14: The Podvig of Patience

Acquiring patience is a hard lesson and one that persists to the end of our earthly sojourn.

In the Church, patience is considered a virtue.

St. Paul famously lists patience in his discourse on the fruit of the spirit.

Noah Webster defined Patience as The suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. Patience may spring from constitutional fortitude, from a kind of heroic pride, or from Christian submission to the divine will.

To be patient literally means to suffer and endure for the sake of something greater. In an age of technology, the concept of waiting for anything is anathema. When an Amazon package is delayed even one day, it can send us into anger and/or despair.

We justify our impatience by telling ourselves waiting is a waste of our limited time. As Job lamented, “For I will not live forever, that I should patiently endure.”

It is only the patient, according to Christ, that bring forth fruit from the seeds of God’s Word that are sown in their hearts.

And as for that in the good soil, they are these who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience (Lk 8.15).

According to Saint Gregory Palamas: “For our love of God is demonstrated above all by the way we endure trials and temptations.”

Patience must be practiced at every opportunity, no matter how small or insignificant.

Because in times of real persecution, when Christians are delivered up to answer for Christ, being “hated by all for His name’s sake,” the Lord ­counsels His followers: “in patience, possess ye your souls,” which means, “through your endurance, you will gain your lives” (Lk 21.19).

But we also cannot forget that because patience is a virtue, it is exclusively a grace of God. It is ONLY fruit of the Holy Spirit. We cannot attain patience ourselves from within our own will.

“Escape from temptation through patience and Prayer. If you oppose temptation without these, it only attacks you more strongly.” Saint Mark the Ascetic

Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko says in “The Orthodox Faith” that Patience is the power bestowed by God to “stay on the cross no matter what,” for the sake of pleasing God alone. And that “Patience must be renewed daily through fasting, prayer and communion with God in the Church.”

As St. Justin Popovich observed, “God hears and fulfills the prayer of a man who fulfills His commandments. "Hear God in His commandments," says St. John Chrysostom, "So that He might hear you in your prayers." A man who keeps the commandments of God is always wise, patient, and sincere in his prayers. Mystery of prayer consists in the keeping of God's commandments.”