The Blessed Virgin waited with perfect patience for the Holy Will of God.
I am not a patient person.
In fact, I am probably the most impatient person who has ever lived on this earth. I do things quickly. I do not like to wait. I spend my life rushing around like a crazy person. Dropping children off here and picking groceries up there. Talking in a rush to one person, only to get stuck behind someone else taking their time talking to someone else.
I have heard it said that patience is a sign of the Holy Spirit. After all, Patience is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so it makes perfect sense that the virtue of patience is a virtue that I should be trying to attain.
And as I have been thinking about this, I have been reflecting on the patience of the Blessed Virgin… You see, the Blessed Virgin waited with perfect patience for the Holy Will of God. He told her that she would be the Mother of the Messiah. And the Blessed Virgin was a perfectly devout Jewish woman. That meant that she knew the Scriptures. And being filled with the Holy Spirit the Blessed Virgin was enlightened – more than any other human soul (other than her Divine Son, who is simultaneously perfect Human and Perfect God) – the Blessed Virgin knew where things were going.
She understood that her Son would be the Pascal Lamb. She knew that He would be sacrificed to atone for the sins of all humankind. She knew that His birth was entirely for His death. She understood that great suffering was coming.
When she was heavily pregnant, she rode a donkey for about a week without complaint because that is what she needed to do. When she arrived at her destination, she went to the stable to have privacy to give birth, because there was nowhere else for her to go. When she married, she did so with perfect patience for Saint Joseph’s will in deciding what he would do with her after he knew that she was to be the Mother of God…
When her Son decided to travel, she often travelled with Him. She did not question where they went. She did not assert her own will or authority. She submitted entirely to Him and His Will. And she did this with patience. When the days were long and hot she sweated on that road beside her Perfect Son. When the nights were long and cold, she shivered quietly in her blanket in the camp made by her perfect Son. And when they came and carried off her Beloved Son – God Himself, for whom she sacrificed her earthly life – she waited in silence at the Foot of the Cross.
And I have been reflecting on the patience of the Blessed Virgin as I have been reflecting on my own impatience, and it occurs to me today that I can really see the mark of the Holy Spirit in a patient and gentle heart…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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