There are people who know how to suffer with a smile and who preserve "the joy of faith" despite trials and illness. It is these people who "carry the Church forward with their everyday holiness", to the point of becoming authentic points of reference "in our parishes, in our institutions". In Pope Francis' reflection on the "exemplary patience of the people of God", offered on Monday 17 February during the Mass in the Chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, there are therefore echoes of Sunday afternoon's meetings with the parish community of the Roman suburb of Infernetto.

"When we go to the parishes," said the bishop of Rome, "we find people who suffer, who have problems, who have a disabled child or have a disease, but they carry on with life with patience". They are people who do not ask for "a miracle" but live with "the patience of God" reading "the signs of the times". And it is precisely of this holy people of God that "the world is unworthy", said the Pope, expressly quoting chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews and affirming that also "of these people of our people - people who suffer, who suffer many, many things but do not lose the smile of faith, who have the joy of faith - we can say that of them the world is not worthy: it is unworthy! The spirit of the world is unworthy of these people!".

2

 The Pontiff's reflection on the value of patience started, as usual, from today's liturgy: the passage from the Letter of James (1, 1-11) and the passage from the Gospel of Mark (8, 11- 13).

"Consider it perfect joy, my brothers, when you suffer all kinds of trials": commenting on these words taken from the first reading, the Pope noted that "it seems a bit strange what the Apostle James tells us". It almost seems - he observed - "an invitation to be a fakir". Indeed, he asked, "how can undergoing a trial give us joy?". The Pontiff went on to read the passage from St. James: 'Knowing that your faith, when put to the test, produces patience. And patience completes his work in you, so that you may be perfect and whole, lacking nothing'.

The suggestion, he explained, is "to bring life into this rhythm of patience". But 'patience,' he warned, 'is not resignation, it is something else'. Patience means in fact 'bearing on our shoulders the things of life, the things that are not good, the bad things, the things that we do not want. And it is precisely this patience that will make our life mature'. Those, on the other hand, who have no patience "want everything immediately, everything in a hurry". And "whoever does not know this wisdom of patience is a capricious person", who ends up behaving just "like capricious children", who say: "I want this, I want that, I don't like this", and are never satisfied with anything.

"Why does this generation ask for a sign?" the Lord asks in Mark's Gospel passage in response to the Pharisees' request. And so he meant, said the Pope, that 'this generation is like children who if they hear music of joy do not dance and if they hear music of mourning do not cry. None of it is good!" In fact, the Pope continued, "the person who has no patience is a person who does not grow, who remains in the whims of children, who does not know how to take life as it comes," and only knows how to say, "It's this or nothing!"

When there is no patience, "this is one of the temptations: to become capricious" like children. And another temptation of those "who have no patience is omnipotence", encapsulated in the claim: "I want things at once!". This is precisely what the Lord is referring to when the Pharisees ask him for "a sign from heaven". In reality, the Pontiff pointed out, "what did they want? They wanted a show, a miracle'. It is after all the same temptation that the devil proposes to Jesus in the desert, asking him to do something - so we all believe and this stone becomes bread - or to throw himself down from the temple to show his power.

In asking Jesus for a sign, however, the Pharisees "confuse God's way of acting with a sorcerer's way of acting". But, the Holy Father pointed out, "God does not act like a sorcerer. God has his own way of going forward: the patience of God'. And we 'every time we go to the sacrament of reconciliation we sing a hymn to God's patience. How the Lord carries us on his shoulders, with what patience!".

3

 "The Christian life," is the Pope's suggestion, "must unfold to this music of patience, because it was precisely the music of our fathers: the people of God". The music of "those who believed the word of God, who followed the commandment that the Lord had given to our father Abraham: walk before me and be blameless!" 

The people of God, he went on, quoting again from chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews, 'suffered much: they were persecuted, they were killed, they had to hide in caves, in caves. And they had the joy, the gladness - as the Apostle James says - of greeting the promises from afar'. It is precisely this 'patience that we must have in trials'. It is "the patience of an adult person; the patience of God who carries us, supports us on his shoulders; and the patience of our people," the Pontiff noted, exclaiming: "How patient our people are even now!"

The Bishop of Rome then recalled that there are so many suffering people who are able to 'carry life on with patience. They do not ask for a sign', like the Pharisees, 'but they know how to read the signs of the times'. Thus "they know that when the fig tree sprouts, spring comes". Instead, the "impatient" people presented in the Gospel "wanted a sign" but "did not know how to read the signs of the times. That is why they did not recognise Jesus".

The Letter to the Hebrews, said the Pope, clearly says that "the world was unworthy of God's people". But today "we can say the same of these people of our people: people who suffer, who suffer many, many things, but do not lose the smile of faith, who have the joy of faith". Yes, even of all of them "the world is not worthy!". It is precisely 'these people, our people, in our parishes, in our institutions', who carry 'the Church forward with their everyday, every day holiness'.

In conclusion, the Pope reread the passage from St James that he also proposed at the beginning of his homily. And he asked the Lord to give "patience to all of us: the joyful patience, the patience of work, of peace", giving us "the patience of God" and "the patience of our faithful people who are so exemplary".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily 17 February 2014].

 Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

(from: L'Osservatore Romano, daily ed., year CLIV, n.039, Mon. 18/02/2014)