On Patience

My plan to write posts about running during the 88-mile run earlier this week was stupid and didn’t work at all. I totally under-estimated how difficult it would be, both during and afterwards. The impact of running on concrete for that long destroyed me physically. After seven ice baths and 48 hours, I was finally able to start walking yesterday, although my right foot is still too swollen to fit into a shoe. Besides the brutal punishment to my body, two other consequences ensued: 1) I still have a good amount of content on running related to the faith that I will share early next week; and 2) Microsynaxis and the members-only Synaxis issues are two days late. In order to get them both out before the weekend, I’m sending the full members-version of Synaxis out to everyone. If you’re not a member, please do consider joining our community so you can receive the full version like the one below on a monthly basis. Normally the full version would include my Director’s Desk, but this time that will be one of the pieces on running which will come out early next week.

Did you know that on Dec. 5, 88 years ago this Sunday, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed? As Wikipedia notes, “Despite the efforts of Herber J. Grant, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 21 Utah members of the constitutional convention voted unanimously on that day to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, making Utah the 36th state to do so, and putting the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment over the top in needed voting.” Here’s a short quote from Chesterton on the topic: “Prohibition has actually worked the good, in spite of so malignantly and murderously willing the evil. And the good is this: the restoration of legitimate praise and pride for the creative crafts of the home.” That’s from his piece “A Plea for Prohibition” which can be read in full here. Cheers to the repeal of prohibition!

Now, before the rest of today’s content on the theme of patience, here are a number of quick announcements/save the dates:

• If you haven’t already supported the 88-mile “Running for Renewal” campaign, please consider donating today. $88 or more and you’ll get the Eighth Day Winter blend coffee, The Christian News-Letter, and a 2-day pass to the Symposium ($150 value!). This week-long campaign is in lieu of Giving Tuesday and our annual budget depends on us meeting our goal of $20,000. We've raised $4,127 so far.
• The members-only Feast of the Nativity will be at Trinity Lutheran Church on Thursday evening, December 30. The theme is “Let No Tongue Be Silent: Hymns to the Incarnate God.” Registration and more details will be coming soon.
• There are two great reading groups you should consider joining:
• The weekly Cappadocian group which is primarily for pastors and those involved in ministry. It’s led by Cameron Combs and if you’re interested you can contact him here.
• The monthly Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio Theological Reading Group which is open to anyone. It’s led by Fr. Geoff Boyle whom you can contact here.
• There is also a new weekly theological study group forming under Dr. Chris Kettler which will focus on theological anthropology. It will begin in January and if interested you can email Dr. Kettler here.

Now dig in. And may the content below renew your soul so you can help renew your city and our culture!

In Christ,

Erin “John” Doom

Founder & Director

1. Bible: A Florilegium on Patience

Psalm 27:14: Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!

Psalm 30:5: For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Psalm 37:7: Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 40:1: I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.

Proverbs 14:29: He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.

Isaiah 30:18: Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.

Lamentations 3:25-26: The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Romans 8:25: But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Romans 12:12: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Romans 15:5: Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 13:4: Love suffers long and is kind.

Galatians 6:9: And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Ephesians 4:2: With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.

Hebrews 10:36: For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

James 1:2-4: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

James 5:7-8: Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

2. Liturgy: December as a Month of Copious Feasts

December is full of wonderful feast days for Christ, His Mother, and the saints. On Dec. 25 we not only have the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, but also the Adoration of the Magi, the Commemoration of the Shepherds in Bethlehem who were watching their flocks and came to see the Lord, the Commemoration of the 14,000 Holy Infants/Innocents slain by Herod on Dec. 29, and the Feast of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra on Dec. 6. On Dec. 9 we celebrate the Conception by St. Anna of the Most Holy Theotokos and on Dec 26 the Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos. For obvious reasons we also celebrate a number of Old Testament prophets: Nahum the Prophet on Dec. 1, Habakkuk the Prophet on Dec. 2, Zephaniah the Prophet on Dec. 3, the Holy Prophet Haggai on Dec. 16, and Daniel the Prophet and the Three Holy Youths on Dec. 17. Several female saints are also celebrated: St. Barbara the Great Martyr on Dec. 4, Hannah the Righteous, Mother of Samuel the Prophet on Dec. 9, St. Lucia the Virgin Martyr on Dec. 13, the Martyr Susannah the Deaconess on Dec. 15, St. Juliana of Nicomedia and Her 630 Companion Martyrs on Dec. 21, St. Anastasia the Great Martyr on Dec. 22, St. Eugenia the Righteous Nun-Martyr of Rome and those with her on Dec. 24, St. Anysia the Virgin-Martyr of Thessoloniki on Dec. 30, and St. Melania the Younger, Nun of Rome on Dec. 31. Along with the other martyrs already listed, many others are celebrated in December; to name a few: the feast of St. Stephen the Archdeacon and First Martyr on Dec. 27, the 20,000 Martyrs burned in Nicomedia on Dec. 28, the Holy Martyr Diogenes on Dec. 5, Nicholas the New Martyr on Dec. 6, Athenodoros the Martyr of Mesopotamia on Dec. 7, Narses the Martyr of Persia on Dec. 9, Menas, Hermogenes, & Eugraphos, Martyrs of Alexandria on Dec. 10, the Holy New Martyr Peter the Aleut on Dec. 12, and the Ten Martyrs of Crete on Dec. 23. Then there are a few of the more known saints: St John of Damascus on Dec. 4, St. Ambrose of Milan on Dec. 7, and St Ignatius the God-Bearer and Bishop of Antioch on Dec. 20. Finally there are Stylites, Athonites, and a poet: St. Daniel the Stylite of Constantinople and St. Luke the New Stylite of Chalcedon on Dec. 11, St. Theophanes the Poet on Dec. 27, St. Simon the Myrrhbearer & Founder of Simonopetra on Mt Athos on Dec. 28, and St. Gideon the New Martyr of Mount Athos on Dec. 30. As I said, what a rich and wonderful month December is, one that in the words of the 6-7th century St. John Moschos, is “a copious and accurate collection” from which we can “gather up the spiritually beneficial deeds of the fathers.”

