Waiting for Christ
Waiting for Christ
The Catholic Man Show
As Roman Catholics, pressing on in our lives to uphold what was passed down from Jesus Christ Himself, we often must endure life and it’s many trials. But it is not patience that we employ but rather longanimity; for patience is far more to do with enduring suffering but longanimity refers to waiting with hope. This isn’t an earthly sort of hope, mind you; as if we are to hope that it doesn’t rain or hope we win the lottery. In the light of faith, hope corresponds to certainty or trust in what shall happen. For example, we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and we also hold in this blessed hope of our resurrection, God willing, we carry our Cross diligently. But to obtain such a grace for longanimity we must exercise our will to trust God in all things. When you trust God like my children trust me, then all that is left is confidence. I say that because I equate a great deal of what I know to be a father to that of God the Almighty Father. Of course I know God is all perfect and holy to which I am not but strive to be as Christ commanded us to do (1 Peter 1:16). However, I see portions of God’s love and perfection within me when I perform my duty in life as a father; especially when it comes to trust in God. My daughter worries a great deal of what is to come… Christmas and what will happen on that day…her birthday and what she will get… tomorrow and what will she be doing or where will she be going, etc. She often comes to her father (me) to seek these answers and often she asks persistently but sometimes worded differently. And it seems most of the time she is not thoroughly pleased with my answers which often demands patience from her. This can sometimes worry her even more because she does not know or can make her mad because she demands to know or sometimes it breaks her heart because I do not fill her in fully on what is to happen purposely otherwise it will not help her when it is meant to be revealed. Does this not sound like God in our lives? Don’t we ask persistently often rewording the same petitions over and over? Aren’t we not fully satisfied with some of the answers? Especially the ones we have to wait for? Interesting that God revealed Himself as Abba Father (Abba = Daddy)… But eventually, my daughter trusts me and goes along with me until the day comes when all is revealed to her and then she is filled with joy for knowing and even happier because Daddy told her so.
