Being patient is required when being a patient in life

A second blog reflection for May 2022

Many, if not most of us, can be patients in our lives.  We can get ill, mishaps may happen to us, parts of our bodies may get weakened due to infections and we may also get infected by afflictions just by being exposed to the general public without putting on the recommended personal protection devices like masks and keeping our distance from the people outside of our homes.  When we do get infected or ill in these ways, every human being has the hope that the infection will be fought by getting medical care and treatment, and that it will be soon that the body will recover from the infection and become stronger.  No one likes being weakened by illness or infections, and quite often, the recovery process is not as simple as just getting the right amount of drugs or treatment.  The truth is that it not only takes care and dedication, but that it does require the virtue of patience, which is something that may be lacking in many people.  

These days, when I happen to bump into people outside of the home, it doesn’t take long before these people ask me in no uncertain terms “So, Fr Luke, how are you getting on now that it has been x number of months since your unfortunate accident whilst exercising?”   The reality is that the recuperation path toward wholeness and wellness is something that I find rather daunting, unnerving and disconcerting.  But it is also true that I struggle when trying to put it across to the person who asks me that question about my health.  I find myself trying in many ways to bring it across to the person the truth that coming to the point in life where we can safely say that we are out of the woods and are on the road to full recovery is a thing that I have achieved.  The fact is that I am still not 100% recovered and can say for a fact that the worst is now behind me.  The time since the accident that happened to me is now almost a year, but I am still not fully in the clear, with quite a few parts of my body that are giving my doctors the inability to tell me that I am now in a recovered state.  But I am grateful for the fact that most of the people I speak to in these situations end up being grateful to me for being clear about my struggle with my physical weakness and constant feeling of tiredness in life.  Some of them have even told me that I am a good model for them when they themselves undergo any kind of similar suffering in life.  

In my life as a priest, I am often asked for advice about how to deal with challenges that humans face in life.  Telling people truth in ways that moves hearts and changes life in others isn’t a matter of articulating in words of phrases that has truth in them.  It is another thing to impress a person, move a heart and mind, and ends up helping the listener to understand himself more deeply, in a way that it brings true admiration.  But what is needed rather is to live life in such a way that the listener changes his or her habits, stops an addiction in life, stops fearing and decides that to still live in an angered way is a true way of becoming a saint.

I have come to see that part of the way our lives need to convey this truth is by being seen with a certain joy that comes from our countenance when we meet people.  When they see that we have a certain joy that can be read when they see our faces light up when speaking about our lives is a dynamic part of us that wants to be a source of light in the lives of so many others.  

When we are ill or in a state of recovery, we are easily called being patients.  A synonym sounding like that word is when a person isn’t in a rush to get out of that state of illness, and it requires of the human person to be patient, even when being a patient.  Some lessons take a long time to impart its truth to us in life, and to me, this long process toward full recovery has brought the difference out so clearly to me - between being patient in life, and how to be a patient patient.  I have learnt that it is indeed a long a slow process for one to come out of being a patient of an illness, to saying that my waiting time is over.  I pray that I will take home with me important points in my struggle with patience so that I can truly be useful to my parishioners who come to me seeking guidance and advice when faced with challenges that take time.

Once again, I want to express my sincere thanks to many of my friends and well-wishers who have prayed with and for me since my accident last May, and are still praying for me on a very regular basis.  I will be praying for all of you and sending you the blessings and graces that only God can give.