Good morning good people,
May the Lord give you peace and blessings in the Holy Spirit. It is 28th July 2025. We celebrate the memorial of St. Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, a Franciscan Clarists. She said: “I feel that the Lord has destined me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering. I consider a day in which I have not suffered as a day lost to me.”
Are we rushing for answers in life?
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” — St. Augustine
To be a saint in front of people might be easier than to be truthful in front of God.
We all have the thirst to be good and holy. Yet, our impatience often makes it hard to achieve this.
The people of Israel grew impatient while waiting for Moses, who went up the mountain to encounter God. Impatience opens the door to false pleasures. They pressured Aaron to provide them with a god. Without thinking of the consequences, he gave in to their demands and ended up making a golden calf—a symbol of power and strength.
Even though Moses, Aaron, and the people became impatient in their pursuit of holiness, God remained patient and merciful. God builds the Kingdom with patience, humility, and faith.
Patience is possible for those who are humble and consistent.
When we are tired and burnt out from being patient, we often settle for our casual way of doing things, distancing ourselves from reality and people. Many times, we become complainers rather than contributors.
We end up saying: “It has always been like this. Nothing is going to change. Why bother doing anything good?”
In the Gospel, Jesus presents us with the parable of the yeast and the mustard seed to illustrate the growth of the Kingdom of God.
As we journey in faith, may we be open to correction and the reconstruction of our ideas and thoughts so that we can be fruitful for God and the community.
To find the answers we seek, we often create petty gods and eventually forget the Creator. Life is indeed a mystery that unfolds not by forcing things, but by patiently and persistently managing them with care.
Impatience destroys the fabric of our spiritual life. The people of Israel lost their patience waiting for Moses, who went to receive the commandments from God. When the delay continued, they presumed him to be dead. They demanded something tangible to hold onto in the face of life’s uncertainties. They ended up creating a molten calf and began worshiping it—departing from the God who had brought them out of Egyptian slavery. This angered both God and Moses.
In times of struggle and peril, we must keep God, and all that God has done in our lives at the centre. We too may have created many petty gods during this pandemic or in times when churches were closed and outreach was restricted. It is time to check our spiritual and material closets, identify the false and petty gods, and destroy them.
Jesus also teaches us that growth, like that of the mustard seed and the leaven, is inevitable. Our patient participation in this process allows goodness to spread everywhere.
Let us not take the patience, tolerance, and forgiveness of God for granted by doing whatever we like. May we learn to be patient in dealing with life and its challenges.
May God reward you.