3. Fathers: Tertullian on Patience

The titles for two sections from Tertullian’s treatise on patience should be enough to tease you into reading them (if you didn’t already in last week’s Microsynaxis): “God Himself as an Example of Patience” and “Jesus Christ in His Incarnation & Work a More Imitable Example Thereof.” Read them here.

4. Poetry: Two Poems on Patience

I love the final lines of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s great poem “Patience Taught by Nature”:

But so much patience, as a blade of grass

Grows by contented through the heat and cold.

Read the whole thing here.

And then there’s George MacDonald’s short poem “Hope and Patience," which you can read here.

5. Books & Culture: Gilbert Meilaender's Review Essay of David Baily Harned’s Patience: How We Wait Upon the World by

Despite the recent revived interest in “virtue ethics,” there hasn’t been much serious reflection upon particular virtues. Here is a book of over 200 pages dedicated exclusively to patience, one that Meilaender says “probably needs to be read and pondered rather than summarized.” Nevertheless, Meilaender offers some summary, including this sample toward the beginning:

a reader is led from thinking about the patience of God as displayed in the Bible … to early Christian thought as displayed in Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine … to the characteristically medieval emphases of Gregory the Great, Aquinas, and Thomas Kempis … and finally to Calvin, Jeremiah Burroughs, and Kierkegaard—men who, though quite separated in time, represent perspectives shaped by the Reformation. Drawing on these chapters Harned then characterizes a fourfold shape of patience: as endurance (suffering without discontent), forbearance (bearing with the faults of others), expectancy (a willingness to wait), and perseverance (constancy). We can understand the virtue better by considering its “adversaries,” which are also fourfold: impatience and apathy (the extremes of which patience is the mean), boredom, and displacement (loss of touch with one’s purpose in life).

Read the whole review here at First Things and then purchase a copy from Eighth Day Books.

6. Essays et al: Athonite Monk on Patience

An Athonite monk clarifies the meaning of patience in the opening lines of this short reflection:

I talk a great deal about patience, but this is because it is so essential to authentic Christian spirituality, and so thoroughly misunderstood. Most people have the idea that patience means “waiting.” Fair enough, that is an element of patience. But this gives the impression that patience is a passive thing, simply not acting, and waiting for God to do something. But at its core, the word υπομονή (traditionally translated into English as patience) means something closer to staying power, perseverance, remaining grounded or centered. The real test of patience isn’t waiting, but how a person reacts when the pressure is on. When your spouse snaps at you; the kids are screaming, being openly disobedient, and creating a mess; the business deal falls through; the committee meeting devolves into dissension and arguing. What do you then? If in those situations, if you calmly and persistently keep doing what you know you should do, that is real patience.

Read the whole thing here.

7. Essays et al: Homily on James 1 by Pope Francis

In 2018 Pope Francis gave a homily on James 1:1-11. His initial description of patience sounds very similar to the one given by the Athonite Monk above:

what does patience mean in life and in the face of trials? It’s certainly not easy to understand. Christian patience is neither “resignation” nor an attitude of “defeat.” Rather, it is a virtue of those who are on the journey, those who are moving forward, rather than stopping and becoming closed off.

Here's a bit more:

this patience St James speaks about is not simply a “counsel” for Christians. If we look at the history of salvation, we can see the "patience of God, our Father," who has led and carried His "stubborn people" forward each time they strayed one way or the other. And the Father shows this patience, too, to each one of us, “accompanying us,” and “waiting” for the right time. God also sent His Son, that He might “enter into patience,” “taking up His mission,” and offering Himself decisively in His Passion.

Read the homily here.

