Perpetual Peace and Tranquility
Next week is Thanksgiving. This means that many parts of the country will soon see snow as high as the artist, Bro. Mickey McGrath, OSFS, depicts in the image. Growing up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, I knew snow piles that high.
But snow levels are not the point here. Look at the art above. The person who is shoveling that pile of snow will take quite a bit of time and hours of effort to clear that Stop sign.
In addition to this time and effort, patience is needed, and lots of it. At times, we all have tasks that are as formidable as that pile of snow. Even climbing the hill of holiness can be as difficult and as challenging.
At those times, patience is sorely needed. What is the virtue of patience anyway? In Galatians 5:22-23 St. Paul lists patience as among the fruits of the Spirit. For a start, the virtue of patience can be defined as “waiting without complaint in a situation of discomfort.” That’s certainly the case of the unseen person shoveling that pile of snow. It’s cold. The snow is deep, heavy and high. Much time and effort are needed to clear it all away. To accomplish that uncomfortable task “without complaint” patience is needed.
But one can learn much more about Salesian patience from the hatted Holy Spirit who sits atop the snow pile. He is joyfully smiling with wings outstretched, obviously prepared to slide down that pile of snow! Now that’s Salesian patience. To accomplish a difficult task not only without complaint but with a joyful heart and a smile --that is the kind of patience, Francis de Sales assures his followers, that “will win for you perpetual peace and tranquility.”
I like to remind people when the spiritual advice of Francis seems, on the surface, to be counter intuitive, he is often speaking of our dispositions as taking place at the “high point” of our spirit, that is, above all lower feelings and dispositions. Consider the person shoveling that snow. I am sure he wishes, on one level, that he were any place but there - perhaps home, before a roaring fire, - maybe sipping a cup of hot chocolate. But if he is Salesian, then at least on the high point of his spirit he is not only waiting without complaint until this difficult task is accomplished, he is also doing so with a joyful and smiling heart.
Difficult? Yes. Possible? Also, yes. But it takes time and effort and perseverance to gain such a Salesian perspective on patience or any other virtue. It also takes grace. Remember, God will take what little we bring him and multiply it a hundred-fold. Always keep before you the example of the five loaves and few fish. Jesus fed thousands with that.
Bring what you have, place it before the Lord, and let him do what he does best!
May God be praised!
Father Lewis Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
