Patience is not something that my family is blessed with. Growing up I remember my mother being very impatient—especially with us boys. She would grow impatient if we took our time getting ready for school in the morning. She would be and still is very impatient with drivers on the road. Driving with her as a passenger is not something I look forward to. My father was somewhat impatient with employees. As a foreman, he was responsible for the other employees and I remember him more than once losing patience with them. At least I could hear his impatience in the language he used when talking about them. My brothers and I inherited my parents’ sense of impatience. I am often impatient with things that don’t occur fast enough. If there’s something to be done, I don’t like spending time talking about it. Just do it. That’s my feeling. If it doesn’t get done by someone else, I will just do it myself.
My brothers are impatient as well. One brother can’t seem to wait for anything. When he wants or needs something, he finds the quickest way to obtain it--even if it’s not exactly the best way or the right way to go about it. My other brother is impatient with his kids. With four children of his own and three foster children, I sometimes wonder why he is intent on testing his own patience. My entire family needs to learn how to be more patient.
You might find yourself empathizing with my family. Perhaps your patience is tested by your children or spouse or your job. Most of us have our patience tried by poor drivers, long lines and the snail’s pace with which our government often seems to operate. In an age of instant text messaging, microwave ovens and ATM’s, we hate to wait for anything or anyone.
That sense of impatience can spill over into our spiritual lives.
Impatience with God is something many of us struggle with. How many times and how long do I have to pray for something before I see any results? Why is God slow to heal, slow to punish evil-doers and slow to answer my prayers? When is this “kingdom” that Jesus talked about 2000 years ago going to show itself?
Well, my impatient friends, we don’t have answers to those questions. All we are told is that we have to be patient—a message which makes us even more impatient!
In the first reading from the Letter of James, we are told: “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.” James compares the patience of believers to that of the farmer who must wait for both early and late rains before he sees the crop growing. Just because the farmer wishes the rains might come sooner doesn’t mean it will. Neither will the rain delay just because the farmer may not be prepared. The rains will come when they come. In the same way, those who are awaiting the coming of the Lord must simply wait and be patient. The Kingdom will come when it comes. It won’t come sooner because we want it to and we cannot delay its coming just because we may not be prepared.
If we are impatient, we might consider that we are in good company. Even John the Baptist showed signs of impatience. John was called by God to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. He baptized and preached repentance tirelessly. For all his good work, he was thrown into prison and would eventually lose his life.
In today’s Gospel, we hear how John, perhaps growing impatient with the slow pace of things, sends some of his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?” John may have thought that the Messiah would come with a vengeance and establish some kind of kingdom sooner rather than later. He might have grown impatient with Jesus who was clearly not interested in arriving on the scene with power and strength. Jesus tells John’s messengers, “Go tell John what you see: the blind can see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised to life.” As if to say, “Isn’t that enough?” Jesus will demonstrate that the Kingdom of God will not be established with trumpet blares and clashing cymbals, but that it would find its foothold in the world through the healing of people and forgiveness of sins.
The fact is, biblical persons like John the Baptist and, in fact, all the great men and women of the Old Testament, had to wait patiently for what they believed would arrive. All of them longed for the coming of God’s Kingdom in some fashion but all died before seeing the establishment of that Kingdom. For thousands of years of Jewish history, the patriarchs and the prophets longed to see this Kingdom but were only to see the foreshadowing of it in their history.
What Jesus shares with his disciples and us is that we are the truly blessed ones to see what the others did not see in their time. The disciples and others who saw Jesus in the flesh were looking upon the presence of that long awaited Kingdom. Jesus tells them that what Abraham longed to see but didn’t see is now seen by them. For that reason, we are the fortunate ones. Christians are truly living in the age of fulfillment. Even though we still await the fullness of Christ’s revelation at the end of time, we have already known his resurrection and we have signs of the growth of this Kingdom in the here and now.
So, we are to be patient, trusting that the Lord Jesus is at work each and every moment. Each week, each month, each year that passes finds us closer to that for which we wait. But we must be patient.
Think of parents who look upon their children each day and wonder ‘when will this child grow up? When will he or she begin walking, speaking, going to school, working, and starting families of their own?’ Parents must be patient. Their waiting might seem to be an eternity but, before they know it, their children are grown and on their own.
I think of this with regard to my own life. It seems that, in my teens, I couldn’t wait to be old enough to drive my own car, earn my own money, pursue a career. Then, I was in the seminary and wondered “how long before I am ordained?” Now, 20 years into priesthood and on the verge of turning 50, I am asking, “When can I retire?” I’m sure that in the next decade, I will be wishing that I could turn the clock back! Patience is necessary to move through our lives with hope and confidence that all that the Lord has planned for us will come to pass. As this Advent continues, we might pause to reflect on the reality that we are truly on borrowed time. Each Christmas that passes brings us to a new year which means we are one year closer to the coming of the Kingdom. May we wait patiently and prayerfully for that joyful day.