Sr Jaya Rose CMC

St Kuriakose Elias Chavara’s twentieth rule governing a family is to have patience, a form of the moral virtue of fortitude. It enables one to endure present evils without sadness or resentment in conformity with the will of God. The three grades of patience are to bear difficulties without interior complaint, to use hardships to make progress in virtue and even to desire the cross and afflictions out of love of God and accept them with spiritual joy.

Chavara writes: Surrender yourselves to the will of God in all adversities of life. The person who is patient only in times of happiness is the one who has no strength at all. Once a person said, “Everything happens according to my will but I will whatever God wills.” He further illustrates his point through an anecdote in the life of St Ambrose who once visited a house and was told that they had never experienced any kind of pains and sufferings in life. Soon he came out of the house because he knew that an impending wrath of God befalling on the house. The moment he stepped out, the whole house had crumbled down and all were dead. Punishment is the sign of love, he adds.

The true spirit behind his saying can be seen in Sirach 2:4, which stated: “Accept whatever befalls you, and in times of humiliations be patient.” St Chavara saw God’s will being done in everything. His faith was something practical that enabled him to see the loving hands of God in all that happened to and around him, pleasant as well as unpleasant, positive as well as negative. As a result Chavara was a man of peace, calm and cool. He was able to keep his calmness at all times under all circumstances because he knew for sure that everything was alright in the providence of God in whom his life was grounded.

The simple method to grow in holiness is nothing more than the exercise of patience under adversity for the love of God. Virtue is tested by the people and circumstances of our day-today life. When, for the love of God, we meet these challenges and adversities with patience and meekness, we grow in holiness.Chavara knew clearly our sure path to holiness and Heaven is patience and meekness under adversity, done for the motive of loving God and neighbour. Let us remember “In your patience you shall possess your souls” (Lk 21:19).