Jubilee 2021: Rose of Patience
Any gardener will tell you that keeping roses is no small affair; from choosing the “right roots” to pruning judiciously, it is a labor of love and an arduous one. Of course, no one who has seen a well-tended rose garden in full bloom will argue that it is not well worth the effort! The intricate arrangement of rose petals nestled together is a natural marvel and its beauty is hailed in every culture – all of which makes the rose the perfect symbol for the virtue of patience.
Or does it?
Gardens within the enclosure of the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey.
I’ll admit, when I think of patience, I don’t think of roses. To me patience is a ‘small’ virtue; I think of lines at the DMV and staying calm in slow traffic. It does not inspire thoughts of greatness like its older brother Fortitude - which makes me think of the Japanese Martyrs, and the Battle of Lepanto, and Catherine of Siena going to Avignon to shuffle Pope Gregory off to Rome. By contrast, patience is the wimpy virtue that I’m exhorted to practice at daily Mass when I really want to hear calls to heroic virtue and daring do, like St. Dominic raising a boy from the dead. The fact is, patience is not exciting, which can make it seem really trivial from day to day in the same, tiresome battle against my way of doing things.
And that’s just it, isn’t it? My way of doing things.
When we look closely, we see that patience is really a battle in the will, in which we face and accept the fact that all creation is working according to the Perfect Will of God and not according to our own desires. St. Augustine says in his De Patientia II: "A man's patience it is whereby he bears evil with an equal mind…" The frustration we feel in facing some evil – be it large or small – is really a protest against the fact that we have to endure it. If we were running things, nobody would have to endure anything of the kind! But patience means that we see it in the context of God’s great love for us all and can see beyond our immediate discomfort into the great things “God has prepared for those who love him.”[1]
In the life of St. Dominic this acceptance was on full display, which is why ‘Rose of Patience’ is an apt third title to be found in the ‘O Lumen’. As was mentioned in our post on ‘Truth’, this was especially clear in his ability to bear with the pain of his apostolate, which kept him in prayer nightly crying out in tears, “My God, My Mercy, what will become of sinners?” Tradition has it that the beginning of St. Dominic’s mission to preach the Gospel in Southern France was not a success – the Albigensian heresy was deeply entrenched and many of its adherents lived lives that appeared holier than those of many of the Catholic clergy. Dominic won few converts and even fewer men who were willing to follow his way of life. In his desperation, St. Dominic cried out to Our Blessed Mother, who smiled on him and gave him her Holy Psalter as the weapon that would win him the battle, thus beginning the long Dominican devotion to the Rosary.
This tradition wonderfully illuminates a reality that St. Dominic lived in every facet of his preaching: the work, he knew, was not his, but God’s, and its success or failure was entirely in the hands of Heaven. In this assurance, he daringly sent out the few friars he did have to found other convents – without anyone to enter them! – and continued to face grievous challenges with serenity and a hardy hope. The rapid growth of the Order of Preachers and its endurance for over 800 years is a testament to this early and lasting patience.
Patience is a humble virtue, who conceals her greatness in small things. For, if we look at her roots, we see that they are planted deeply in Faith, Hope and Charity: we bear trials well when we believe that our ultimate good is in the God whom we love. This is why the practice of ‘small’ acts of patience is really a testament to the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us, and when we make them, we practice the ‘big’ ones as well. In our world, pain is the most unacceptable evil; we have become masters of eradicating, ignoring, and medicating. Our social programs, ‘end-of-life plans’, and ‘preemptive’ abortion of children with disabilities identified in utero are signals that humanity is no longer patient, not willing at all to ‘accept what it cannot change’, and defiant towards belief in the absolute Goodness of God.
By practicing this ‘small’ virtue, we say ‘no’ to this defiance, and we witness to the overriding Providence of Love every day. For this ‘Love’ has intimate designs for us, which go far beyond the pleasures of this world, and in enduring pain and suffering with Him we are able to enjoy this promised sweetness even now. This leads us on to a greater love, which seeks not just the avoidance of pain, but takes on even the loss of good things for the sake of the Beloved.
Join us in a fortnight when we’ll reflect on St. Dominic as the ‘Ivory of Chastity’.
Blessed St. Dominic, Rose of Patience, pray for us!
[1] 1 Corinthians 2:9 (RSVCE)
