Admonition XIII: Patience

A Franciscan in Germany who had been a soldier during World War II and who had served on the Russian front said to me one day that it is easier to be a saint on a full stomach. When we are deprived of the basic requirements for life, water, food and warmth we begin to learn what sort of a person we are. And of course in war you are face to face with people whose job is to kill you. Francis wrote an Admonition about patience because it was a virtue he had to learn. The path in life to which had God had invited him to follow was to live the Gospel. But for Francis this did not come easy. His challenge is summed up in his experience with the leper. Our Lord explained how closely we are united to Him when he used the parable of the vine and the branches; Christ is the vine of which we are the branches. But it comes as a shock to realize that the branch growing alongside us on Christ the vine is a leper. Francis realized that instinctively he drew back from what he found distasteful: 'While I was in sin it seemed to me too bitter to see lepers'. But when he answered the call of the Lord to meet the leper he learnt that what had seemed bitter was turned into sweetness. So he began to act against his taste and comfort. As a son of a cloth merchant he was accustomed to having fine clothes; he now exchanged these for a poor tunic. He was accustomed to ambition and the company of his companions in Assisi. All these he left to be with Christ. In this Admonition he assures us that we have only as much patience as we feel when things are distasteful to us and difficult. Patience is not tested when we are comfortable.