patience – The Tao of Holy Orthodoxy

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As a catechumen, you have begun training for a race. This long-distance event will be your life as an Orthodox Christian, running toward the fullness of salvation. Run with all your strength to win! Take care not to launch off in a flash at first, but to tire or lose interest later, when the running becomes difficult. Never give up. Be persistent and focused. Stay consistent and unwavering in your commitment to keep running toward the prize. When you have doubts about going on, find encouragement in your teammates, your fellow believers, who run alongside you. Remember that the Saints who in the generations before you have faithfully run the race with single-minded focus and have finished it victoriously, now stand to cheer you on from the stands. Run with energetic endurance and unwavering determination.

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As you practice determination, also practice patience. Work hard to bring good health to your soul and to love others, but wait calmly and soberly to see the benefits of your investment.

Patience does not mean sitting around and doing nothing. Patience is active. It means actively waiting in time while enduring whatever situation you encounter with inner prayer, steady faithfulness, and solid trust in God.

Having patience does not mean that difficulties will eventually be resolved as you want or that your prayers will be answered according to your own opinion of what God should do. Patience does not necessarily give you the situation you want, but allows you to endure any situation well for the benefit of your soul. It is easy for you to think you are a patient person when your patience has not been tested. Patience is gained and strengthened by practicing it in times when being patient is difficult and things are not going as you like.

Avoid the trap of worry. If worrying worked, you should probably do more of it, but worry doesn’t work to your benefit. It enslaves you and blurs your thinking. It doesn’t produce anything good in your soul, effectively change other people, or solve external problems. Worry makes you anxious, driving out peace. In this condition, your problem will become the focus of your life. Rather than worrying, patiently trust in God. If you can’t seem to find patience, ask God for help and find strength through the Church.

Grass grows slowly. Little flowers pop up in a field and open up over time. Tiny seeds produce huge, mighty trees with thick branches full of fruit, but all this happens incrementally, too slow to sit and watch. If you practice patience, you will peacefully accept what happens between now and the future, when you grow toward greater health and maturity. If you are living the Way diligently, the time may seem slow, but it is not wasted. Indeed, it is necessary. This is the process of growth.

Read: Philippians 3:12-17; Hebrews 12.1-2; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5; Philippians 4.4-9; Matthew 6.25-34; Galatians 5.22-23

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The Holy Orthodox Church is a Mystery, whole, pure, and perfect. She is the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and the living Temple of God on Earth, indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Individual members of the Church, however, are only personally whole, pure, and perfect to the extent that they have immersed themselves into the Mystery of the Church, the Fountain of Divine Grace, and have been healed and perfected, becoming like Christ.

The Orthodox Church is a Hospital whose patients demonstrate various degrees of sickness and health. Some have achieved tremendous improvement as model patients and others progress slowly in the Intensive Care Unit.

The disease of death in our hearts affects our rational minds and behaviors. Members of the Church are not only patients in the Hospital, but we are all psychiatric patients. (The root of the word psychiatric actually refers to the soul.) Pride makes us delusional, causing us to think we are better than other people. We do not see others as our neighbors. Even though we know that that our lives should be oriented entirely toward God at every moment, we are often irrationally distracted by the passions and temporary things in the world. We know what we should do, but we do the opposite of what is right, good, and nurturing for the soul.

Since the Orthodox Church is the Hospital, do not be surprised to find its floors full of sick people. Where else should sick people go? Although we are affected by death, too, we may be tempted to judge others as unspiritual hypocrites. If someone does suffer from hypocrisy, the Church is where he should be! Perhaps in the past, this person possessed far worse symptoms, but, through the therapeutic life of the Church, he has made tremendous progress. If he is aware of his sickness, he may be improving. If he is not yet aware, be patient with him and pray for him.

A cancer patient in a hospital should not complain that the hospital is full of cancer patients, nor judge others for being sick and week. Since we all suffer from the effects of death, we are in good company among other sick people. Be understanding, compassionate, and lenient with other people. Regarding yourself, be attentive to carefully follow the physician’s instructions. Even though the Physician and Hospital are perfect and lacking nothing, you will not heal if you refuse treatment or fail to follow the therapy prescribed for you. Keep your eyes on your own sins and symptoms and let other patients worry about their own personal failings. You have enough problems of your own to keep you occupied. Keep in mind how much patience and love God has for you so that you remember to extend the same to others.

The Mystery of the Church is where we find spiritual sanity and a clear spiritual vision of the world. It is also where we find the Way to attain sanity and clarity. Attend to your healing so that you may be in good company with the Saints, the members of the Church who have already been healed and perfected. As you work toward your salvation, they offer their help by the examples they showed us while living on Earth and by their present prayers beyond the earthly life near the throne of God.

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