sometimes goes out of tune, but which must always try to sing together.
Finally, the third “place”, patience before the world. Simeon and Anna cultivated in their hearts the hope announced by the prophets, even if it takes time to become a reality and grows slowly amidst the infidelities and ruins of the world. They did not lament everything that did not work, but patiently waited for the light in the darkness of history. Waiting for the light in the darkness of history. Waiting for the light in the darkness of one’s own community. We need this patience in order not to remain prisoners of complaint. Some are complaint specialists, they are complaint doctors, very good at complaining. No, the complaint imprisons. “The world no longer listens to us” -we hear this said so many times-, “we have no more vocations”, “we are going to have to close”, “we are living in difficult times” – “oh, don’t tell me! Thus begins the duo of complaints. Sometimes it happens that we oppose the patience with which God works the terrain of history, and also works the terrain of our hearts, with the impatience of those who judge everything immediately: now or never, now, now, now, now, now. And so we lose that virtue, the “small” but the most beautiful: hope. I have seen many consecrated men and women lose hope. Simply out of impatience.
Patience helps us to look at ourselves, our communities and the world with mercy. We can ask ourselves: do we welcome the patience of the Spirit in our lives? In our communities, do we carry each other on our shoulders and show the joy of fraternal life? And towards the world, do we perform our service with patience or do we judge harshly? These are challenges for our consecrated life: we cannot remain in the nostalgia of the past, nor limit ourselves to repeating the same old things, nor to daily complaints. We need the courageous patience to walk, to explore new paths, to seek what the Holy Spirit suggests to us. And this is done with humility, with simplicity, without a lot of propaganda, without great publicity.
Let us contemplate the patience of God and implore the trusting patience of Simeon and also of Anna, so that in the same way our eyes may see the light of salvation and carry it to the whole world, as these two elders carried it in praise.