WAITING AND HOPING PATIENTLY
As a school director from 1993 to 2010, I had to deal with countless restless parents and problem students. At the end of the school year, those who were recommended for transfer to other schools (read: dropped from the roll) would show up in my office to seek reconsideration. I must admit that I have a soft spot for crying mothers. I have become famous (or infamous) for re-admitting students who have become a pain in the neck to their teachers. Deep inside me, I was hoping against all hope that each problem student would change after giving them a new lease in their academic life.
Once, I accepted a dropout from another school. I wanted to prove that there’s no such thing as a hopeless case. I asked the the teachers to patiently guide him and allow the best in him to come out. Come graduation time, he received the medal for Best in Deportment (Best in Conduct). Patience pays off after all. As the cliché goes, our God is a God of second chances — and a third, and a fourth, and so on. He never gets tired of giving us breaks. He believes in us. He is patient with us.
Today’s parable describes the patient landowner who did not allow the bad weeds to be removed until harvest time. It speaks of the judgment day when weeds would be burned after being separated from the wheat. In my mind, the bad weeds could still be turned to good wheat. It may seem scientifically improbable, but nothing is impossible with God. He is patient with all of us, both the good and the bad.
People have been talking about the end of the world because the world has gone astray. Doomsayers have predicted many dates for the end of the world. It never came. Not yet. God gives us every opportunity to change. He continues to enlighten people through His words and sacraments and, by His grace, the light shines through. There are not a few conversion stories within prison walls. And there are inspiring stories of those who used to walk in the dark but were embraced by His light. The stories are never ending. While He patiently waits...Fr. Erick Y. Santos, SFO
REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you help and practice patience towards difficult people?
May I be patient with others, Lord, just as You are patient with me.
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