As regular readers know, I decided to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul's admonition on love, until the new year of 2025 (and perhaps beyond). The focus on patience has gone on for about two weeks. I'll be working on being patient until I die, of course, but last Sunday my husband and I had to practice patience big time and we did it fairly well.
We set out for Mass at our usual time, about 6:45, which generally gets us to the chapel before 7:30 and in time for the group rosary. Usually, I take my phone and check the route since Interstate 81 has so many problems. Most of the time all is well early Sunday morning.
Last Sunday I forgot my phone. Oh well, I thought, we rarely have a problem. It soon became apparent that there was, indeed, a problem. Something was definitely going on over on I 81. A long line of cars and trucks were coming our way as we travelled north on Route 11. Well, we thought, the problem must be going south so we should be okay. Not so. When we got to the turn to head toward 81 there were lots of cars and trucks going both ways so it seemed pretty clear that there were problems in both directions. At any rate, we decided not to take the chance. We decided to take the back way to Front Royal and get on I 66 east there.
Route 11 was backed up for at least a mile heading north and we moved at a snail's pace with frequent stops. We usually pray the rosary on the way to Mass, the first of five for the day, one for each of our children and their families. Neither of us was upset by the slowdown. We just decided to pray our second rosary, since it seemed unlikely we'd arrive in time for the group rosary at the chapel. We hoped to be on time for Mass and find a parking place since parking is a significant problem.
We arrived about twenty minutes later than normal, fifteen minutes before Mass and unflustered. We passed the patience test and commented on it to each other later since it was unusual - a gift of grace we decided. Love is patient.
The last time we were in a traffic jam we were on the way home from visiting my sister in the nursing home in Frederick, MD. The mess added over an hour to our trip and I felt like I was hyperventilating most of the way. Perhaps, had this latest snafu made us late for Mass, we wouldn't have been so calm about it. But we didn't know the outcome at the beginning and were still patient, so I've decided to move on to St. Paul's second adjective for love.
Love is kind.
"friendly, deliberately doing good to others," Middle English kinde, from Old English (ge)cynde "natural, native, innate," originally "with the feeling of relatives for each other," from Proto-Germanic *kundi- "natural, native," from *kunjam "family" (see kin), with collective or generalizing prefix *ga- and abstract suffix *-iz. The word rarely appeared in Old English without the prefix, but Old English also had it as a word-forming element -cund "born of, of a particular nature" (see kind (n.)). Sense development probably is from "with natural feelings," to "well-disposed" (c. 1300), "benign, compassionate, loving, full of tenderness" (c. 1300).
I like the idea of it being a "deliberate" decision to do good to others with the sense of making them "family." We have several friends like that and what a gift they are!
So for the immediate future, I'll be focusing on the virtue of kindness. What a challenge it will be, especially with those who hate us for being Christians and upholding God's laws. Help me, Lord, to remember that they also are a gift who bring down a blessing because of their persecution. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Our "enemies" give us the gift of suffering which can make us saints. May we always thank God for their persecution and return good for evil by praying for them. They mean it for evil, but God uses it for good....if we let Him.
I'm asking my guardian angel to let me see all sufferings from that perspective whatever the source and unite it to the cross of Christ.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.
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