8. Essays et al: Essay on Halik’s Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing in Us

Back in the June 9, 2020 issue of Microsynaxis, the Books and Culture section offered several short passages from a book I had just encountered by Thomáš Halík: Patience with God. I stated there that I intended to review it. That was my plan for this issue but I couldn’t find my copy of the book. The EDI library has always been a mess, but more of an organized chaos that I could mostly manage. While on sabbatical the EDI board made major improvements at The Ladder, including new bookshelves; the ONLY downside is the organized chaos of books became total chaos. Getting our amazing library of books organized and shelved is a project in the works. Since I couldn’t find my copy I found a two of four reviews from a 2011 Symposium on the book.

Here’s a short excerpt from Sandra A. Yocum’s review, which summarizes Halík’s message, one that is extremely timely for our polarized culture:

Tomáš Halík invites his readers into the gospel story of Zacchaeus because he finds there an account of “us.” Like the best of Benedictine lectio divina or Ignatian spirituality exercises, Halík wants us to enter fully into the story of a little man “on the fringes” of his society. He wants us to sit with Zacchaeus in his tree, feel simultaneously his marginalization and his attraction to Jesus. He wants us to make that exhilarated climb down with Zacchaeus to respond to Jesus’ in calling him by name. Finally and most importantly, he asks us to find in Zacchaeus our contemporaries who dwell in “the zone of questions and doubts.” These contemporaries may, like the author, be believers, or they may, like many in his post-Communist Czech Republic, be atheists. Yet, they—or perhaps more accurately—we may share a surprisingly common identity as seekers on the margins of a world in which center stage is given to the battle between an aggressive and dogmatic secularism and an equally aggressive and dogmatic religious fundamentalism. He is right to entitle this invitation Patience with God.

You can read the whole review here.

And here is a longer excerpt from Brian D. Robinette’s review, which echoes the end of the previous passage. This is extremely intriguing to me because Halík sounds similar to the way Florovsky would describe the Church’s mission in his neopatristic synthesis, so long as the “new type of faith/nonfaith dialogue” remains grounded in the Patristic Synthesis/Tradition. Here’s Robinette:

Supposing we were to look for a more recent example [than Karl Rahner] that pursues this pastoral task [of rendering Christian life intelligibly and with intellectual honesty] in an especially probing way, in a manner that exhibits a deep commitment to the heart of Christian faith while engaging atheism sympathetically and with uncommon intimacy, and in a way that wears its considerable theological sophistication lightly enough to speak to the “outsider” of faith—all with a personally disarming voice that instantly draws the reader into conversation with its author; supposing this, we will do no better than Tómaš Halík’s Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing in Us.

A professor of philosophy and sociology at Charles University in Prague and a Catholic priest secretly ordained in the late 1970s and active in the underground church during Communist Czechoslovakia, Halík is on quite familiar terms with cultural and even politically sanctioned atheism. While the end of the Communist regime allowed long-suppressed religious sensibilities to reawaken and percolate, still today the Czech Republic is home to one of the most agnostic and atheistic populations in the world. So when Halík adopts the figure of Zacchaeus to represent those who remain “on the fringes” and who “keep their distance” from religious faith, he is speaking out of a milieu where Zacchaeuses abound.

“I like Zacchaeuses,” Halík tells us. “I think I have been given the gift of understanding them.” Such understanding is not merely studied, for Halík confesses that he too has sensed God’s absence, has at times felt estranged from the church he loves and formally represents, and in fact often finds more in common with those skeptical of religious belief than those of his own Christian faith. Halík’s instinct to inhabit the “gray zone between religious certainty and atheism” is a way of preserving a spirit of seeking, and in this way participating in Jesus’ own ministry of those at the periphery. “Blessed are the distant,” or “Blessed are you on the fringes,” is how Halík summarizes Jesus’ mission. Such is not a tactical contrivance to “convert” Zacchaeus, but a desire to understand and enter into fellowship with him. Salvation comes to the house of Zacchaeus, though we are never told whether he becomes a disciple, or to what extent he converted from his previous way of life. Halík takes the Lucan silence (19:1-10) as an opportunity to play out imaginatively a variety of apocryphal endings to the story, including one in which Saint Zacchaeus becomes “the patron and protector of the eternal seekers” by watching over “their patience in the anteroom of faith.” Insisting that the future of Christian faith very much depends upon its ability to “win over” the Zacchaeuses in our midst, Halík is clear that this implies, among other things, that those who have a more definitive sense of who or what is “inside” and “outside” the church will need to rediscover Jesus’ creative confusion of boundaries. What we need is “a new type of faith/nonfaith dialogue,” a new agenda for theology, a “different hermeneutical circle: “it is necessary to read scripture and live the faith also from the standpoint of our profound solidarity with people who are religiously seeking, and, if need be, with those who experience God’s hiddenness and transcendence “from the other side.”

Read the whole review here.

Director’s Desk for Members: “Why I Run: Toward a Theology of Running” – coming early next week with additional content on running