Waiting

"Second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity, and genuine spirituality most of us ever encounter."

I read this quote yesterday and only gave it a fleeting thought. Since I had many other e-mails I wanted to get to, I deleted it or thought that I did. Well, lo and behold it popped on my e-mail list again today. The second time I read it, I paused and stopped on the words suffering and waiting. These two words used in the context of this sentence brought to mind a myriad of thoughts and feelings from inside.

Although I truly believe that many if not all will experience some form of suffering during their life (some a lot more than others), I can say for certainty that we all experience and are frustrated by having to wait; whether it be at a traffic light, in line in a bank, for someone to get better, for a loved one to return home from Iraq, or maybe even waiting for someone with a terminal illness to die.

Look around and you'll find that the world is full of anxiety, so much so that we don't even realize it. Even as I type this, I think how nice it would be if I could type a little faster. I get annoyed when my high speed internet hook up gets hung up and I have to wait an extra minute to get online.

Patience is not a virtue to the corporate world, it's a sign of weakness and failure. They live by the motto of he who hesitates is lost and not that haste makes waste. Time is money to them.

Many "fast food" outlets promise you your money back if you don't get served in five minutes or less. Many of our retail outlets have even incorporated the word fast or some other facsimile of it in their name (Jiffy Lube, Quick Time, The Fast Lane etc.). I wonder where all this extra time we've gained has gone to? What are we doing with it? I think this is the devil's way of distracting us from Our Lord's teachings.

Ironically, to FAST is one of the things that we are instructed to do during Lent. This type of fast is to slow down, to hold, to keep, to observe or to restrain one's self. It's a time for alms giving and a time for prayer and reflection on what our Lord endured (sufferred) for our sake. It's a time to open and offer our alabaster jar or pot or vat to Him. It's a time to look to the cross and see that it's our only salvation. It's a time that we need to join the Blessed Mother and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross and be like Joseph of Arimathea who filled in for St. Joseph in taking care of Jesus' dead body by wrapping him in the linen cloth he brought and making sure he was given a proper burial.

The word waiting also reminds me of what the priest prays at the end of the Our Father;

Deliver us Lord, from every evil,
and grant us peace in our day.
In your mercy keep us free from sin
and protect us from all anxiety
as we wait in joyful hope
for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ

.

The weather that we had in Boston yesterday sort of signified the essence of Holy Week. As I started off to work I had to scrape a little layer of frost from the windshield. As the day wore on, a beautiful bright sunshine gradually warmed the air rising from a morning low of 30 degrees to an afternoon high that reached the low 60's. The day itself seemed to remind me of the 40 day Lenten season capped into one day. As I took senior citizens shopping they all remarked at how beautiful everything looked as the flowers were being resurrected to life. Nature in itself made us slow down and called us to bask in the beauty and splendor of God's wonderful work.

Blessed Holy Week to all.